Philly’s Famed Free Dating Advice Table Gets a Permanent Home
Exorcise a terrible ex or get input on your dating profile at the Philadelphia Dating Annex in South Philly.
Philadelphia Dating Annex founder Kate Catinella in her new digs / Photograph by Rachel Wisniewski
Talk to pretty much anyone about their love life, and you’re sure to hear more than one complaint — especially if they’re single. Between the apps, the political divide, and the perceived lack of quality options, the modern dating scene is pretty fraught.
Philly, in particular, often gets dinged in this regard. Just last year, a WalletHub report ranked the city 112th out of 182 on a list of the best cities for dating; Pittsburgh ranked third. Pittsburgh. And the data doesn’t lie: In the most recent U.S. census, Philly had the smallest percentage of married couples of the 10 most populous cities.
It feels like every conversation with single friends ends with lamenting a first date that flopped and every Instagram reel offers a pseudo-psychological tactic for success. It’s enough to make you think: Wouldn’t it be great if there were an office where frustrated, dissatisfied singles could lodge complaints or talk to customer service?
Well, now there is — in a 150-square-foot former dressmaker’s studio on Passyunk Avenue.
“People are exhausted,” says Kate Catinella, a copywriter and founder of the smash hit pop-up Free Dating Advice and its new brick-and-mortar home, the Philadelphia Dating Annex.
The Free Dating Advice pop-up came about after Catinella amicably ended a nine-year relationship and got back into the dating scene. She genuinely enjoyed it, ups and downs notwithstanding. “I was like, Oh my God, this is so much fun! And also like, I’m getting my heart broken all the time.”
Fascinated by the scene and conversations she was having with friends about it, she co-founded a traveling advice table that appeared at street festivals, flea markets, breweries, and, once, a parking lot at 7th and Christian, offering merch and services like “gut check” and “seven-minute vent.” The project was incredibly successful. Over the past two years, the traveling table has attracted long lines of disgruntled singles (and even some happy couples looking to keep the flame alive). Around 900 lovesick Philadelphians have taken advantage of FDA services.
The success was heartening, Catinella says, but she always wanted a permanent space for the project. The recently opened Philadelphia Dating Annex is the manifestation of her love of talking about love.
“This space is something that I hope makes it feel like you can have the kind of catharsis that you have from the table, but on a communal level,” she says. “The exhaustion is welcome, but there’s tons of levity too. That’s what I think Free Dating Advice has been about.”
Catinella began to spread the news in August via Instagram. She announced that the new site would host not only her usual advice sessions, dating app profile reviews, and the like, but a slew of additional activities and resources for all your relationship-related needs.
A main feature of the space: the emotional processing station, a section of the loft dedicated to sorting out your emotions with the help of writing prompts. (For example, “If we could have one more conversation, here’s what I’d say.”) From there, visitors have the option to take a note card and either post it for other patrons to read or toss it in the shredder.
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Another highlight: the community ex box, in which visitors can deposit mementos from their past relationships and view trinkets left by others. “Whether it was a one-day fling or a great love of your life,” says Catinella. “Anything that you want to deposit into the box, you can.”
The annex brings a communal aspect to FDA’s prior work. And it seems to appeal to Philadelphia singletons.
“I have heard from people that I’ve met through this group that it is a very difficult city, particularly for women, to date in,” says Kristin Hinkley, a UX designer who attended past FDA events. “It’s given me comfort in realizing that a lot of people are going through the same thing and it’s not necessarily a me problem. I feel like [the Philadelphia Dating Annex] is almost an art project, like a collaborative community art effort.”
The original FDA table will continue to appear at local events, Catinella assures fans. (“I’m thinking of it as the field services arm of the Philadelphia Dating Annex.”) But on “most Sundays and sometimes other times,” she says, the annex is open for office hours.
The space’s tagline — “a civic institution for romantic support” — is a bit tongue in cheek, of course. But Catinella does see it as an important resource, something face-to-face and commiseratory (or sometimes, celebratory) in an age of endless swiping.
Philly gets a bad rap for a lot of things, including our dating scene. But Kate Catinella has faith in us, and in romance.
Published as “Paging Dr. Love” in the November 2026 issue of Philadelphia magazine.
