Looking Ahead In 2023: An Urban Craft Winery Coming To Doylestown

DOYLESTOWN BOROUGH, PA — A California-based urban craft winery and bistro is scheduled to open its doors in 2023 in downtown Doylestown.

As early as this spring, Waters Edge Wineries will be setting up shop on the first floor and basement of The Residences at 50 North Main Street in the heart of the borough.

At a zoning hearing board meeting in October, Waters Edge Doylestown principal Eric Landolfi detailed plans for the local micro-winery, which will feature an 84 seat bistro, kitchen and standup wine bar on the first floor and a tasting room and wine production facility in the
basement.

The building, located at North Main Street and Shewell Avenue across the street from the Doylestown Fire Company and the Bucks County Administration Building, is being renovated and expanded to include six high-end residential units, five enclosed garage spaces and the first floor winery.

The Doylestown Waters Edge Winery and Bistro would be a first for the California-based franchise in Bucks County, the first in Pennsylvania and the first in the Northeast. Its other 13 locations are in California, Illinois, Kentucky, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia.

The franchise, said Landolfi, was listed in INC Magazine’s Top 5,000 franchises in 2022. “We were 2,894th on that list. It is a unique concept that continues to grow. And we are anticipating adding another six to seven locations by 2024,” he said.

At the bistro, Landolfi said customers will be able to enjoy a glass of wine and chose from a number of food items to complement their selection.

“We will offer appetizers, small plates, tapas, flatbreads, salads, charcuterie boards and desserts. We will also have a wine club and you can purchase wine by the glass or by the bottle. And you’ll be able to customize your label.”

“We’re not going to be competing with finer dining sit down restaurants in the area,” he said. “This will be more small plates and tapas. I’m envisioning like in Europe where they have wine bars.”

Weather permitting, Landolfi said they plan to have outdoor seating on the sidewalk along Shewell Avenue.

At the heart of the operation will be its on-site wine production operation located on the basement level.

Landolfi said they will make all of their wines in-house and will feature classic selections as well as lesser-known grape varieties.

“Downstairs in the lower part of the building that’s where the wine production will be,” said Landolfi. “And along with that will be what we call a Winemakers Table, which can fit up to 20 guests. You can rent the room and have wine tastings directly from the tanks, sample new wines and have a select menu.”

He described the production end of the operation as a small batch micro-winery. “We’ll get our juice from all over the world - California mainly,” he said. “When we get it we’ll put it in our vats to ferment. It will then go into our holding - or aging - tanks. After four to eight weeks we’ll bottle the wine.

“We will be making wine for the wine novice and more complex wine for the wine connoisseur,” said Landolfi.

Built in 1897, the structure known as the Hellyer building originally housed A.S. Hellyer & Sons Dry Goods and Notions. It most recently housed the Bucks County Human Services Department before the county sold the structure to Stephen Worth in 2018. Many may remember checking out books there when the building was home to l the Doylestown Branch of the Bucks County Free Library from 1956 to 1988.

Now known as The Residences at 50 North Main, the new residential living spaces range from a 2,950 square foot, bi-level penthouse condominium listed at $2.5 million to an 1,830 square foot second-floor condominium listed at $1.45 million.