The New Rival Bros. Coffee Bar is Tall, Dark and Handsome
At 6 a.m. this morning, Damien Pileggi and Jonathan Adams opened up their second Rival Bros. coffee bar inside the Touraine (1528 Spruce Street) and it’s straight-up stunning.
There’s a full-service espresso and coffee bar with all the third-wave fixings and premium equipment: Fetco Extractor coffee brewers, a Mahlkönig EK 43 grinder and a Synesso Cyncra 2 Group espresso machine. Don’t know what any of that means? Neither do we. But it sounds fancy, plus it speaks to the company’s commitment to premium quality coffee.
Compared to the Rival Bros. original Fitler Square location, it’s bigger, sure, but similar in concept. High Street on Market is on bread and pastry duty, and they’ve teamed up with Lil Pop Shop, Weckerly’s Ice Cream, Sugar Philly and Nathan Miller Chocolate to fill out the snack section of the menu. Plus, toasts:
- The Daily Bread (butter, sea salt and fruit preserves)
- Peanut Butter Toast (peanut butter, dried figs, maple syrup and vanilla salt)
- “Cubano Style” Sandwich (potato bread, classic cured ham, Swiss cheese, Kosher pickles and mustard mayonnaise).
And just like Touraine itself, the cafe space has a vintage feel about it, courtesy of Benita Cooper Design (concept and layout) and interior design by Ian Chapin of Edsel Co. Twenty-foot ceilings are decked out with 19th century street lamps, and the room itself, swarthy with dark colors, high columns, and tufted leather banquettes (by Fishtown-local Norman Porter).
Hours are Monday – Friday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and weekends from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Rival Bros. [Foobooz]
