Field Day brings foraged cocktails, a fermentation lab, and Sweet Amalia chef Melissa McGrath to Northern Liberties.
Katie & Danny Childs at their new bar, Field Day, in Northern Liberties / Photograph by Gab Bonghi
For Danny Childs, a walk in the woods might double as a grocery run. The forager, beverage expert, and James Beard Award-winning Slow Drinks author can turn wild ingredients into wildly inventive cocktails: Sumac goes in a Paloma, hickory bark in a boozy cream soda, black walnuts in an old fashioned. Now, after more than a decade in the industry, he and his wife, Katie, will finally open up a place of their own.
Field Day, on North 2nd Street in Northern Liberties, opens Wednesday, with an onsite fermentation lab, a backyard garden, and serious talent in the kitchen. Executive chef Melissa McGrath, formerly of High Street on Market, Pub & Kitchen, and South Jersey’s Sweet Amalia Market & Kitchen, is developing the food alongside sous chef April McGreger, a cookbook author and professional preserver.
“Field Day is the culmination of everything Katie and I have been working toward for the last decade and beyond,” says Childs. “From developing the philosophy behind Slow Drinks to bringing those ideas to life through a book, consulting, pop-ups, and a growing movement, we’ve always wanted to build a space where we could share our passion for local ingredients and the folks who make it all possible.”
Menus at Field Day / Photograph by Laura Swartz
Childs trained in ethnobotany, the study of how people use plants, before spending nine years developing the beverage program at Cherry Hill’s Farm & Fisherman Tavern and consulting for bars including Old City’s Almanac. Katie photographed Slow Drinks and leads Field Day’s branding and creative direction.
For his Slow Drinks approach, Childs brings the Slow Food movement’s emphasis on local ingredients and regional traditions to the glass. Ingredients for what he describes as a “regional cocktail bar” are foraged, farmed, and garden-grown across the Mid-Atlantic, from the Pine Barrens to Lancaster County. Fermenting, drying, pickling, and infusing keep them useful beyond their growing seasons, and the bar’s second-floor lab supplies both the kitchen and bar with sodas, kombuchas, misos, pickles, and hot sauces.
Martini at Field Day / Photograph by Gab Bonghi
The Neighborhood Menu’s “$15 Holler” section includes a fig-leaf daiquiri and a cosmo made with Pine Barrens cranberries. A more extensive “Field Guide” menu maps ingredients’ origins and has a key to identify techniques used in the preparation of the drink, like dehydration and lacto-fermentation. Highballs include bourbon with birch beer, rum with clarified cream soda, and sherry with black cherry wishniak, a Philly soda classic named for an Eastern European cherry cordial.
Farm & Fisherman regulars will recognize the savory Cel-Rey, Childs’s mezcal-and-celery-soda combination. Also on the menu: martinis, natural wines, house-made sodas and kombucha, and draft beer, including a crisp lager made in collaboration with New Jersey’s Tonewood Brewing.
“Field Guide” menu at Field Day / Photograph by Laura Swartz
Field Day’s kitchen will be another major draw. Melissa McGrath earned a 2023 James Beard semifinalist nod for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic at Sweet Amalia, the Newfield, New Jersey, roadside market and restaurant with a devoted following. After regulatory hurdles kept it from reopening this season, she’s bringing her cooking back to Philadelphia. And McGreger contributes her years of experience making preserves, pickles, and ferments, helping the kitchen make the most of each season’s harvest.
Food at Field Day / Photograph by Gab Bonghi
Menus will change seasonally and draw on Pennsylvania Dutch traditions and Philadelphia staples. For now, find soft pretzels with Calabrian pub cheese and lager mustard; a “Philly Dip” piles garlic pork shoulder, long hots, broccoli rabe, and sharp provolone onto sourdough. There’s thick tomato pie with Jersey tomatoes and oregano from Danny and Katie’s backyard, plus a hoagie salad with salami, olives, sharp provolone, and tomato-pie croutons.
The team’s waste-nothing mentality leads to some unexpected transformations, too. Got some tomato pie left over at the end of the night? They’ll turn it into miso, Childs says.
For dessert, there’s a sundae made with pumpkin spicebush soft serve (Childs calls spicebush “a kind of Appalachian allspice that tastes like a mix of allspice and black pepper”) topped with corn silk caramel and pumpkin seed brittle. A boozy gelati combines pawpaw water ice, Lancaster sweet cream soft serve, and rum, with the option to add a soft pretzel on the side.
The bar at Field Day / Photograph by Gab Bonghi
Brought to life with Philly-based interior design firm Betsu Studio, wide booths and tables along a green leather banquette fill the lofty space, while built-in wooden shelves behind the bar lend a living room feel. They hold family treasures: bottle caps, framed artwork, and antiques from the couple’s family.
Decor at Field Day / Photograph by Laura Swartz
For all the thoughtful and elaborate (read: cocktail nerd) experimentation, though, Field Day is meant to be a welcoming neighborhood spot where you can drop in for a highball and a delightful snack or settle into a booth. The 20-seat bar is walk-in only, and reservations for most of the 50-seat dining room are available through Resy.
