Art in the Age, Old City’s hidden cocktail bar, has closed due to a distillery breakup

Art in the Age has closed, maybe permanently, a statement from the Old City retailer and sometimes cocktail bar confirms.

“For reasons outside of our control, we are no longer able to legally serve or sell liquor in the state of Pennsylvania, effective immediately,” owner Steven Grasse said in a statement. “We are proud of the experiential retail liquor laboratory we created and this is not a goodbye! Our shop in Old City is now closed BUT we are eagerly awaiting a new Pa. distilling license that will allow us to expand our production capabilities and bring even more boundary-pushing innovations to market!”

The space has always been a little complicated to explain. Launched in 2008 by then-advertising exec Steven Grasse, the store at 116 N. Third St. was an “artist collective/retail experiment” that sold clothing, books, housewares, and its own line of organic liquors (you may recall the popular rhubarb and sage variations) that were contract-distilled by a California company.

In 2018 — three years after Grasse opened Tamworth Distilling in New Hampshire — that changed. Art in the Age discontinued its original line of spirits and partnered up with Kensington’s New Liberty Distillery. Not only would New Liberty bottle Tamworth’s spirits for sale in Pennsylvania, it would also designate Art in the Age as one of its satellite tasting rooms. That allowed the shop to transform into a cocktail bar/supply store drawing from both Tamworth’s and New Liberty’s extensive spirit catalogs. The two distilleries also collaborated on several spirits.

Complex as the arrangement was, for customers, the experience was seamless and unique: You could have a great drink, then buy all the equipment and booze you needed to recreate it — right down to the Nick & Nora glasses.

But as of today, that partnership has ended. In an apparent breakup between Grasse and New Liberty, Grasse is seeking a separate Pennsylvania distillery license under Art in the Age’s brand.

According to spokesperson Kylie Flett of PUNCH Media, Grasse is considering a facility in Ambler as a location for the new distillery. A Pennsylvania license would not only enable him to contract-bottle Tamworth’s spirits for sale in-state, but it also allows for five satellite tasting rooms — which could mean the reopening of the Old City space. “We will know more when our distilling license is approved,” Grasse said in an email.

Grasse did not elaborate on what precipitated the split, but did note that a separate distillery license “will greatly expand our operations in [Pennsylvania]. We make over 55 different kinds of spirits at our distillery in New Hampshire. We were only able to bring down a few of those in the past. Once we have our own license we will be able to bring them all to [Pennsylvania], including the ones that earned us Food & Wine’s 2023 Innovator of the Year award.”

Rob Cassell, of New Liberty and Millstone Spirits, wished Art in the Age well in a statement.

“We had a great run and are grateful for the impactful influence they had on the Kinsey rebrand; however, we are a much different company than we were then, and now we are gearing up for some new market expansions, as well as significant product updates within our current portfolio. We wish the Art in the Age team well on this new journey for them!”