Gas Lamp Hotel Launches First Friday Series With Resident Artist Allan Lane, Dumplings by Mei Mei, Specialty Cocktails and a Live DJ
Gas Lamp Hotel Launches First Friday Series With Resident Artist Allan Lane, Dumplings by Mei Mei, Specialty Cocktails and a Live DJ
Gas Lamp Hotel, the boutique hotel at 140 N. 2nd St. in Old City, will host First Friday on Friday, November 6, from 5 to 9 p.m., turning the hotel into an evening of art, food and drink. The night features local resident artist Allan Lane, signature homemade dumplings from Mei Mei, cocktails built on Dad’s Hat Pennsylvania Rye and a soundtrack from DJ Mal, resident DJ at Fitler Club.
Guests can walk through Lane’s portraits, meet the artist, and eat, drink and dance with two of the region’s standout local producers. Admission is free and open to the public, and food and drinks are pay as you go.
First Friday showcases work from Lane’s series “Five Sides to Every Story,” which turns inward to deal with emotional trauma and realization, both personal and public. Lane calls the paintings visual representations of afterthoughts, born from overthinking.
A Philadelphia native born in 1975, Lane paints close, candid acrylic portraits of family, friends and associates. He often paints himself, sometimes two or three times on one canvas. He insists the faces stay recognizable: “Things have to look like what they’re supposed to look like.”
Lane’s path back to the easel took more than three decades. After two years at Tyler School of Art and a stint at Sande Webster Gallery, he built a career as a magazine publisher and brand developer. With encouragement from his wife, Stacey, he set up a studio in his garage next to the motorcycles and was painting again within weeks. He describes the return as “akin to resurrection.”
Lane is represented by InLiquid Gallery. His work has appeared at InLiquid’s March for Art, the Odunde Art Show, Arts in the Garden and the Juneteenth Gallery in Trenton. He was recently profiled in Philadelphia Style (October 2026) and dosage MAGAZINE (June 2026). He is now painting a series of bold portraits of notable Philadelphians, each to be gifted to its subject as a thank-you for their work in the city.
Featured Food Vendor: Mei Mei
Mei Mei, the modern Asian restaurant in Old City, will serve its signature homemade dumplings for the evening.
Featured Bar Vendor: Dad’s Hat Pennsylvania Rye
Dad’s Hat, the Bucks County distillery reviving Pennsylvania’s rye whiskey tradition, will pour signature cocktails in the downstairs lounge.
Music: DJ Mal
DJ Mal, the resident DJ at Fitler Club, provides the evening’s soundtrack.
