Northwest Philly gets another cider destination with Chestnut Hill’s Cider Belly

Imagine holding down a 9-to-5 job, then running a bar on nights and weekends. That’s reality for Matt and Kim Vendeville, the owners of Chestnut Hill’s Cider Belly at 8005 Germantown Ave. And while the premise sounds grueling, it’s also a dream come true — one the couple has shared since they met in grad school in Pittsburgh.

Cider Belly opened July 7, serving European-style dry ciders and small plates, plus Karamoor wines, Love City beers, and draft cocktails made with New Liberty spirits. The small but elegant space — minimally decorated with marble tables, bistro chairs, and thrifted Philadelphia prints, lithographs, and landscapes — nails the tony Chestnut Hill vibe.

This is Northwest Philly’s second spot serving up delicious dry, seasonal ciders in a beautiful setting: Young American Hard Cider opened up two miles down Germantown Avenue in late 2020.

Because the Vendevilles are still full-timers and Cider Belly’s primary staffers, the bar’s hours are limited: Fridays 6 to 10 p.m., Saturdays 5 to 10 p.m., and Sunday 4 to 8 p.m. (They also fill takeout growlers on Thursdays from 6 to 8 p.m.) Arrive early or perhaps late: When The Inquirer visited in mid-July, the 36-seat space was packed within minutes of the doors opening.

The couple has long shared an ambition to be their own boss, something they bonded over when they started dating at University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public Health. Matt began making cider around 2018 as a hobby, and they fell in love with Pittsburgh’s Arsenal Cider House. It was while on their 2019 honeymoon in Italy that they first conceived of Cider Belly, a play on the term “pasta belly.”

In 2021, two years after they moved to Philly, they sublet space from Cardinal Hollow Winery in Lansdale to pilot the concept. There they refined their process and recipes, and they started selling cider at regional festivals. Positive feedback followed. “That’s when we realized like we really could have something,” Kim says. They signed a lease on the Chestnut Hill space, at the bottom of the hill, shortly after.

Today, their ciders are made in the back, using raw cider from Boyertown’s Beekman Orchard that’s tailored to custom acid and sugar levels by farmer Calvin Beekman.

“He puts all these different apples together and tastes it. This is a fourth-generation family farm, so they know what they’re doing,” Matt says.

Beekman delivers the cider to the bar, hooking up a hose to a tank on the back of a truck, then pumping in enough fresh-pressed cider to fill six 60-gallon tanks. From there, the Vendevilles add yeast and keep an eye on the cider during its first fermentation.

“A lot of things can go wrong in the process, but overall it’s just making sure that the yeast are happy. It takes about a week to two weeks” to complete primary fermentation, Matt says, at which point the yeast has consumed all the available sugar in the juice. “And then it goes into what’s called secondary. That’s really where you’re aging, you’re adding your infusions, like cherries or peach.”

As the cider ages, it gets clearer (as the yeast and sediment settle to the bottom) and develops more character. Cider Belly’s ciders are aged for a month or two before they’re put on draft. They offer three varieties: the Wissahickon (original dry), the Pastorious (dry-hopped), and a rotating seasonal flavor (right now it’s the Willow Grove, aged on local peaches). They also plan to release a small-batch series featuring ciders aged on locally foraged fruits like pawpaws.

Neither Matt nor Kim have previous experience in the hospitality industry, but they recently hired some veterans to help. The neighborhood reception has been even better than they anticipated. The cherry cider they thought would last two months was sold out in three weeks.

“The feedback has been amazing … from people liking the cider but also our small plates,” which are also locally sourced, Kim says. “We’re trying to be very intentional, but you never know until you put something out there, and we don’t have a background in any of this. So for people to be like, ‘Oh my gosh, the trout dish is amazing,’ it’s shocking.”

For now, Cider Belly only has a cold-prep kitchen space, so its food menu is limited. But that and the satellite-location options that come with their winery license already have these entrepreneurs dreaming up more possibilities.

“We don’t want this to be the end-all, be-all. We’re excited for what could potentially come,” Kim says.