Nikki Lopez, a bar and venue with ‘really good drinks at an affordable price,’ will open on South Street in the former Dobbs space

There is a Nikki Lopez behind Nikki Lopez, a bar and performance venue taking shape on the former site of Dobbs, the storied South Street club that closed last year.

Lopez is a photographer, bartender, and habitué of New York’s music scene. When he and friend Matthew Paneth, a New York-based concert promoter, talked about opening a place of their own in Philadelphia, Paneth insisted that it carry Lopez’s name.

“It’s an honor, I guess,” Lopez said.

They plan to open in July after renovations.

» READ MORE: Signs of rebirth along South Street

“There’s a lot of really nice, fancy bars in Philadelphia, but there’s not a lot of really good drinks at an affordable price, and I’m excited to do that here,” said Paneth, an independent concert promoter who ran the bar at Webster Hall, the landmark club in Manhattan’s East Village. He taught Lopez, a customer, to tend bar nearby at Sweetie, owned by two brothers whose family once ran Webster Hall.

In addition to low-priced drinks, they plan to keep the food menu uncomplicated: hot dogs only.

“We’re going to bring fun stuff to the neighborhood,” said Paneth, who promises live music, literary events, and comedy nights. His recent oeuvre runs the gamut: punk shows, Taylor Swift-theme boat parties, and a book-release concert for Philadelphia author Kim Kelly (Fight Like Hell).

The idea, Paneth said, is to fill each month with programming.

Lopez started in music at 17, working with promoters at New York’s now-closed B.B. King Blues Club & Grill. “It’s like all the worlds are colliding,” Lopez said.

South Street, meanwhile, is showing signs of a resurgence following a low point in its long history of ups and downs. Jim’s Steaks at Fourth and South, which drives a lot of pedestrian traffic, is expected to come back this spring from a 2022 fire.

“We’re committed to making South Street a better place,” Paneth said.

Dobbs closed last summer amid the fallout from an allegation that an employee had sexually assaulted a patron. Bands reacted by canceling or relocating their shows. Paneth had booked the folk-punk band Days N’ Daze, whose show was moved to the Ukie Club.

» READ MORE: What to eat, drink, and do on South Street

“We heard that the place was closing down, reached out to the landlord, and here we are,” Paneth said. Hopefully, he said, “Days N’ Daze are going to be one of the first artists we have here.”

Dobbs, at 304 South St., followed the ebbs and flows of South Street. Initially opened in the mid-1970s as J.C. Dobbs, the bar booked before-they-were-famous bands including Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Oasis, and Green Day.

The 2012 documentary Meet Me on South Street: The Story of J.C. Dobbs by musician/filmmaker George Manney lovingly recalled the early days.

In 1996, it was sold and renamed the Pontiac Bar & Grill, which closed in 2005. That business reopened under new management in 2010, borrowing from the original name as the Legendary Dobbs, but closed in 2015.

The building sat vacant until 2021, when it reopened as Dobbs on South.