The Great American Ale Trail - Christian DeBenedetti [142]
PHILOSOPHY
This is a classic, dark, cozy bar, with excellent food and drink on offer, and a serious but not needlessly pedantic approach to beer. It would make a great lunch spot or venue for catching up with an old friend.
KEY BEER
Glazen Toren brewery’s Ondineke (on tap) is a yeasty, deeply golden triple from Belgium that tastes of grass, spice, and apricot, deceptively light for a beer of 8.5% ABV, and a great match with mussels.
THE GREY LODGE PUBLIC HOUSE
6235 Frankford Ave. • Philadelphia, PA 19135 (215) 856-3591 • greylodge.com • Established: 1996
SCENE & STORY
Opened with a distinctive oval bar in the 1950s (under a different name) this Northeast Philly institution has a dark red walls and stained wood trim throughout, with an old-school first floor bar (dart boards and flat screens) and a more quiet and updated second floor dining room and whiskey-stocked bar, which also has eight taps of its own. More than familiar pub stylings, though, it possesses a hefty dose of Philly heart, less easily quantifiable but undeniably part of the character. That means that locals rule the roost here but in a good-hearted way, for the most part. Events take on a quirky feel, with “Quizzo” on Wednesdays, Friday the Firkinteenth (any Friday the 13th) being dedicated to twenty-five or more firkins on draft, and Groundhog Day, when everyone shows up in Hawaiian shirts and gets well and duly hammered. The food options earn raves, especially the wild boar tacos and cheesesteak.
PHILOSOPHY
This is a beer bar with a bit of edge and offkilter personality with serious beer cred to boot. Be sure to check out the restrooms, which are elaborately tiled in red, green, and blue mosaics with various bon mots. Beer lists are published online under the rubrics “currently on tap,” “on deck,” “due in this week,” and “barrels being saved for a special night,” which helps stoke anticipation for return visits, while tap lines are ceremoniously cleaned on Mondays in front of patrons. Attention all beer bar owners: please follow Grey Lodge’s example and do the same.
KEY BEER
There are eleven taps and a cask, plus forty or so bottles and fourteen cans available. Look for nearby New Jersey’s Flying Fish, which always has a seasonal release available, or Victory’s eminently sessionable Dark Lager.
MEMPHIS TAPROOM
2331 E. Cumberland St. • Philadelphia, PA 19125 (215) 425-4460 • memphistaproom.com • Established: 2008
SCENE & STORY
Four words: beer-battered kosher dills. That’s just one of the delicious bites that makes this Kensington area pub shine, along with ten beer-geek-approved taps (always rotating brands) and a beer engine for cask ales. Top rank offerings range from rarities such as De Ranke to Bear Republic and Ridgeway. A co-owner is the outspoken former Khyber Pass barman Brendan “Spanky” Hartranft, who also operates Local 44 and Resurrection Alehouse, making him, like Tom Peters, Will Reed, and Fergus Carey, one of the prime movers in Philly’s good beer scene. Starting a craft beer bar in a tough neighborhood wasn’t easy. “It was a total renovation; it took four months,” recalls Hartranft. “My dad was on the ladder doing some electrical work about three weeks into it one day, and this guy comes over and grabs the bottom of the ladder and goes, ‘Drop your wallet or I’m pulling out the ladder.’ My dad goes, ‘Uh, no,’ pulls out his hammer, and drops it right on the guy’s head. Skull