Beer Radar

Dock Street Brewery (50th & Baltimore, West Philly) offers a nod toward the city’s oldest-standing tavern with its freshly tapped Man Full of Trouble Porter. The beer’s description notes: “This brown porter was brewed with ‘old-world’ style in mind. Black and chocolate malts create its deep mahogany appearance and creamy nutty flavor.  A blend of American Centennial and English Fuggles hops lends a delicate hop presence.”

Now, if we could only get the University of Pennsylvania to do something with this old tavern. The mammothly endowed school was bequeathed the colonial-era Man Full of Trouble building at 2nd & Spruce 14 years ago and, other than a few necessary improvements to keep it from falling apart, has done squat with the treasure. Little or nothing has changed since I wrote this two-and-a-half years ago.

Over recent months, I’ve heard from at least two parties who are interested in working out some kind of deal with the school - either a purchase or lease - that would re-open the building to the public. No word on their progress, but I’m not holding my breath.

Personally, I’d like to see it used in connection with a program to celebrate the city’s taverns’ role in the founding of our country. But anything has got to be better than Penn’s misuse of public trust in its stewardship of this property. Letting it sit vacant for so many years is irresponsible and a missed opportunity.

If Amy Gutmann’s listening: YO! Wake up and do something with the Man Full of Trouble. We can talk about it over a porter at Dock Street.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 2:31 pm and is filed under History, Brewpub. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.