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Want to be a member of Palizzi Social Club? Here’s your chance.

Palizzi, the South Philadelphia social club, plans to sell 25 memberships at 3 p.m. each Thursday from May 8 to 29 — a total of 100. Applications will be taken for those who don't make it in time.

The red neon sign over the front door of the Palizzi Social Club.
The red neon sign over the front door of the Palizzi Social Club.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Palizzi Social Club, the South Philly destination that serves potent gimlets and tender braciola in retro, speakeasy-style surroundings, will open its membership rolls for the first time in two years.

One hundred memberships will be available in coming weeks.

“We just felt like it was time to do it again,” said general manager Jorgen Eriksen, who said the private club routinely gets requests but limits its ranks to avoid overcrowding. The club — which under Pennsylvania laws may only admit members and their guests — does not disclose the number of members.

Palizzi, which chef Joey Baldino revived in 2017 in its rowhouse near Passyunk Square, will sell the $20 annual memberships at the front door, 1408 S. 12th St., at 3 p.m. on four consecutive Thursdays starting May 8. Like everything else at Palizzi, transactions are cash only.

Twenty-five memberships will be available each week, and the first 10 new members will receive a complimentary gold seal that grants access to the second-floor President’s Room — the cocktail lounge with bar snacks and live music that opened in February to accommodate Palizzi’s overflow.

Each member may bring three guests to either space.

The gold seals usually cost $40. The President’s Room seats about 25 people — five at the bar — while the main room downstairs can accommodate about 45.

Those who miss out will be given an application, which can be dropped off. They will be reviewed by the club’s assembly, which will mail out notices of acceptance. Palizzi said its next round of memberships would be open in May 2027.

Palizzi was founded in 1918 by immigrants from the town of Vasto, Italy, who wanted a gathering place for countrymen as they navigated their new world.

They named it after Filippo Palizzi, a 19th-century painter and townsman.

Baldino grew up around the corner amid three generations of his family, which has run Palizzi since 1952. His uncle Ernest Mezzaroba, who was 82 when he died in December 2016, was the previous operator.

Baldino has maintained Palizzi as a time capsule, featuring brown wall paneling, white drop ceiling, tile floor, wooden bar topped in marble and bordered in leather, (nonfunctional) cigarette machine, smoked glass mirror, multicolor Naugahyde bar stools, linoleum-topped tables rimmed in stainless steel, and framed portraits of Pope Pius XII and Frank Rizzo.

Baldino also owns Zeppoli, a BYOB in Collingswood, which he likens to his grandmother’s house. Palizzi, with its history, “in my head … was Grandpop’s place,” he said. Baldino’s homage to old-time South Philly continues with his recent purchase of Bomb Bomb BBQ, which he plans to reopen later this summer.