Almanac in Old City named one of best new bars in America

OLD CITY (WPVI) -- To find Almanac bar, look for Ogawa restaurant. Pass the omakase counter and go up a red-lit flight of steps to the 2nd floor. The small, intimate, speakeasy-style bar has just been named one of the 9 best new bars in the entire country by Bon Appétit.

The bar's climb to the top of the drinks world starts with Vy To.

After 10 years working in the financial services industry, she decided to open Ogawa Sushi & Kappo in the fall of 2023.

Six month later, she decided to tackle the upstairs and brought in Danny Childs, the James Beard-winning author of the book, Slow Drinks.

Danny grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs and had a background in botany and ethnobotany. He spent time in South America researching village shamans and home healers, to learn how people traditionally used plants for medicine.

Bartending had always been how he paid the bills. But then he had an aha moment, realizing there was botany behind the bars.

Through cocktails with locally forged ingredients, he's telling stories of people and places and plants and putting the same focus on seasonality in the drinks that Vy puts in the fish at the omakase.

Rob Scott completes the leadership team as head bartender.

Bon Appétit praised the bar's foraging practice, describing it as "deeply Japanese in esthetic, but very Philly in execution."

Almanac Philly
Ogawa Sushi & Kappo | Instagram
310 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
215-238-5757