Beyond the menu, a lot goes into creating the alluring nature of a bar. The glow of the lighting, plush booths for lounging, the artwork hanging on the walls. But one of the most popular types of decor that bars reach for are plants, adorning their shelves, walls and counters with cascading pothos or wiry spider plants to add a lush touch to their spaces.
Now, the shops many of these plants come from are transforming into bars themselves. The boutique plant store is becoming the new neighborhood watering hole, as more of them are doubling as wine and cocktail bars.
Many of these concepts got their start during the pandemic, when indoor plant sales boomed. Americans spent more than $2 billion on indoor plants and accessories in 2021 compared to $1.3 billion in 2019, according to The National Gardening Association. But as owners saw other plant shops and small businesses around them shutter post-pandemic, they knew retail concepts had to evolve.
“It was very obvious that just plants was not going to be sufficient,” says Quincy Goldsmith, co-owner of Stem & Vine, in Baltimore. “So, we wanted to add additional revenue streams.”
Serving drinks at a plant shop can help it stand out. It can also provide stability as a new plant store establishes clientele.
For John Douglass, co-owner of Pretty Decent, in Louisville, the different revenue sources give him more freedom with his bar and more resources to take care of his staff.
“The thing about the revenue streams is it allows us to treat our bar like a Michelin-star restaurant and not have to worry about the volume trade-off,” says Douglass, who runs the 20-seat bar. “So for every dollar we do in the plant shop, we do about two and a quarter at the bar.”
At the same time, bar experiences are changing too. “I’ve owned bars for over 20 years, and gone are the days when people just came, got drunk with their friends and went home,” says Sudhir Kudva, co-owner of The Marigold, in Denver. “They want something engaging, something memorable, an experience and something honestly that they can take home with them.”
Curious about what it’s like to drink or shop in one of these plant shop-bar hybrids? We rounded up a handful around the country where you can come for a plant and stay for a drink.
Baltimore, Maryland
Located in downtown Baltimore, Stem & Vine groups beverages and plants by region to highlight the historical context of both the greenery and the drinks at the shop.
“A lot of it is tied to colonialism: plants that were taken from one place had moved to another for the gain of the empire,” says Quincy Goldsmith, who co-owns the business with his wife, Kendrea Clark Goldsmith. “These things are historical, and we want to tell those stories, especially how Black and Brown people are involved in a lot of this stuff.”
Stem & Vine seeks out bottles from women-owned and underrepresented producers and showcases regions of the world that aren’t as popular on beverage menus. You may find Australian and South African wines on the list alongside Filipino rum and Mexican whiskey. The bar offers a handful of wines by the glass along with by-the-bottle options and cocktails. You can also buy bottles off the shelf to take home.
Grab a drink with friends, settle in with a book or attend one of the shop’s near-daily events, which appeal to beverage and plant enthusiasts alike—from herbal cocktail workshops to DIY terrarium building.
Louisville, Kentucky
This Louisville spot unites Jeanne and John Douglass’s respective interests in plants and drinks into one airy space that’s a plant shop in the front and a 20-seat cocktail bar in the back. The bar area is designed to feel more like a home kitchen, with a lower counter height and ceramic tile for the back bar. “That’s very intentional, and that’s an extension of my philosophy on hospitality, which is that this work is very much like welcoming people into your home,” John Douglass says.
While Louisville boasts many beer- and bourbon-focused bars, the menu at Pretty Decent focuses on agave spirits and pisco, with a seasonal cocktail menu and rotating spirits list.
Since reposado tequilas can pick up flavors from the barrels during the aging process, John Douglass chose to focus the menu on blanco tequila and mezcal whose “final flavor is largely influenced by the mother plant” only. Sip on classic cocktails with an agave spin, like a gibson or daiquiri, or pick one of the themed cocktails off the menu.
Denver, Colorado
Back in March 2023, owners Genevieve Shifrin and Sudhir Kudva wanted to blend Denver’s love for nature with their experience as bar owners by bringing plants and drinks together in one place. Walk through the lush greenery of the shop to find a plant-framed bar where you can sip on house favorites like the Tequila Me Softly and seasonal gin & tonics inside or on the patio or on the rooftop.
