FOOD . Watering Hole

Binti's International African Lounge

It's Where We Drink


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Published: Jul 18, 2007

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48th and Market streets, 610-500-9637

West Philly is home to a diversity of immigrant groups, and a large portion of the foreign population hails from Africa. But who's playing music from home? That would be the spacious Binti's International African Lounge on the corner of 48th and Market.

Binti's is one of the few places around that plays soukous, a mixture of rumba and traditional African rhythms that originated in the Congo. Soukous is ubiquitous in Africa and some parts of Europe, but not so easy to find here.

"Some nights, I'm the only one in here who doesn't speak French," says singularly named proprietor Binti, referring to the native language of nations like Senegal and Mali.

On July 4, Binti's hosted a Senegalese drum group that performed chakacha, a style of music traditionally played at Muslim weddings. Most nights, though, fans enjoy the stylings of soukous legends like Pepe Kalle and Yondo Sister and shake it on Binti's mirror-encircled dance floor. Beers are just $3, but, since many patrons follow Islam, Binti says he mostly sells bottles of water. "We go through two cases of water a night," he says, "rather than cases of Heineken."