One of Philly’s elite cocktail bars is opening a bigger second act near Rittenhouse Square
Almanac bar manager Rob Scott is a partner with owners Vy To and Victor Ng on a two-level cocktail bar being built on 18th Street near Rittenhouse Square.
The team behind one of Philadelphia’s most acclaimed new cocktail bars is preparing a larger second act in Rittenhouse.
Almanac co-owners Vy To and Victor Ng and bar manager Rob Scott are building a two-level bar in the former Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co. space at 112 S. 18th St. A name and opening date have not been announced. Much more work needs to be done, they said, as the space has been vacant since Franklin left in 2021. It later reopened behind the 1715 Rittenhouse Hotel. The new bar is between Cleavers, and Byblos and its upstairs lounge, Vango.
To, Ng, and Scott have been riding high on public acclaim since they opened the 23-seat, Japanese-influenced Almanac in 2024 above its sister restaurant, Ogawa Sushi & Kappo, at 310 Market St. in Old City.
With Scott at the stick, Almanac was named a 2026 James Beard Award semifinalist for Best New Bar. Bon Appetit included it among America’s nine best new bars of 2025, while The Inquirer has called it one of Philadelphia’s most original cocktail bars.
» READ MORE: Philadelphia's best cocktail bars
To, Ng, and Scott will be partners in the new venture. They started working together in 2024, when the Drexel Food Lab connected To and Ng with Danny Childs, the James Beard Award-winning author of Slow Drinks. Childs recruited Scott, his former colleague at Cherry Hill’s Farm & Fisherman, to run Almanac.
The Rittenhouse bar will divide its personality between two floors, and each will carry its own name. The long, narrow lower level will be calm, dark, and intimate, with a cocktail menu built around a single theme that could remain for 12 to 18 months. Upstairs will be brighter, livelier, and designed to handle more customers.
Its largely fixed downstairs beverage menu will rely on draft, frozen, freezer-door, nitro, and shaved-ice cocktails. Scott said he hopes to avoid conventional shakers, mixing tins, and jiggers upstairs. Most preparation would occur before service, allowing bartenders to pour and garnish drinks quickly while spending more time with customers.
“You can return in a week, a month, or a year, and it will probably still be there,” Scott said of the upstairs menu selections.
The new approach is partly a response to Almanac’s economics. Its hyperseasonal menu and fermentation and preservation work can require hours of preparation, but its size limits capacity. Scott said Almanac’s cocktails cost $19 to $23 partly because labor and ingredient expenses must be divided among relatively few guests.
The new project would preserve Almanac’s distinctive, intimate experience downstairs while increasing volume upstairs to allow more guests to experience Scott’s hospitality without a reservation, To said. Kitchen and preparation employees would work across both floors. The Drexel Food Lab is developing a small-bites menu.
Behind Bars Agency of Oslo is designing a customized downstairs system allowing two bartenders to work independently in the narrow room. Philadelphia designer Ian Chapin, whose resumé includes Middle Child Clubhouse, R&D, and Pub & Kitchen, is handling the interiors; Kylie Silvestri, who worked on Almanac, Ogawa, and Little Water, will oversee graphic design.
The partners plan to divide the downstairs room into smaller lounge areas while preserving sightlines to the bar. Upstairs will feature custom lighting and metalwork. Scott described the contrasting rooms as “two sides of the same coin.”
To said the larger project is intended to turn the hospitality practiced at 12-seat Ogawa and Almanac into a more durable business with enough revenue to create long-term jobs.
“We want our employees to be able to build careers and have a sustainable lifestyle if they choose to remain in this world with us,” she said.
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