The Best Wine Bars in Philadelphia [Video]

Outside of Mural City Cellars, red brick row houses replace rolling green vineyards. In the back of the converted auto body garage in Philadelphia’s Fishtown neighborhood, rosé and skin-contact Pinot Gris are aging in hulking steel tanks while up front, the bar buzzes with locals sipping glasses of plum-colored pét-nat and pale gold Sauvignon Blanc made with Pennsylvania grapes. Decorated with vintage leather couches and contemporary neon chandeliers, the city’s first independent urban winery feels cool but unstuffy, making wine that’s spirited but serious. It’s part of a new era for Philly wine. 

Philadelphia’s wine landscape had long lagged behind its celebrated restaurants, held back by a tangle of state restrictions and red tape. Restaurant and bar liquor licenses can cost upward of $200,000, and state-run wine shops flood the city with a sea of the same uninspired bottles. The result? BYOBs have proliferated; restaurant wine lists have languished. 

In the past …