Friday Saturday Sunday — The Lovers Bar

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

James Beard Award finalist for Outstanding Bar in 2026.

The drinks reflect the kitchen's ingredient-driven ethos, with cocktails built around fermented fruits, house-distilled spirits, and produce from local farms. The room is intimate and design-forward, and the bar seats are the most coveted in the house. MacDonald's approach to cocktail-making, methodical, produce-first, and allergic to shortcuts, represents where the most ambitious bartenders in Philadelphia are heading. A bar that has earned its James Beard recognition the hard way.