Category Archives: Drinking

The Fishtown Coffee Problem

When Helen and I moved to Port Fish­ing­ton, or Flat Iron as it’s prop­er­ly known, from the hus­tle and bus­tle of Two Street, we were in for a rude awak­en­ing. There was prac­ti­cal­ly noth­ing here! Want a bite to eat? Our neigh­bors rec­om­mend­ed Apple­bees! Good piz­za? Key Foods!

Yuck. Stranger, there was just one cof­fee option for the bulk of Fish­town: the dread­ed Rock­et Cat. Now, Rock­et Cat brought cof­fee right into the heart of Fish­town, locat­ed at the cor­ners of Frank­ford and Nor­ris, which is about as great a loca­tion as you can have in this neck of the woods. It’s a shame they serve bad cof­fee at pre­mi­um prices with ser­vice that will ruin your day. Top it off with the shop’s west Philly vibe and you’ve got the tri­fec­ta of awful.

Last year we wel­comed Milkcrate Cafe to Fish­town. It’s been out go-to spot when con­ve­nient. They serve La Colombe cof­fee, which is the gold stan­dard of Philly cof­fee. Major upgrade over Rock­et Cat, although they claim to have fol­lowed suit as cus­tomers reject­ed their watery organ­ic blend. Bonus, right? It is, but Milkcrate is quite a hike, unless I’m head­ed to Penn Treaty Park with Char­lie on a Sun­day morn­ing. The cof­fee’s good, the price is right and the ser­vice is won­der­ful, but I just don’t get over their often enough for it to be my reg­u­lar spot. Would­n’t hurt if they did some­thing about the seat­ing, too.

Enter the Lola Bean, which opened Sat­ur­day, right on Frank­ford just a block from John­ny Bren­da’s. I’ve already been twice! The cof­fee’s great and the ser­vice is love­ly. It’s a great addi­tion in the heart of what will soon be a bur­geon­ing strip of new busi­ness­es. I’m real­ly excit­ed to see what hap­pens next!

Best part about the Fish­town cof­fee “prob­lem?” We have options! It’s a lux­u­ry we did­n’t have just three years ago. Love local folks invest­ing in the neighborhood!

Have You Been to Kraftwork?

I’ve been to Kraft­work a num­ber of times now and I think I like it. I mean, it’s okay. There’s that one sand­wich that’s real­ly deli­cious, but not much else that real­ly stands out on the (recent­ly recon­sid­ered) menu. The draught list is amaz­ing, although it’s like doing surgery with a shot­gun; put enough beers on tap and you’re sure to get some­thing right, no?

But you can fix menus and curate beer lists to make it seem like you know what you’re doing, rather than not want­i­ng to get it wrong. What you can’t real­ly change is phys­i­cal plant. If you want to be clubbed over the head with con­cept, Kraft­work is the place. With­out even men­tion­ing the clunk­er of a name, you know it’s styl­ized to a fault, which real­ly dis­tracts from the things that prob­a­bly brought you there in the first place. Did I men­tion how NOISY it is? Now, I know I’m get­ting old­er, but when you have a DJ spin­ning dance music dur­ing din­ner, at a place that does­n’t have a dance floor, you’re going out of your way to seem sil­ly. I mean, at least the Abbaye had sen­si­ble brunch DJs.

Thing I hear from fans of craft beer and gas­trop­ubs in gen­er­al though is that the prices are sim­ply too high. I can get a pint of Russ­ian Riv­er Blind Pig for less than I can a tulip of the same at Kraft­work. And while the taps are more plen­ti­ful than oth­er neigh­bor­hood bars, I don’t get the sense that more thought went into select­ing what’s on them. Instead of feel­ing like you’re get­ting a deal on some­thing that’s been care­ful­ly con­sid­ered, you know you’re over­pay­ing for some­thing you can prob­a­bly get some­where else in town.

Will I keep going back? Absolute­ly. I have faith that Adam Rit­ter will get it right and, hell, who I am to say any­thing: the place is usu­al­ly full to over­flow­ing, which is a good prob­lem to have in this econ­o­my. If they can build a tasty, inex­pen­sive menu around their beer can chick­en sand­wich, then they’re already on the right track. Where else can you get a Mikkeller Break­fast Beer Geek Impe­r­i­al Stout at 10:30 on a Sun­day morning?

Ain’t No Cure for the Summertime Brews

As I watch the Phils wrap up a come from behind win against the hap­less Astros, I can’t help but think about what I’ll be drink­ing this sum­mer. It ain’t easy being a Pennsylvanian!

Sum­mer beers I like include:

  • Troegs Sun­shine Pils
  • Vic­to­ry Pri­ma Pils
  • Philadel­phia Brew­ing Co. Row­house Red (or Fleur de Lehigh)
  • Sly Fox Pike­land Pils
  • Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale

It’s nigh impos­si­ble to choose one as my favorite sum­mer ses­sion ale. I know what you’re think­ing: first world prob­lems, dude. But it’s one of those things where you like to have a depend­able go-to when you reach for a beer in your fridge or cool­er, you know? I’ve been par­tial to Sly Fox, since I love the cans, but now Oskar Blues has Dale’s Pale in our mar­ket. I also love the refresh­ing taste of the Troegs and Vic­to­ry selec­tions. I must admit a wan­ing appre­ci­a­tion for PBC beers; I just don’t think they live up to the qual­i­ty of com­pa­ra­ble craft beers. What’s your favorite? Feel free to sound off in the comments.

