Andra Hem

Andra Hem — Swedish for second home — opened in November 2022 in a four-storey black-painted townhouse at 16th and Chancellor in Rittenhouse. It was founded by art collector Paige West, with interiors by designer Ghislaine Viñas built around the fiction of a Swedish proprietor, and it launched with no public relations push at all before landing on Esquire's Best Bars in America list in 2023. Lead bartender Patrick Jennings runs a Nordic-leaning cocktail programme alongside snacks of warm bread, pickled herring and caviar.

The menu carries a dedicated section headed "Low ABV & Non-Alcoholic", and that pairing of categories under one heading is worth noting, because it is honest in a way that matters. Low-alcohol and zero-alcohol are not the same thing, and a bar that files them together is at least telling you they are distinct — which means asking which is which is a normal question rather than an awkward one. Anyone avoiding alcohol completely should confirm before ordering, since a low-ABV drink is not alcohol-free.

The Squirt Gun is the drink the room is known for. Philadelphia Magazine described it as the bar's take on a European favourite and exactly what it sounds like: espresso with bitter soda. That combination — coffee against a quinine-bitter carbonated mixer — is a genuine Italian café habit, and it works because the bitterness of the soda and the acidity of the espresso sharpen each other rather than cancelling out. It is one of very few drinks that is naturally complex without any alcohol at all. The Linc and Touch Nothing But the Lamp complete the named list.

The Scandinavian setting suits an evening without drinking: the room is designed for lingering, the food arrives in small savoury plates rather than courses, and the whole hygge-adjacent premise is comfort rather than intoxication. Open from five in the evening, to midnight Thursday through Saturday; closed Mondays.