Jolly at Jolly's

A dueling piano bar sounds old school but the bartender says he gets a young crowd on the weekends.  During the week, an older crowd comes in.  If you like old-fashioned sing-alongs - bumped up a notch with two pianos - Jolly's Dueling Piano Bar at 20th and Chestnut in Center City Philadelphia is for you.

I have passed this place on occasion for several months whenever I rode the 42 bus down Chestnut from University City.  I popped in this particular night because I was killing time before my dinner reservation.  Plus,  I had been up since 4:30am (to get to work by 6am) and...it was my birthday and I wanted to treat myself!

There was just one other patron when I got there at 5:15pm.  The bartender had plenty of time to tell me all about the place and show me the happy hour menu. which is good from 5 - 7pm.  I had a $4 glass of wine (imported and domestic beers are $3 during happy hour and cocktails are 1/2 price) as I looked over the food menu.  The happy hour menu has the standards - chicken tenders, hummus, quesadillas, brushcetta and potato skins - and one twist in the form of chips and pineapple salsa.  All of these are $3 or $4 dollars.  The menu also has small plates that seem worth trying.  (Check out the web site for these.)

There was no music at the early hour I was there and the web site doesn't list the hours.  I do recall there is music every night but some nights it starts at 8pm and earlier other nights...I think.  Interesting, the "duelling" is not what you may think.  The piano players don't "duel" each other; they duel the audience.  This means that money, in the form of tips, is involved and the more money per song means that's the song that starts playing.  I would imagine there's always some patron throwing money around.  But, if not, I can't imagine the pianos remaining silent. 

Call me old-fashioned.  I am looking forward to going to Jolly's to see how it all works.  I'm glad I spotted it while passing by on the bus.