Mighty Mick’s Gym is becoming a Lost Time Brewing Co. tasting room
Famous for its role in the "Rocky" films, this recently renovated building at 2147 N. Front St. will now host a brewery with four apartments upstairs.
The triangular brick building that served as Mighty Mick’s boxing gym in the Rocky movies is slated to become a tasting room for the Kensington-based Lost Time Brewing Co.
To this point, the boutique beer-maker hadn’t established a retail presence. Instead the owners have sold their suds at pop-up events, beer festivals, and to restaurants and bars in the city.
The 2,600-square-foot retail space the company leased last week at 2147 N. Front St. is meant to provide a showcase for the emerging brewery.
The building is at a five-way intersection near the Market-Frankford Line’s York-Dauphin stop, which has seen a burst of new development in recent years. Norris Square Development, the building owner, recently installed large windows on the first floor facing Front Street and Susquehanna to attract patrons and show off prospective tenants.
“We’re a brewery founded on bringing people together, and what’s cooler than doing it in a building that means so much to Philadelphia?” said Matt Iannelli, co-owner of Lost Time with Andrew Mattes and Jake Dean, a brewer with 10 years’ experience who previously worked with Devil’s Backbone Brewing Co.
Founded in 2022, Lost Time is a small-batch brewing company — Iannelli says they have no ambitions of being the next Yuengling or Victory — and they’ve been building a word-of-mouth reputation around the city. Current beer listings include a German pilsner, an American IPA, a Sour Ale, and a New England Pale Ale.
Lost Time’s brewery will remain in a northern part of Kensington, above Lehigh Avenue, while the Mighty Mick’s location will give them a place to showcase products and host events.
“We were really looking for food and beverage user for that space because we think that Front Street and the area generally is already growing as a food destination,” Rafi Licht, a developer with Norris Square Development, which also owns the building that hosts Rowhome Coffee across Front Street. “This will further activate the corridor.”
Norris Square Development purchased the building — a pilgrimage site for Rocky fanatics — in 2021 and finished renovations early this year. Above the retail space are four apartments for rent.
The Mighty Mick’s redevelopment is part of a larger construction boom along the Market-Frankford Line. At the end of last year there were 441 apartments actively under construction along the El below the York-Dauphin stop. Another 174 are proposed and 231 have been completed since 2019 according to the CoStar Group, a commercial real estate analytics firm.
The Lost Time Brewing Co.’s retail space is expected to be opened by the end of summer.
Currently their products can be sampled at bars like the Boozy Mutt in Fairmount, Jerry’s in Northern Liberties, and Hi-Lo Taco in the Gayborhood.