Post Haste in Kensington is a cocktail bar with an ambitious mission

Note: Chef Elise Black resigned shortly after the restaurant’s opening.

College buddies Fred Beebe and Gabe Guerrero are in the opening days of Post Haste, their chill Kensington cocktail bar with an ambitious mission.

Sustainability is the key. Everything, from the bar fixings, wines, beers, and spirits, to chef Elise Black’s food, is sourced from the Eastern United States, and 95% of furniture and design details were repurposed or recycled.

In fact, even the barroom itself was upcycled; several years ago, a previous owner transformed an old-time shot-and-a-beer at 2519 Frankford Ave. into a stylish bar called Ward 31 that may or may not have ever opened. Beebe and Guerrero kept the homey look, including a fireplace. Post Haste has 70 seats and 16 at the bar.

Black, last a sous chef at Fork (and previously chef de partie at Fiorella and sous chef at Royal Boucherie), is going with lots of vegetarian (and vegan-izable) dishes, such as vignole and heirloom polenta with asparagus, snap peas, English peas, and caramelized green garlic; rich, colorful radish rillettes; and a clever cutlet — sliced cabbage, panfried and served with honey dijonnaise. There’s also chicken liver mousse atop a Belgian waffle, dayboat scallop crudo, and oysters. The menu is here.

Beebe, whose past includes Momofuku Ssam, Sunday in Brooklyn, and Guerrero, formerly with Starr at The Dandelion and El Vez, had the idea for something like Post Haste about 20 years ago when they met at Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif. They ran a small on-campus eatery together that was “95% local and 98% organic,” Beebe said.

As they moved on with their careers, the restaurant industry moved toward sustainability and intentional sourcing. Bars? Not so much.

“A lot of the kitchens focus on it, like ‘We’re using these fresh tomatoes from Farmer Jerry’s right down the road,’” Beebe said. “And then, what do you order from the bar? You order something with rum from the islands, sugar from — it just shows up ‘Domino.’ Who knows?”

They do.

They are mindful of everything that goes into the cocktails. The ginger, for example, comes from farmer Zuohong “Ed” Yin of Queens Farm in Chester County, whom they met at Head House Farmer’s Market. The limes and other citrus come from Bhumi Growers in Bordentown.

“In developing this concept, we wanted to go by Slow Food rules, which is within 150 miles,” Guerrero said. “But there’s a lot of fun stuff that’s like 200 miles.”

“And then we started thinking about liquor, and I was like, ‘Oh, there’s a lot of Pennsylvania liquor,’” Beebe said. “But do you know how far Pittsburgh is?’” As he considered wines from the Finger Lakes and whiskey from Kentucky, the borders stretched.

They decided to source everything served from the kitchen and the bar from east of the Mississippi. (Wait. How about sugar? There is a beet-sugar cooperative in the Midwest.)

Black’s kitchen and Beebe’s bar are working closely. The asparagus tips and ends from the roast asparagus dish will create an umami infusion for a drink. The unused part of strawberries become a syrup.

The cocktail menu includes riffs on classics such as a Cosmo called All The Cosmos that uses Pine Barrens cranberry, kumquat superjuice, lemongrass syrup, with Hidden Still Vodka and Faccia Brutto Aperitivo. There are also more experimental drinks like Sippin’ the Tea, inspired by a Thai iced tea, which has Charleston black tea, condensed oat milk with Appalachian allspice, cardamom leaves, pandan, turmeric, Penn 1681 Vodka, and Lockhouse Amaro. The menu also has zero-proof selections.

Hours: 5 p.m. to midnight Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday; 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday.