Probably nobody in Pittsburgh asked for a cidery that also sells houseplants.
But Pittsburgh is getting one, thanks for the creative entrepreneurship of some Texas transplants who are siblings and in-laws.
Darien Higgins, her brother, William, and his wife, Tammy Lee, are opening their literally green business in the former Copper Kettle Brewery brew-your-own-beer space and next to Necromancer Brewing’s soon-to-open Midnight Whistler Pub in the former Hough’s in, appropriately, the Greenfield neighborhood.
They worked with neighborhood advocates as well as the state to birth Pennsylvania’s first cidery plant shop, which William Higgins says was “a long and arduous process.”
It’s an unusual business model, but there are breweries that also sell plants, such as the Boring Rose Brewery in El Dorado Hills, California, and a Cicero, New York, establishment called Hot House Brewing at Barone Gardens.
Darien Higgins — she worked at an Austin, Texas, meadery — is the cider maker, and she’s using apple juice from Brown’s Orchard in Washington County to make several varieties of hard stuff.
She says, “We’ll have dry (8.4% alcohol) and semisweet (7%) unadulterated — but far from plain — ciders always on tap,” and for opening weekend Friday through Sunday, they’ll also have ciders that are infused with chamomile and maple (7.5%), jasmine flower and orange peel (4%), and a carbonated one with maple and hibiscus (7%).
The names are mostly horticultural — Roots, Propagation, Sleeping in the Flowers.
They’ll also serve sweet cider, juice spritzers and sparkling water.
And with the plants, which they’ve been selling throughout 2023 at various pop-up events around town, they’ll give you all the advice you need to keep them green.
Lee says, “We’ve been focusing a lot on lower maintenance and beginner plants,” priced from $4.50 to $90 to $100 for a big bird of paradise. Most plants are less than $30.
The co-op in the name means that employees will own a stake in the business, too. Its mission is, in part, “to foster an environment that can be a welcoming and inclusive communal space year-round.”
Opening weekend hours are noon to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon Sunday (New Year’s Eve) to 12:30 a.m. Monday.
Learn more at https://www.greenhousecoop.com.
Bob, a feature writer and editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is currently on strike and serving as interim editor of the Pittsburgh Union Progress. Contact him at bbatz@unionprogress.com.
