Silk City Diner – underground beats & eats!

Silk City Diner, a food and music staple in Philadelphia

The Silk City Diner has been a food and music staple in the Philadelphia community for OVER 60 YEARS. Who would think that music legends like Pete Rock, Cosmo Baker, or hometown champions like Francisco Colazzo or global headliners like label owner, platinum Producer/DJ, Davidson Ospina & Sound System Guru, Producer/DJ, EVERYDAY could be found rocking crowds at a diner? Sounds crazy, but it’s TRUE.

Silk City’s original management closed down the diner in 2006, leaving it free to be purchased and creatively re-worked by new owner Mark Bee (who also owns N.3rd Bar & Restaurant). After a year-long process of construction and re-development, the new Silk City opened in 2007. While Mark kept the name “Silk City”, he completely revamped the diner and lounge in addition to building a 3,000 square foot Beer Garden that opens every spring. The menu offers New American cuisine for dinner seven nights a week and brunch on the weekends, while the beer list mingles select imports with American standards.

“Silk City Diner, Lounge & Garden has a long history in Philadelphia. The diner car was built in 1952 by the Paterson Dining Company in Paterson, New Jersey. At the time, Paterson had a thriving silk manufacturing industry and was nicknamed ‘Silk City’. Hence, the diner car, also manufactured in Paterson, was dubbed a ‘Silk City Diner’. By 1954, the diner was installed next to a cocktail lounge in Philadelphia at 5th & Spring Garden and began serving Philadelphians brunch, dinner, and nightly entertainment happily since.” – Mark Bee, owner, Silk City Diner

In 2010 the beer garden was voted Best Outdoor Dining Space in the City of Philadelphia and was featured on the Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives” hosted by the great Guy Fieri.

We arrived early to have an IPA or two, get a bite and maybe get a chance to talk to the headliners before the show. One pound of Thai chili chicken wings later (amazing) it was time to for PEX frontman to set up and take center stage. EVERYDAY is veteran Philadelphia DJ, a world touring music producer (playloop records) & the owner of One-Source Productions. One-Source Productions is an East Coast regional production company specializing in audio rental, sound production, lighting and staging. We primarily serve the greater New York, NYC, Philadelphia and Washington DC areas as well as Miami or wherever they are needed. They are a turn-key solution for festivals and larger events with over 30 years of production experience. After this show, EVERYDAY told me he was headed south for Miami Music Week to handle the sound for Nicole Moudaber. Everyday is always on point with FUN and refined sets of Tech, Deep Tech, Electronica and Techno music. He’s a real storyteller with his structure and I always walk away raving about him and feel connected to his music on a spiritual level. EVERYDAY, fresh off headlining the PEX event just held in Costa Rica, told me he played for hours on end down there and I personally can’t wait to see that PEX event NEXT YEAR. (Nature, beauty, yoga and house music in Costa Rica? I’M IN!!)

EVERYDAY proceeded to lace The Silk City Diner with a fantastic voyage of tech driven sound. Liquid synth bass lines and electronic dreamscapes were on the menu. WOW! What a set!!

The PEX team hosts a monthly event @ Silk City. This one was called PEX vs. Playloop: The (UN)USUAL SUSPECTS featuring NYC/Miami/Philadelphia house music living legend, the one and only, Davidson Ospina. Ospina is a modern day musical mastermind. He has done everything from going platinum with Britney Spears, to playing the hottest venues in the world. Popular artists, who wanted to be heard in the clubs, like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Backstreet Boys, Enrique Iglesias, Gloria Estefan, and Marc Anthony, began to seek him out for remix work. These driving soul soaked productions and pulsating remixes created for A-list artists paid off big in 2006. Ospina scored his first #1 hit: the chart-topping remix of Christina Aguilera’s “Ain’t No Other Man”. It became #1 on the Billboard Club and Radio Charts in September 2006 within only a week of its release. This was only the beginning. At that point, he launched his own record label and began to foster new talent.

Davidson told me he was heading to Miami Music Week after the show to play one of the hottest clubs in the world, River Yacht Club in Miami on the 19th of March, then he was off to Philadelphia, JunXion and the Chocolate Factory in Brooklyn on March 25th and then back to Philadelphia to play the famous Mousai with hometown legend and 5 Magazine Senior Editor, Robert “Del” Del Famine. 5 Magazine is North America’s only magazine dedicated exclusively to House Music. Founded in August 2005, they distribute 10,000 copies each month, free of charge, with stories on a variety of artists, DJs and producers from House Music’s past and present.

Words can not accurately describe Davidson Ospina’s presence behind the decks at any venue. I’ve seen Davidson play all over the United States for 10 years. I was and am a big fan and I was personally influenced by him as a DJ seeing him from NYC to Miami (and even places in-between). From the most underground to the poshest venues in the land. HE’S ROCKED THEM ALL. And I have used his tracks in countless mixes by now. His energy is experiential and completely infectious. His ability to read the crowd is almost scary and he’s even been known to stake out venues he is going to play like a Major League or NFL scout. His NYC meets Miami meets Davidson Ospina sound will win your ears and your hearts and force you to the dance floor to pay tribute with your hands and feet until the lights go on.

It was BY FAR, one of the most incredible dining and musical experiences this Dj, music fan, Philadelphia resident & journalist could possibly have.