But Wait, There’s More…
Notable Breweries Elsewhere in the City Locals rate Philadelphia Brewing, located in a restored nineteenth-century Kensington brewhouse, as their favorite place to hang out following a brewery tour. It’s never the same beer twice at Mt. Airy’s Earth Bread + Brewery, known for its flatbreads, dizzying succession of beer recipes, and owners who founded New Jersey’s much-missed Heavyweight Brewing in the 1990s. In Manayunk, try Manayunk Brewery’s Schuylkill Punch mixed berry ale while relaxing on the waterfront deck.
Notable Breweries in the ’Burbs Locals clamor to visit newcomers Tired Hands, Neshaminy Creek, and Springhouse, adorable Forest and Main, and Free Will’s new-andimproved tasting room and extensive sour program. The Gabf-winning Iron Hill brewpub chain constantly adds new locations. Two of the most popular lie at the end of a short ride into New Jersey, close to Flying Fish, maker of the famed Exit Series. To the west, Victory is opening a huge new production brewery and brewpub that can be visited (by reservation) on a bus trip that includes lunch and a tour of the existing brewhouse. German traditions continue far into the countryside at the mainstays of Troëgs and Stoudts, and Belgian brewing reigns at Weyerbacher.
Notable Bars Elsewhere in the City If there’s one place to find a particular German beer, it’s at Brauhaus Schmitz, on South Street, where dirndl-clad lasses serve steins to fans cheering on favorite teams in televised soccer matches. In the northeast, practically no week passes without Grey Lodge Pub owner Mike Scotese inventing some goofy holiday that gives him an excuse to don a costume and bring up good stuff from the cellar. And in the Loft District and Point Breeze, Prohibition Taproom and American Sardine Bar are considered among the most legit.
Notable Bars in the ’Burbs We’ll keep it basic and old school here. The five most influential suburban craft-beer bars are Teresa’s Café (Wayne), Iron Abbey (Horsham), Capone’s Restaurant, Bar, and Bottle Shop (Norristown), Hulmeville Inn (Hulmeville), and Isaac Newton’s (Newtown).
Greater Center City
Monk’s Café, once described by a national beer glossy as one of the top five places to drink a beer before you die, is why Philadelphia is a test market for Belgian beers, why Philadelphia consumes more Belgian beer than any city outside Brussels, and why four pairs of Philadelphians have won contests to brew at De Proefbrouwerij, Brasserie Dupont, Brasserie de la Senne, and Brouwerij Dilewyns. A member of the Belgian Knighthood of the Brewers’ Mash, Tom Peters masterminded Monk’s, and he hires educated and patient bartenders to help patrons decipher the names of 300 lofty brews, bound together in a thick leather menu. Try the mussels and a beer you can’t pronounce.
“It’s insane what you can get now,” says Peters, who opened the cozy but crowded Monk’s eighteen years ago, of Philly’s selections. “It’s an embarrassment of riches.”
Near Monk’s are two more early adopters. Good Dog Bar’s burger has been rated one of the best in the United States, and you can usually find off-duty bartenders from other beer bars there nursing a Founders or a Firestone Walker. Jose Pistola’s always has some of the hardestto-find beers on tap to pair with cheap Mexican eats.
Rittenhouse Square, sparkling with luxury shopping, restaurants, and wine/ cocktail bars, houses two prime beer spots. Tria Taproom builds on the impeccable reputation of its sister wine-and-cheese cafés to present an all-draft list of beer, wine, cider, and soda; and The Dandelion pours celebrity restaurateur Stephen Starr’s acumen for ambiance and taste into an upscale British pub that serves three cask ales and small-batch British beers by the flight, half-pint, or Imperial pint.
Slightly farther afield are Strangelove’s, with its deeply beer-reverent owners and polished café and bottle shop vibe; Varga Bar, whose ceiling beams down painted images of vintage pin-up girls that are only slightly more eye-catching than the Russian River–heavy bottle list; and funky-sophisticated Alla Spina, where you can spend the night eating pig tails and washing them down with beer cocktails and milkshakes and eight-year-old bottles of Nora and Al-iksir from Birreria le Baladin (Piozzo, Italy).