Being Fat Tuesday's afficionados, we tend to at least have a drink or two there in whatever city we're in. The crowd is usually good and friendly (and 21 and up), and we can ask the locals that hang out there where to go to next. I've been to a lot of Fat Tuesday's, but this one was a little bit darker, a little bit dirtier, and the bartenders were a little bit ruder. I guess it goes with the whole South Street/Philly attitude.
Walking through crowds of people standing around on South Street, we were suprised at the lack of bars, considering South Street is known for its nightlife. South Street was mostly chain stores (Foot Locker, Gap, Blockbuster), dirty sidewalks, and cheesesteak/pizza restaurants. We knew Fat Tuesday's was in the center of South Street. Eventually, we found it, nestled back in the strip of buildings along South Street with a balcony looking out onto the street. The uniformed officer standing outside pointed us through the wrought iron gate up the stairs to a bouncer. I overheard some Philadelphians say that they couldn't believe how crowded it was - it's usually dead. We waited about 5 minutes, until a group of people left, and we were allowed in. There was no cover (this seems to vary at all FT's).
Inside, it was pretty crowded, and we pushed our way to the bar to get drinks. The bartender seemed mad-at-the-world, so I just quickly ordered a $5.50 large frozen "Hurricane" daiquiri, a "Mardi Gras Mash" daiquiri (tasted similar to a Hurricane), and a $3 bottled beer. One thing we found strange was that of the 20 or so daiquiri flavors, they did not have the standard "White Russian" or "Mudslide" Khalua-Bailey's concoction that they have had at every FT we've ever been too. Two of my friends LOVE this flavor and won't drink anything else, so they were dissappointed.
We found a standing spot in the center of the place, with three big screen TVs behind us playing a MLB game. Just like every FT's, the theme is "Mardi Gras," complete with the gold-green-purple walls, posters, lights, beads, and neon signs. A few minutes later, a drunk frat boy-type started talking to us in a semi-rude manner, and we decided to quickly finish our drinks and leave, but not before posing for a picture that some nice-r boys offered to take for us with our camera. We asked these nice boys where we should head to next. They suggested "Abilene" next door, but when we found out there was a cover, we went elsewhere.
Overall, FT-Philly was just a dirtier version of most other FT's. Basically, a FT with a Philly spin.