How a cease operations order and local music lovers helped new Fishtown venue Nostalgia go legit

Resiliency and community are through lines in almost every great story in Philadelphia. The tale of Fishtown’s newest venue Nostalgia is no different, as the former DIY space is now a full-fledged (and legal) music venue thanks to its owners’ perseverance and Philadelphia’s tight music community.

The unassuming space sits on a side street between Frankford Avenue and Front Street, at 14 Jefferson St. It’s a former auto repair garage, and its proprietors are living right above the performance space that’s been their passion project for some time now.

University of the Arts grads Joe Lockwood and Morgan Walbridge sat down with WXPN to talk about the journey they’ve been on, and all the serendipitous connections that helped their dream come to reality.

“ The start was right around when UArts closed,” Lockwood said of Nostalgia’s inception. He and Walbridge had already been living at the Jefferson Street rowhome and decided to use the garage space for DIY gigs.

Their first show was April 20, 2024 and featured jazz fusion outfit postergirl for their debut live performance. Not long after, UArts closed.

From there, Nostalgia played host to numerous off-the-books gigs with artists such as former SNACKTIME and current Joans Brothers saxophonist Yesseh Furaha-Ali, John Legend guitarist and Community College of Philadelphia adjunct professor Ben O’Neill, and jazz trumpeter Michael Sarian.

“ We’ve had everything from avant-garde jazz to comedy roast nights,” Lockwood said. “ That was cool, kind of getting to see the different scenes that showed up.”

Walbridge said that ethos of welcoming nearly all genres (they tend to avoid heavier acts, the building is their home after all) is inspired in part by UArts.

“ There was just a lot of genre mashing going on,” she said. “So I feel like that’s kinda where we’re coming from.”

For nearly a year, Nostalgia went unnoticed by the powers that be at City Hall, but in January 2025, the Department of Licenses and Inspections stopped by. And not to enjoy a show.

The couple had designed the space to embody its name. The walls are adorned with old record sleeves, a chunky CRT TV from Lockwood’s high school plays programs and commercials from the 90s, vintage toys sit atop cabinets, and there’s a whole rack of thrifted shirts that Lockwood travels far and wide to source.

But none of that mattered when it came to the legality of the venue.

 ”L&I showed up during a show,” Lockwood said “It was really wholesome; it was a girl singing, with her dad on drums. There were probably 10 people here.”

Lockwood texted Walbridge, who was running on a treadmill at the nearby City Fitness at the moment, about the city’s cease operations order.

 ”I don’t know if I shut the treadmill off,” Walbridge recalled. “I just kept in motion.”

While the shutdown was a shock initially, it was a blessing in disguise and set in motion the process to fully realize the venue.

 ”We would’ve been stuck in this weird limbo-gray area of really not making any money, of doing suggested donations and just doing it for the cause,” Lockwood said. “But there were signs that this could be a really successful cool thing.”

Much to their surprise, representatives with the Department of Licensing and Inspections were rather helpful in guiding them through the city’s byzantine systems.

“I think [the code enforcement officer] saw how upset we were,” Lockwood said with a laugh.

An outpouring of support followed the shutdown announcement, and that was the catalyst for Philly’s music community to jump in to help in a number of ways.

They got connected with zoning attorney Rachael Pritzker when her musician assistant reached out to them after attending shows at Nostalgia.

Judy Robinson of local firm Continuum Architecture & Design, PC served as their architect after one of their UArts friends made an introduction. The kismet doesn’t end there: Robinson previously attended UArts when it was the Philadelphia Colleges of the Arts.

Then they found Mike Parsell of Cosmic Constructs to help build out all the required utilities and more for their space. And guess what? He plays music, too.

 ”He knew a lot of our colleagues in the music community,” Lockwood said of Parsell.

Finding the right people to aid them on the journey was one of the toughest challenges through the process, Walbridge said. But thanks to the power of music and art, everything came together and that gave the pair the ammunition they needed to apply for, and be granted, a zoning variance for their venue.

After months of designing, construction, delivering presentations, and more, Nostalgia passed all its city inspections and received is occupancy permit, putting the venue in a position to become Philly’s hottest premiere spot for both emerging and well-established artists.

“I’ve never felt stress leave my body like that before,” Lockwood said of obtaining the occupancy permit.  ”We’ve been in this process for so long, I think my body forgot what it felt like to not be stressed out or anxious constantly.”

The space features equipment from UArts, and even proudly displays the UArts charter above the restroom door. Not only will Nostalgia serve as a venue, it can be used as a rehearsal and recording space, as well as for other events.

 ”Since we are both musicians, that makes us want this to be suited to musicians even more,” Walbridge said.  ”We know how it feels to go into a venue and, like, your sound guy is checked out, outside smoking a cigarette. We just want this to feel like a nice home for musicians.”

 ”Something that I really want people to know is that we’re not losing any of our DIY charm even though we’re going to have really good equipment and, a ticketed website, and things like that,” Lockwood said. “We still want it to be Joe and Morgan’s transformed garage. It’s literally our house.”

Nearby businesses along the Frankford Avenue commercial corridor have also welcomed them, officially, to the neighborhood.

“ So many businesses have walked in and been like, ‘Oh man, we would love to sponsor a show,'” Lockwood said. Pearl’s On The Corner, a cocktail bar right at Frankford and Jefferson, even offered to allow Nostalgia show goers to use their handicap accessible restroom.

Shows will take place Tuesdays and Thursday through Sunday. Mondays are reserved for like-minded artists to come hang out, do some work, and share contacts as a bit of a pay-it-forward initiative after all the community support Nostalgia received.

Nostalgia’s website is officially launching this weekend, which means a full slate of shows will be announced too.