An aside: was the ses­sion beer move­ment just a fig­ment of Lew’s imag­i­na­tion? Friends of mine who home­brew said they’d heard that every­one was going big — very big — just as the econ­o­my start­ed tank­ing. Made sense to me, but as some­one who’s try­ing to wean him­self off of those humun­go beers, I’d like to think some brew­ers haven’t aban­doned it altogether.

Merry Christmas!

Delir­i­um Noël, orig­i­nal­ly uploaded by J T. Ram­say.

I drank my way to the per­fect Christ­mas. No, I did­n’t drink myself into a stu­por, only to spend the hol­i­day in a soporif­ic haze. I think I actu­al­ly drank the per­fect amount of beer to enjoy myself and still be help­ful with Charlie.

I shared a bomber of Delir­i­um Noel Christ­mas night, but the real sur­prise was a six­er of Lagu­ni­tas Brown Shug­ga I picked up at Weg­man’s. Deli­cious! If you see any at your local dis­trib­u­tor, be sure to pick it up. It’s a per­fect beer for the hol­i­days, and it’s decep­tive­ly easy drink­ing, even at 9.8% ABV. Watch out!

I found myself just a tad dis­ap­point­ed in Bel­l’s Win­ter White Ale. I am all for a lighter beer around the hol­i­days, but this felt more like a sum­mer beer with a new label slapped on the bot­tle. I think it was a mis­take on my part to expect a del­i­cate win­ter warmer at 5.0% ABV.

If there’s one res­o­lu­tion I man­aged to keep this year, it was my effort to broad­en my palate when it comes to craft beer. I think the days of me hoist­ing IPA after IPA are behind me. I’m try­ing sub­tler fla­vors (and low­er ABVs.) I’d like to take a class next year to fig­ure out the fin­er points of beer, rather than just pre­tend I know how to iden­ti­fy any­thing that isn’t a mas­sive hops fla­vor. Can any­one rec­om­mend a good one in the Philly area?

Last, but not least, I’d like to thank the great Philly beer writ­ers for intro­duc­ing me to new and dif­fer­ent brews through­out 2009. I don’t know where or what I’d be drink­ing were it not for Lew Bryson, Jack Curtin, Joe Six­pack, and Suzy Woods. Plen­ty of peo­ple say — right­ful­ly so — that Philly’s a great beer city. They’re right, but they’d be mis­tak­en if it weren’t made bet­ter by the peo­ple I’ve list­ed here.  If you live in Philly and like beer and you’re not read­ing their blogs, you’re prob­a­bly miss­ing out on some great stuff. They’re all invalu­able to the Philly beer scene. If you see them out, be sure to buy them a pint!

Our Fall Apple Picking Trip

Founders Maple Moun­tain Brown, orig­i­nal­ly uploaded by J T. Ram­say.

This year I invit­ed our friends out to my old stomp­ing grounds for our annu­al fall apple and pump­kin pick­ing trip. We’ve been to Bucks Coun­ty sev­er­al times, where we’ve often found the orchards picked over. When I recent­ly learned that Fre­con Farms offered pick your own I knew that had to be our des­ti­na­tion. I grew up right down the street from their orchard!

It was a great trip. The apples were plen­ti­ful. So plen­ti­ful, in fact, that we bought 15 pounds! I can’t wait for all the autumn deliciousness.

The real sur­prise of the trip, how­ev­er, was a jaunt down mem­o­ry lane. My friend and old TLA com­rade Matt rec­om­mend­ed we try Union Jack­’s for lunch. When I searched it, I thought the Tiki Bar had been renamed. Not so, it turns out.

Union Jacks at the Inn at Man­atawny is a love­ly spot that once was a nasty bik­er bar across from the Pheas­ant­land Roller Rink. This place was a gem. The beer list was gar­gan­tu­an and our friends love to drink inter­est­ing beers. Every­thing on tap was aged in bar­rels or casks, going with a wood­en theme I can def­i­nite­ly appre­ci­ate on a love­ly fall afternoon.

I tried four beers, rang­ing from Left Hand Oak Aged Impe­r­i­al stout (deli­cious!) to the Founders Maple Moun­tain Brown (inter­est­ing!) As we enjoyed our lunch, I could­n’t believe that such a won­der­ful lit­tle restau­rant could suc­ceed amid the ram­pant sub­ur­ban­iza­tion Boy­er­town’s under­gone since my child­hood. I mean, these are beers you’d strug­gle to find in bars in Philly!

I’d say that the Left Hand brew was my favorite of the day, although the Pen­nichuck Pozharnik was a delight as well. I drank two tasters of the Founders Maple (very pro­nounced maple fla­vor; a bit too much for me, actually.)

More inter­est­ing was the St. Some­where Lec­tio du Chene. That one through a real curve at me. It’s like noth­ing I’ve ever tast­ed. It’s blend­ed wine bar­rel aged & young Lec­tio Div­ina, which is one of St. Some­where’s well-regard­ed Bel­gian Pale Ales. Be care­ful — it packs a wallop!

The food and ser­vice at Union Jack­’s were great and I’d def­i­nite­ly stop in there again. Some­times it’s great to redis­cov­er the place you grew up, huh?