A decade after launching Bluebird Distilling, founder Jared Adkins is overhauling the Phoenixville distillery with what he calls a “full revamp.”
The transformation will bring a redesigned space, a full kitchen and a new identity as Bluebird Distilling & Dough House.
The team first reconfigured the layout to better fit how the space functions.
“We moved our original bar area to our existing patio area and made it about four times the size. We added a 30-plus-seat rectangular open bar that’s surrounded by all windows in our front patio area,” Adkins told What Now Philadelphia.
The bar will feature a new draft system, an expanded wine selection and an enhanced cocktail menu.
Inside, the space will feature a lounge and dining area with exposed brick and Shou Sugi Ban Japanese wood throughout. A dedicated retail area will also offer customers a shopping experience.
“Where our kitchen is, and part of the dining room, that is made to look like the interior of an old brick house, there’s barrels suspended from the walls,” he said.
Adding food to the distillery’s lineup was something Adkins had always wanted to do. He said he became “really fascinated” with pizza and the fermentation process behind the dough, making the expansion into Dough House a natural fit.
Led by Devon Migeot, the kitchen will offer small and large plates alongside from-scratch pizzas made with stone-ground Italian flour, the menu’s standout offering.
“We’re importing all Italian flour. There are no preservatives, and it’s stone-ground in a small town in Italy. There are only a limited number of people working with this flour in the United States,” Adkins said.
The pizzas will embrace a neo-Neapolitan approach.
“We’re doing much higher hydration. The more water that you put into the flour, it’s much harder to work with, but the benefits are that it’s a much more airy, lighter, bubbly-style pizza. We’re calling ours neo-Neapolitan because the neo side of it is a much crunchier, crustier side of a 12-inch pie, a new take on traditional pizza,” he said.
Adkins said he hopes the community embraces the distillery’s next chapter.
“It’s a mixture of just giving the guests a better customer experience, from the cocktails and the environment to now having food to go along with it. We’re really excited to start pairing food and cocktails and take another artistic side with food production,” he said.
Bluebird Distilling & Dough House is currently in its soft-opening phase and will celebrate its grand opening July 20. Visit the website and follow along on Instagram and Facebook for the latest updates.
