Craft-cocktail veteran Jennifer Sabatino made a name for herself at East Passyunk’s Stateside, where she built out an ambitious bar program that accompanied the local, seasonal food menu, writes Jenn Ladd for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

That experience, together with the time she spent running local spirits-focused Aldine in Rittenhouse, prepared her for her current position as director of bar operations for Manatawny Still Works in Pottstown. After joining the distillery in 2018 to run its then-new tasting room on East Passyunk, she opened Manatawny bottle shops in Reading Terminal and Suburban Station and is currently overseeing two new projects. One is an Ardmore tasting room that opened in October.

“I think we bring something new here, because it’s not a restaurant,” said Sabatino. “It’s a bar to come before dinner, after dinner, have a drink. So far, the neighborhood has been awesome. When they walk in, they are like, wow, this is fantastic.”

With a forthcoming Fishtown location, Manatawny will soon have two locations in both the city and suburbs.

“I think the partners have done really well with the business plan of slow growing,” said Sabatino. “We’ve been able to grow the company with the demand we’ve had.”

Read more about Jennifer Sabatino and Manatawny Still Works in The Philadelphia Inquirer.