Inside Philly’s Most Exclusive Bar
Upstairs in Palizzi Social Club's new President's Room, members sip martinis, trade gossip, and always leave their phones at home.
Cocktails and snacks in the President’s Room / Photograph by Michael Persico
Philly’s cocktail scene is evolving thanks to a new generation of bartenders shaking things up. To celebrate the great minds pushing the limits of what can go in a glass, we’re declaring this Cocktail Week. Check back daily for stories from the print feature on the game changers revolutionizing the scene in the November issue of Philly Mag.
The sound of smooth jazz gets closer as I teeter up a narrow flight of red-carpeted stairs in heels. At the top, a two-person band — a woman crooning to a wistful melody played by a keyboardist — performs on a stage. The music brings a sultry vibe to the President’s Room, the intimate bar at Palizzi Social Club, where patrons with a coveted gold seal on their membership cards gossip over martinis and arancini. Friends swap stories and laughs, while couples nurse after-dinner drinks and bemoan the limited street parking in South Philadelphia.
Buttoned-up but not pretentious, the members-only spot feels a bit like a bar out of Prohibition, with tables lit by brass lamps dotted around a statement bar cart in the center of the space. Part Art Deco, part rowhome basement bar — there is, after all, a monochrome linoleum floor — the lounge has a similar feel to the rest of the club, except the decor skews more toward Mom’s or Dad’s taste, with shimmery gold curtains, black marble columns, and mirror paneling that makes the room feel larger. It’s hard to believe this glamorous space was a storage area in a past life.
My first order is the Presidential Martini, the signature drink on a menu conceived by general manager and beverage director Jorgen Eriksen. It is essentially a grown-up appletini, as the friendly server is pleased to tell me. The gin-based cocktail is refreshing and crisp, with an herby undercurrent (from Amaro Montenegro) that makes it more interesting. Thankfully, it’s nothing like the saccharine appletinis of the early 2000s. I also try the Nutella Martini that my drinking companion orders. It’s smoother than the chocolate-hazelnut spread and not as sweet, but just as luxurious.
Jorgen Eriksen, general manager and beverage director of Palizzi Social Club and the President’s Room
By 10 p.m., a younger crowd has trickled in. At the wood-clad bar in the corner, a group of men discuss their haircuts at length, with one recounting his latest barber-shop experience and another reassuring him that his new style works. Over at the next table, a mom and daughter who seem to know everyone chat with the staff and occasionally steal a peek at their phones, a club no-no. Handed a Clarified Martini — the bar’s most popular drink, as I learn when I order my own — the daughter ribs the server about the two olives in her cocktail, saying it’s “bad luck” to serve an even number. (The good-natured server takes it in stride, responding with some polite banter.) But when I bite into what looks like a stemmed olive from my own martini, I realize it’s a caper berry, and the one below is an olive, stuffed with Gorgonzola. The vodka cocktail has a punchy, briny taste and is the strongest drink I try all evening. It’s my second, so I go slowly and nibble on bar snacks between sips.
I cap off the night with the Algonquin — the best drink on the menu, our server says when I ask what I should try before leaving. The whiskey cocktail feels subtly tropical, with a lovely pineapple flavor that’s balanced by an unexpected, pleasant smokiness from charred lemon that’s been dusted on top. As I savor each sip, I think that surely, here at the President’s Room, there’s no such thing as bad luck.
Published as “One Night in the President’s Room” in the November 2025 issue of Philadelphia magazine.
