The bar: a butcher-block top on a slate-gray base, a round wood panel on the white tile wall behind

Rybrew Brewerytown

Brewerytown, Philadelphia · Completed

Commercial spaces

A neighborhood bottle shop and café with room for a quick stop, a sandwich with friends or a longer evening.

Location: Brewerytown, Philadelphia
Status: Completed
Project: Fit-out
Our role: Architect — layout, built-ins, the patio, and the permit and certificate of occupancy drawings
Use: Bottle shop, café and bar
Our drawings: The layout, the millwork, the patio, and the permit and certificate of occupancy set

The long room: a counter along the windows, booths and the bar beyond, a yellow soffit overhead — Counter seats along the windows, with the booths and bar beyond.

The brief

One long, narrow storefront had to work two ways: as a quick stop for a sandwich and a six-pack, and as a place to stay for a beer and a game.

How it works

We laid the room out from front to back. The ordering counter and the coolers are by the door, so a quick visit stays quick. Booths, a long table and a shuffleboard table fill the middle, and the bar at the far end draws people who are staying deeper into the room. We designed the built-ins piece by piece: the butcher-block counters and bar on slate-gray paneled bases, the booths and the floating shelves. A band of the shop’s yellow runs overhead from the door to the bar. Out back, we drew the patio under its timber pergola, and our permit and certificate of occupancy drawings carried the whole shop through approval.