BABYBAR
A pop-up bar in a 131-year-old industrial garage. South Bend, Indiana. October 2025.
In the fall of 2025, we turned a vacant industrial garage in South Bend into a one-night pop-up bar, in collaboration with Permit Pending and Vested Interest. BABYBAR was a small, temporary bar that doubled as a love letter to tight, intimate hospitality: the kind of room where you don't need much more than a few seats, a short drink list, and an excuse to brush shoulders. The name defined the scale and the mood. Small, close, a little bit reckless, instinctively romantic. BABYBAR borrows from a long tradition of bars where the constraint is the concept: Tokyo's Golden Gai, Berlin's Kneipe culture, Mexico City's natural wine pop-ups. Small rooms, short menus, the space itself as the experience.
THE CONCEPT
SEPTEMBER 26, 2025 7PM - LATE
OCTOBER 3, 2025 7PM - LATE
~200 GUESTS
The references circled around a few recurring instincts. Warmth trapped inside rough spaces. Retro without kitsch. Red everywhere, in neon, in paint, in upholstery, as a through-line that felt equal parts romantic and confrontational. Handmade touches that reward close attention: poems in gumball machines, handwritten menus, beaded curtains catching light. European aperitivo culture filtered through Midwest resourcefulness.
THE MOOD BOARD
VISUAL IDENTITY
COLOR PALETTEBABY RED
#C41E1E
NIGHT
#0A0A0A
LINEN
#F5F2EE
MOOD
TYPOGRAPHYDisplay: custom bubble lettering, hand-drawn for signage and primary mark.
HOUSE DRINKS / MENU /
SOUTH BEND / 7PM TILL LATE
Supporting: monospaced uppercase for menus and wayfinding
SIGNAGE EXPLORATIONS
From raw storage space to fully realized bar in one month, the process was fast, scrappy, and highly intentional. We started with a blank, utilitarian shell and built everything from the ground up. Layout, flow, materials, lighting, and identity all developed in parallel, allowing decisions to stay responsive rather than overplanned. The tight timeline forced clarity. Every element had to earn its place. What emerged is a space that feels cohesive and considered, but still carries the energy of how it was made.
THE BUILD
The city only allowed beer and wine — no spirits license, no back bar.
We looked to Europe, where they've been doing more with less for centuries, and built the menu around that logic. Spain gave us the kalimoxo and tinto verano. Italy gave us the Aperol spritz, which we created on BABYBAR terms, using the non-distilled Cappelletti, and dubbed it the Baby Spritz.
A margarita-adjacent mocktail rounded out the lighter end, and the anchor was a vermouth-forward riff on an old fashioned, stirred, bitter, and more serious than anything else on the list.
We also offered domestic and import beer. And we were so committed to the $1 PBR that we painted it on the wall.
THE DRINKS
THE ROLLOUT
Before the first night, we ran a TikTok and Instagram series documenting the build in real time. The garage went from empty to open in a matter of weeks, and we brought people along for it. Promoted via Eventbrite and email, sold out both nights.
Opening night was a little surreal. After a month of building, suddenly the space had its final element: people. It belonged to them now. The bar was busy, the room got loud, and everything we’d been stressing over clicked into place. It was packed, loud, and evoked the exact emotions I hoped it would.
As with any space, the people are just as essential as the furniture or lighting, except they’re alive, shifting and reacting to each other. They change the room as much as the room shapes them, and that back-and-forth is what actually brings the space to life.
OPENING NIGHT
Concept, visual identity, spatial design, drink programming, partnerships, and on-site operations. In collaboration with Permit Pending and Vested Interest.
SOUTH BEND, INDIANA / FALL 2025