Harper’s Garden. Morgan’s Pier, Concourse Dance Bar. Lucy’s. In his time owning and operating FCM Hospitality, these are but a few of the bars, restaurants and clubs that Avram Hornik has run for Philadelphians looking for drinks, food and fun.
Add to that list previously-owned event venues such as Union Transfer and Boot & Saddle, and Hornik’s been involved in live music booking and the performing arts, to boot.
Now, he can add Club 624 to the list. The new club is located on the second floor of Rosy’s Taco Bar East (6th and Baimbridge streets), and Hornik is happy to let you – any of you – do the work.
The concept is simple — anyone can book and promote their own event, including concerts, plays, stand-up and-or sketch comedy shows, lectures, Fringe-y performance art events, fine art exhibitions … anything.
“It’s really all about what is happening in Philadelphia, now,” Hornik says. “There’s so much talent out there with not enough space to hold events or money to rent one. There’s also, with social media, the need to have a sense of how to market, or what your market is – a sense of what the audience wants to see, what the talent can deliver, and how to best get the word out. It’s all very niche. It’s all very specific.”
Club 624 is offering people an opportunity to put their money where their mouths are, get a gig going, and pack the house. Club 624 will keep profits from bar sales, however, all other profits go to the organizer.
Having owned the Rosy’s property for nearly a year, Hornik has a fully-functioning restaurant-bar and also its small performance space, L’Etage, on the second floor, where drag acts, burlesque players and jazz musicians thrived for a time.
“I like Queens Village, I like that space, and I always liked what they did upstairs at L’Etage — that scene,” says Hornik.
L’Etage has a handsomely designed stage space, a concert-quality sound system, a second bar and room for a sizable seated or standing audience.
“We wanted to find and reward promoters, bookers, musicians, DJs, theater people and comedians who have the ability to know their market with a space to do it all in,” Hornik said. “These people know better than we do what their audience is.”
With that, Club 624 is something of a “crowdsourcing” concept, a space that holds 100 standing or 50 seated audience members for your private event. Outside of people reading Metro Philadelphia to find out about Club 624, Hornik brought on FCM Event and Promotions Manager Muhammad Carr – a DJ and one-time event curator at L’Étage – to act as a concierge to Philly’s A&E scene.
“Muhammad is our promoter to other promoters in the city,” says Hornik. “Maybe there’s a promoter and DJ doing a party that’s successful in small venue and wants to try something bigger, or a Tuesday night party that wants to see if they can make a success of Saturday — that’s why Club 624 exists.”
Using Posh for it ticketing needs and further social media exposure, FCM’s Club 624 says you can charge any ticket price you want and sell all of the merch that you can.
“We only take the money made at the bar,” says Hornik.
Currently, FCM, Hornik and Carr have a handful of regularly partnered nights such as secret-lineup comedy shows on First Fridays with Don’t Tell Comedy, DJ Rebel Foster’s Second Fridays, the Riot Nerd DJ team’s rotating Third Fridays, and a handful of burlesque shows from HoneyReno.
For more information and a schedule, visit club624.com
