Team Outing Ideas in Philadelphia: A Night Out Your Colleagues Will Talk About
Someone on your team has been handed the outing. It needs to work for the extrovert and the quiet analyst, for the person who drinks and the person who drives, and it needs to fit after work on a weeknight or a weekend. Here is an honest guide to the options in Philadelphia and the suburbs, from Center City to Mount Airy, Ambler and the rest of Montgomery County, plus the one we think makes the strongest night out for a group of smart people: an evening of live jazz and mind reading over dinner.
If you already know you want dinner, drinks, live jazz and mind reading in one evening, skip ahead: See upcoming shows and get tickets for your group.
What Makes a Good Team Outing
Before you compare venues, it helps to know what you are actually buying. The outings people still mention months later tend to share five things.
Everyone can take part at their own level. Nobody has to be athletic, competitive or outgoing to enjoy the night.
There is something to talk about. A shared experience gives colleagues a conversation that is about something other than work.
Food and drink are part of the plan. A team that has to leave one place and find dinner somewhere else loses half the group on the sidewalk.
It fits the calendar. Evening events after work, or a weekend night, get the best turnout.
The logistics are simple for the organizer. One link, one ticket per person, one place to be.
Popular Team Outing Ideas in and Around Philadelphia
Philadelphia has plenty of choice. Here is how the usual categories compare for a group of colleagues.
Competitive socializing: mini golf, bowling and games bars
Places like Puttshack in Philadelphia and the city's bowling alleys and board game cafes are easy to book and good for energy. They reward the naturally competitive, so it is worth mixing teams across departments.
Escape rooms and puzzle games
An escape room turns a small group into a problem-solving unit for an hour. It works best for teams of four to ten, and larger groups get split across separate rooms.
Cooking, pottery and creative classes
Hands-on classes are relaxed and social, and you leave with something you made. They suit groups that like a slower pace and a lot of conversation.
Museums after hours
The Franklin Institute and other Philadelphia museums run evening programs and private events. A good pick for curious teams, especially with a guide who keeps the group together.
Happy hour at a good local restaurant
The classic, and a fine one. Ambler, Mount Airy and Center City all have excellent spots. A happy hour gets better when there is a reason to stay past the first round.
Live entertainment, dinner and a show
This is the category that does the most work for the organizer: food, drink and a shared experience in one room, on one ticket, with the entertainment built in. It is also where our recommendation sits, and you can see every date on the upcoming shows page.
Our Pick for a Team Night Out: Sound Minds
Sound Minds is a live jazz ensemble with mind-reading afterwards, served with dinner and drinks at a restaurant venue in the Philadelphia area. It is currently presented at Malelani Café in Mount Airy, and Gentry's public shows have also played Ambler. Check the upcoming shows for the current dates and venue.
What the evening looks like
Your group arrives to close-up mind reading as Gentry works the room, then orders from the restaurant's menu and settles in while a live jazz ensemble plays through dinner. Gentry plays bass in the band. After an intermission, the music gives way to the feature: an extended set of live mind reading with members of the audience. Afterwards the room stays for conversation and socializing, and guests can sit down with Gentry for a Cognitive Analysis, the one-on-one structured-thinking session he also offers on its own. The evening runs about two and a half hours from start to finish.
Why it works for a team
It covers every item on the checklist above. Dinner, drinks and the entertainment are in one place. The jazz sets the tone for conversation, and the mind reading gives everyone the same unforgettable story to take back to the office the next day. The people who join Gentry at the front come away looking sharp, which matters when they are sitting next to their manager the next morning. If you want a feel for the room before you buy, watch Gentry at work.
For the more philosophical team: The Skull of Descartes
Gentry's other public show, The Skull of Descartes, is a philosophical mentalism show about certainty, doubt, perception and free will. If our senses and instincts can be led astray, what can we actually trust? It grows out of the idea at the center of his work, that intelligent people are easier to fool than they think. It is a strong fit for teams of analysts, engineers, lawyers and anyone who likes to leave a show still arguing about it. When it is on the calendar, you will find it on the events page.
Who Is Gentry?
Nicholas Gentry performs as Gentry, The Intellectual's Illusionist. He is a Philadelphia mentalist and a working Philadelphia jazz bassist, which is why Sound Minds exists at all. He holds an MA in Rhetoric from Carnegie Mellon and has taught at four universities: Carnegie Mellon, Temple, Duquesne and the University of Pittsburgh. He gave the TEDx talk "Faking It IS Making It," and his corporate audiences include NBC, FOX, CBS, AWS, MassMutual and DuPont. His craft comes from rhetoric, philosophy, the classroom and years of live performance, and it shows in a show that respects the intelligence of the people watching it.
Read what clients say in the client reviews, learn more about Gentry, or browse the questions planners ask.
How to Bring Your Team to a Show
Open the events page (the Tickets tab in the site menu) and pick a date.
Buy tickets for your group in one order, so everyone arrives on the same booking.
Share the date, time and address with your team. Plan to arrive when doors open so the group can sit and order together.
Enjoy dinner, jazz and the mind reading, and let the office talk about it for a week.
Planning for a Larger Group or a Private Event?
If your company wants the whole evening to itself, Gentry performs private and corporate events for rooms as small as five and as large as several thousand, at your office, your venue or a restaurant of your choosing. Mind reading can be paired with live music for corporate events from his band, and teams that want more than entertainment can add a facilitated session through his team building workshops. The event formats page lays out the options, and corporate event entertainment has more for planners building a larger program.
Start with an overview of hiring a corporate mentalist for corporate and private events, see his work in the city on the Philadelphia page, or send your date straight to Check availability. Short notice is welcome. Teams based across the river or down the road will find regional pages for New Jersey and Delaware, and every market he works is on the locations page.
Book Your Team's Night Out
The best team outing is the one people still bring up at the next all-hands. Give your colleagues dinner, live jazz and an hour of mind reading they will be trying to explain for weeks.
See upcoming shows and get tickets for your group
Not ready to pick a date yet? Hear about the next show and get first word when new dates are announced.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are good team outing ideas in Philadelphia?
Popular options include mini golf and games bars, escape rooms, cooking or pottery classes, museum evenings and happy hours at local restaurants. For a group that wants dinner, drinks and entertainment in one place, Sound Minds combines a live jazz ensemble with mind reading at a Philadelphia-area restaurant venue.
What is a fun team night out besides going to a bar?
A dinner-and-a-show evening gives a team something to share beyond the drinks. At Sound Minds your group eats and drinks while a live jazz ensemble plays, then watches Gentry read the minds of people in the audience.
Can I buy tickets for a group of coworkers?
Yes. Choose a date on the events page at gentrymind.com/events and buy tickets for your whole group in one order. For larger groups, or to take over a room privately, use the Check availability page at gentrymind.com/contact.
Is dinner included in a Sound Minds ticket?
Your ticket covers the show. Dinner and drinks are ordered from the restaurant's own menu, and each event listing explains the food and drink arrangement for that date before you buy.
Where are Gentry's public shows held?
Sound Minds is currently presented at Malelani Café, 6734 Germantown Avenue in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia. Gentry's public shows have also played Ambler in Montgomery County. The events page always lists the current venue for each date.
Can Gentry perform a private event for our company instead?
Yes. Gentry performs private and corporate events for groups as small as five and as large as several thousand, with the option of live jazz from his band. Send your date through the Check availability page at gentrymind.com/contact.
How far ahead should we plan a team outing?
Pick your date as soon as you can and buy tickets once you have it, so the whole group can attend the same night. For a private event, send the date as soon as you have it; short notice is welcome.