Philadelphia’s first Black-owned brewery in the heart of a biotech hub

The brainchild of brothers Richard and Mengistu Koilor, this brewery is changing the narrative in an area that displaced minority communities in the 1960s. With a tight budget and big dreams, Strada led owners, Rich and Mengistu, on a design safari of other local breweries to understand what they truly wanted and needed. Rich and Mengistu wanted their brewery to bring the community together, and to feel like home. Drawing from their roots in the West Indies and West Africa, the Strada design team went to work to bring their vision to life.

The street-level space has multiple entrances, creating outdoor connections on sunny days and enhancing the privacy of their event room with a separate door. The flow of the seating is intentionally on axis with the bar, and brewery equipment anchors the tap room’s high-ceiling drama. Both the menu and the color palette focus on earthiness and warmth with historically strong cultural shades of red, green and black. Raw textures and a custom neon “West Philly Best Philly” sign complement a mural by a local artist to frame this home-grown business. Custom suspended wood elements designed by Strada use abstract shapes to define the bar area and soften sound. The result is a place that welcomes all and awakens the neighborhood.

Two Locals Brewing Co. is positioned to enhance and support the work/live/play environment of Philadelphia’s UCity Square, a biotech hub that is home to Firsthand Labs, Cambridge Innovation Center, Drexel University’s College of Computing and Informatics and more.