Char & Stave opens a holiday pop-up coffee shop and cocktail bar in Chestnut Hill
After the holiday season, Bluebird Distilling founder Jared Adkins will convert the shop into a permanent location.
![Char & Stave pop-up shop at 8441 Germantown Ave. on Dec. 5, 2022.](https://www.inquirer.com/resizer/zQzP-2un01axVbRfKAswv2jkFjo=/0x0:4028x2687/760x507/filters:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/pmn/TESTR66TTJCX5A7DFZC5RV7DJQ.jpg)
Char & Stave, the all-day coffee roastery, café, and cocktail bar with roots in Ardmore, has opened a holiday pop-up location in Chestnut Hill to sell coffee, drinks, gifts from Char & Stave, and bottles from Bluebird Distilling. The location will be converted to a permanent shop after the holidays.
Char & Stave, created by Bluebird Distilling founder Jared Adkins, is set up at 8441 Germantown Ave. in the corner store that formerly housed Philadelphia Print Co.
There’s a bar and holiday-theme decor by Lucky Dog Studio. On the menu are drip coffees (spiked and plain), hot mulled cider (available spiked and plain), an Old Man Winter (an old-fashioned featuring Bluebird’s Four Grain Bourbon, a blend of winter bitters, a touch of cinnamon and vanilla, and finished with an orange zest), and a Merry Mule (made with Bluebird’s Juniperus Gin, spiced cranberry shrub, and ginger beer).
The Chestnut Hill shop is open from 4 to 10 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays and weekends from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Jan. 4. After construction over the rest of the winter, it will become a permanent location expected to open in the spring.
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Char & Stave, which debuted last spring in Ardmore, is a clever concept, melding coffee bar and cocktail bar. It operates under Bluebird’s distillery license.
Adkins and his head distiller, Scott Gilbert, roast their own coffee and age it in the barrels used for the Phoenixville-based Bluebird’s whiskeys and bourbons. Plenty of boozy notes (vanilla, toffee, cedar, etc.) infuse the beans.
Beverages are of the coffeehouse variety (traditional brewed coffee, espresso, nitro cold brew, nitro draft lattes), plus coffee cocktails and more conventional cocktails using Bluebird spirits and a line of nonalcoholic drinks. There’s a light pastry menu, too.