“[This model] kind of softens the hard edges of a bar and makes it a little bit more amenable to a bunch of different groups of people,” Kudva said.
At The Marigold, drinks deviate from Denver’s love for whiskey and instead lean into gins, playing with botanical flavors to align with the shop. While you can find other spirits on the menu, the bar tries to emphasize plant-forward flavors through its housemade tonic and garnishes like edible flowers and herbs. And the best part is the plants around the bar aren’t just for show. If you see it, you can buy it.
Wichita, Kansas
While plants are front and center at Grow, from the start, CEO and founder Heather Giesen didn’t want it to just be a plant shop. “As small-business owners, as we’re innovating and wanting to be in our communities, we are having to be really innovative in how we’re going to overcome the need for convenience,” says Giesen, who opened the bar in 2022. “Part of that is creating an experience. That’s what people will spend time and spend money on—an experience.”
Head to the bar—which also serves coffee all day—to explore fresh, juicy cocktails that lean into plant-inspired flavors from housemade lavender and rose syrups as well as elderflower and herbs. The shop’s DIY plant bar attracts the most visitors, allowing them to enjoy drinks while they build terrariums.
“A lot of times in our human existence, we’re all just so go, go, go,” Giesen adds. “I wanted this space to be somewhere that you can stop for a second and breathe and get your hands in the dirt and just connect to yourself and connect with whomever you’re with.”
Portland, Oregon
Inspired by their time studying in France, husband-and-wife team Gabby Terracciano and Brant Ozanich set out to create a cozy neighborhood spot that combined Terracciano’s love for flowers and sommelier Ozanich’s love of wine.
With a flower staircase on one wall and floor-to-ceiling wine shelving on another, Dogwood started out as a wine and bouquet retail shop in 2021. But the couple soon added a wine bar to the mix at the request of their customers.
“Portland itself is such a heavy beer-drinking community that we saw an opening with both of our passions,” Terracciano says. “The flowers help bring people in that maybe weren’t looking for wine, and I think the wine helps bring people in that weren’t necessarily looking for flowers, but suddenly we have a customer on both sides, which is amazing.”
Wines at Dogwood focus on small producers and family-owned wineries, offering mostly European bottles along with some from California, Oregon and Washington. You can enjoy one of the rotating by-the-glass options or open a bottle from the shop for a $15 corkage fee. Grab a seat on the patio or inside at the white-oak table the couple built for the space. The small food menu follows a European approach, too, with cheeses, cured meats and tinned fish. Dogwood also sells customizable bouquets made entirely of flowers grown by the shop.
Atlanta, Georgia
While other cocktail bars in Atlanta may be dim and cozy, the lush landscaping you can see through the floor-to-ceiling windows at Burle’s Bar makes it feel like drinking in a garden. The greenery doesn’t stop there though.
Right off of the Beltline, the city’s bike and pedestrian greenway, the bar sits on the second floor of The Victorian plant shop. After operating the plant store first inside an apparel store and later alongside a coffee bar, co-owner Libby Hockenberry decided to blend cocktails and plants in her next venture after customers often remarked that they’d like to enjoy drinks in her shop.
Separating the brand and space of The Victorian and Burle’s Bar allowed both businesses to have more flexible hours, though the two concepts still support each other. “It’s really given The Victorian a chance to set itself apart from other plant shops, which is what we wanted to do,” Hockenberry says. “I just feel like sometimes you go into a retail store and people come in, it’s quiet, they buy a candle, or they buy a plant, and they leave. But at Burle’s and The Victorian, they don’t. They go upstairs and wander around or grab a cocktail and come back downstairs.”
The bar, which opened last year, also hosts Tuesday jazz nights, which brings in a crowd for the plant shop too.
Hockenberry takes great care for pairing plants and planters at The Victorian and she does the same for drink ingredients at Burle’s. The menu offers playful spins on a handful of classic cocktails like gimlets, daiquiris and the Bee’s Knees alongside a small wine list. Cocktails rotate seasonally.
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Published: September 2, 2024
