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http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20081128_Raising_the_bar_in_Fishtown.html 
Raising the bar in Fishtown
By A.D. Amorosi
For The Inquirer
A place with a name like Kung Fu Necktie has to have a story. Say, one about haberdashery, with some martial arts thrown in.
Or, in this case, the story of a once-ratty, under-the-El sports bar in the 1200 block of North Front Street that isn't like that anymore (though it does still have a foosball table) because of some very artful changes.
KFN, as Fishtown hipsters know the place, is barely noticeable from the outside. Its brick front is painted a murky brownish green, with daggerlike initials and the countenance of a Confucius-like elder.
But inside, the fun starts: high ceilings and low tabletops made from bowling-alley lanes; red booths that sparkle like banana-seat bicycle vinyl; a long, sleek bar; checkered tile throughout; and paintings of slain rapper Tupac Shakur in an altarlike setting.
Lit by a series of aged yellow lamps and Christmas twinkle lights, KFN glows sweetly with an old, familiar feel. That's unexpected, since the bar opened just a few months ago.
"The name is just word association," says Jimmy Herman, 47, contractor/artist-turned-designer/builder and a co-owner of Kung Fu Necktie. "One dude thought it meant 'Kensington-Fishtown-Northern Liberties. I just liked the sound of it."
Adds David Schwartz, 40, another co-owner, "It wouldn't have been my first choice, but he had been talking about that Kung Fu name for quite a while. It's growing on me, though."
The pair have been buddies for 15 years, since Herman was an artist in Schwartz's South Street Subculture Gallery.
Schwartz moved from Philadelphia to Brooklyn in 2000 and opened the quaint Lit Lounge in New York City and its accompanying Fuse Gallery with business partner Erik Foss in 2002. (Foss is a third co-owner of KFN and plans to curate art exhibitions there when its gallery space is finished.)
Herman was supposed to be part of the Lit Lounge deal too, but hit a financial snag at the last minute.
No matter; the three vowed they'd work together at some point. When the owners of the Penalty Box were ready to sell, Herman & Co. were ready to dig in.
"Jimmy's part wacko, part workaholic," Schwartz says. Both sides of Herman show through the 5,400 square feet of KFN.
"The P. Box was a neighborhood bar that had a lot of potential but needed to be gutted because it was in bad shape," Herman says.
He was able to salvage the original floor from "under 50 years of plywood and cement"; the upstairs pantry, which morphed into KFN's back bar; some old mahogany trim work; and a chunk of the old bar, which he cut down in size and moved to the southern perimeter wall.
Herman says he wanted to keep as much of the old as possible for the first-floor bar and stage area; his second-floor living space; offices and the nearly completed basement art gallery; and the basement bar.
"I wanted to make KFN look like it's been there for a hundred years," Herman says, so he kept the paint colors - gold, red and dark brown - warm and the lighting diffused.
He stayed away from harsh neon, and left the back bar's mirror looking eternally smudged.
Interesting architectural nuances and silly ephemera claim every corner, like the Spider-Man pinball machine situated in the front and racy user descriptions on the restroom doors.
"Some of the seating came from Material Culture on Wissahickon," Herman says. "The booth seating I got at Atomic Warehouse in Harrisburg."
But the bowling-alley wood of the tabletops and some of the back bar came from an old speakeasy at Fourth and Green Streets.
And the stage area is aged pine lacquered to shine like a brand-new penny and crafted by Herman to look like an inverted boat. The hull-like structure bends to form an ominous archway, with dainty, Asian-inspired wood flourishes on each side.
"We're eventually going to have a mermaid constructed at the apex of the arch, then hang pendant lights on each side of the 'boat,' " Herman says.
"Jimmy's an artist, and everyone who works within Kung Fu Necktie is an artist," says Steven James, the booking agent from R5 who will help bring bands and DJs to KFN's new stage. "Everything twinkles. Actually, that's what Jimmy said he would make it do before we started.
"And with the addition of the red velvet curtain, it looks just like the Black Lodge," James adds, referring to the saloon in director David Lynch's 1990-92 TV series, Twin Peaks.
That definitely doesn't sound like the old Penalty Box, which not everyone is glad to see gone.
That includes musician/sound engineer Ben Edwards, who lives across the street. He's none too crazy about KFN's habitues or his neighbor's persistent hammering.
"That Jimmy guy is banging at all hours of the night," Edwards says. "The music is usually something typical."
But even Edwards acknowledges that he sees Herman as resourceful, and notes how quickly KFN has become comfortable.
"And when someone has the good taste to play punk-rock records on the jukebox, it's all the more cozy," Edwards says, then laughs.
3:49 AM
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