PHILADELPHIA
THE vibe here,” said Shawn Hennessey, “is the jawn.” The 27-year-old musician gestured at the neon sign for Silk City, a club-cum-restaurant housed in an old dining car in the gentrifying Northern Liberties neighborhood.
“The jawn is a Philly word,” said Brian Nadav, Mr. Hennessey’s friend and bandmate. “It means ‘a good thing.’ It can be a noun, like you can say, ‘Yo, pass me that jawn’ or ‘I’m the jawn.’ ” But, he cautioned, “It is never a verb. You never say, ‘I jawned.’ ”
Silk City was not always so enticing. After years of being, in Mr. Hennessey’s words, “a greasy, gritty diner” adjoined with a “dirty, awesome bar,” Silk City reopened in June after a face-lift and has been crowded ever since, especially on Thursday night for “Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems,” a dance party featuring pop and hip-hop hits of the 1990s. Once, its late-night scene was made up of truckers, blue-collar workers and drunk 20-somethings being served omelets by cranky waitresses. Only the 20-somethings remain.
As D.J. Steven Bloodbath cued up “Connected” by the Stereo MCs, Mr. Nadav said that he had lived in the neighborhood before the luxury condos and quirky boutiques moved in. Even now, Mr. Nadav said, “It’s still not that nice.”
Philadelphians take pride in their city’s scrappiness, and locals had been suspicious about the renovation of the iconic diner. Though the new owners changed the menu — Thai spareribs and mojitos have replaced the scrapple and milkshakes — the look of the 1950s dining car remained intact, and the attached club, where Christmas-light chandeliers illuminated black velvet paintings, is much the same as it was when the Stereo MCs were first on the charts.
Inside, a man in a Phillies jersey break-danced to the Wu-Tang Clan for a sweaty crowd of partygoers that, like Ms. Moose, were dressed in fashions from the ’80s: sequined headbands, “Frankie Says Relax” T-shirts and asymmetrical new-millennium hair.
“It’s an eclectic, vibrant crowd here,” said Michael Barba, 27, whose bleached-blond coif and snug black suit were straight out of the New Romantic catalog. “It’s probably the hottest party in town right now.”
Wesley Pentz, a D.J. better known by his stage name, Diplo, agreed. Just back from a tour in Australia, he was sitting at a table in the dining car with a group of friends that included members of the hip-hop groups Spank Rock and Plastic Little. “This,” he said,” is the jawn.”
