Two Robbers, the Philly hard seltzer brand, opens a restaurant in Fishtown
There's a very un-tasting-room-like food menu. Besides a smash burger and fries, would you believe scallop crudo and stracciatella tacos with watermelon radish?
Breweries have their brewpubs and distilleries have their tasting rooms.
Two Robbers, the Philadelphia-based hard-seltzer maker, will open its seltzer taproom Friday across from Frankford Hall on Frankford Avenue in Fishtown.
Twin brothers Vivek and Vikram Nayar, 31, have set up a roomy, boldly decorated combination of restaurant and retail in a former garage at 1221 Frankford Ave., across the street from Frankford Hall in Fishtown. Its 35-seat outdoor space, due to open in the spring, will extend to the triangular intersection of Frankford Avenue and Shackamaxon Street.
Two Robbers seltzers will be available on tap as well as in six-packs sold from an enormous upright refrigerator. Two Robbers awill pour its two new beers — a pilsner and an IPA — as well as its newer Pumpkin Happy Coffee, a nitro “hard coffee,” made with Colombian coffee and seltzer. It’s positioned as a low-carb, low-caffeine alternative to dark, fall beers, and it drinks like a light stout. A kombucha is on the way, too.
The drink program, using Pennsylvania spirits and Two Robbers seltzers, was set up by Brooklyn bartender Dan Greenbaum (ex-Attaboy). “It’s meant to show off the versatility of the product, and the cocktails really are a lot of fun,” Vikram said. Mural City wines also will be available.
Their older brother, Ashok, 35, an engineer, was on board, helping not only with the modern interior design but with the food menu. Ashok, a self-taught chef, used to host a series of dinner parties when he was living in Chicago.
Ashok created a very un-tasting room-like menu for Two Robbers. One side is labeled “not burgers,” including stracciatella tacos (you roll them up in oversize watermelon radish slices), scallop crudo in buttermilk (sort of like Peter Serpico’s signature dish at his former Serpico), eggplant tonnato, grilled avocados, and poutine (the Nayars are all originally from Toronto). Prices are $6 for plain fries to $19 for the scallops.
The burger side is a double-smash beef patty ($14) — a spectacular, simple but well-thought-out burger with thin-sliced onion, chopped full-sour pickle, American cheese, and sauce on a Martin’s potato roll, as well as a portobello version (the Juicy Lucy, $16).
Interior, seating about 80, features two dining areas plus the bar.
This project was not on the Nayars’ road map when they entered the now-multibillion-dollar seltzer market in 2019. But the brothers figured that as the business grew, they needed to interact with their loyalists.
As much as the Nayars sell beverages, the obligatory merch, and now food, their brand story is a key facet of their marketing.
The name Two Robbers stems from Vivek’s earliest days in Philadelphia as a grad student in 2017, when his apartment was burglarized twice in a matter of weeks. Once he and Vikram decided that hard seltzer was underrepresented in the marketplace, they drew on that.
“We wanted the brand to be something that was completely unrelated to the product itself and instead related to our story so that people would that question, ‘Why is it called Two Robbers? What is it all about?’ Vikram said.
The brothers are telling the company’s evolution through a series of comic books, done in the old-fashioned Marvel style.
“Turning that into this wild adventure that sort of relates to what our business is a fun way for us to continue to tell the story,” Vikram said. The brothers expect Chapter 4 to be released in 2023.
Hours for the taproom will be 4 to 9 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 4 to 11 p.m. Thursday, 4 p.m. to midnight Friday, noon to midnight Saturday, and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday.