The bartending duo behind Next of Kin is taking over Tria Washington Square West

Come fall 2025, Tria’s soon-to-be former Washington Square West location will be transformed into a neighborhood friendly cocktail bar by Kyle Darrow, 38, and John Grubb, 48, of Next of Kin Hospitality, whose Fishtown bar, also named Next of Kin, is known for inventive takes on classic cocktails. The pair had been searching for a new location since the beginning of the year.

Darrow and Grubb signed the lease on Tria’s Washington Square West location on June 27, and expect to do little to the recently renovated 40-seat space (there is an additional fifteen to twenty seats outside) other than decorate it to make it feel like theirs. They’re anticipating being open seven days a week, from 4 p.m. to midnight.

The pair is currently struggling to name their new project. Grubb, who came up with “Next of Kin,” said coming up with a name was a “delightful exercise in frustration.”

But like Next of Kin, their bartenders will have creative license on a menu that encompasses both “classics done really well and fun experiments,” Grubb said.

There may be snacks, but no significant food offerings — and unlike Next of Kin, no vending machine stocked with Japanese and Mexican candy and tinned fish. “We’re not chefs,” Darrow said. “There are so many great restaurants in this city and places to get great food, but that’s not our thing… With our concept, you’re not ‘session-ing’ out for hours and drinking a ton of cocktails. You’re having a couple of drinks, then, what else are you going to do with your time? Maybe just go out with friends for dinner.”

Grubb and Darrow, both South Jersey natives, met while bartending at the Red Owl Tavern in Hotel Monaco in 2013. After the Red Owl, Darrow went on to run bar programs for Kimpton Hotels in Amsterdam and New York, and worked at various places around Philadelphia. “On the way home, after our shifts at the Monaco, we’d stop at John’s house and have an old-fashioned, and we’d just talk about things that we would love to do at a bar. With the restrictions of a corporate establishment, our hands were tied with a lot of things,” Darrow said.

Both cocktail nerds, the pair would handcrush ice for Queens Park Swizzles at the Monaco, which did not have an ice crusher — meaning Darrow and Grubb were putting ice in a tin and smashing it with a muddler sixty to seventy times a night. “It was dumb,” Darrow said.

That kind of effort is one of the things that sets Next of Kin apart. “When we put the Ramos Gin Fizz on the menu, we got so many messages from bartenders on Instagram saying ‘best of luck’ and ‘God bless you guys,’” Darrow said. “To do it properly, you really have to take your time and let it settle, because you’re making the meringue from egg white, heavy cream, and citrus, and you have to let that separate from the rest of the drink. It takes a lot of shaking, a lot of work, and patience. It’s just a time consuming drink,” said Darrow.

While Grubb and Darrow own Next of Kin in Fishtown with a third partner, Devan Roberts (Darrow’s brother-in-law), Roberts is not involved in the new bar. Next of Kin will continue running with all three partners.

Grubb and Darrow do not expect to open until after September 18, when they will be taking ten members of the Next of Kin staff to Paris for a pop-up at Mesures, a Japanese French cocktail and vinyl bar.