Devil’s Den (1148 S. 11th St., South Philly), the new gastropub from the folks at Manayunk’s Old Eagle, is slated to open Tuesday (4/1). They’re talking 16 taps.
I mentioned the upscaled bottle list at the swanky Brasserie Perrier (1619 Walnut St., Center City)Â the other day; looks like they installed those new taps, too. The lineup right now: Hoegaarden, Victory Storm King, Magic Hat #9, Troeg’s Nugget Nectar, Victory Prima Pils, Victory Hop Devil.
Also, I’m hearing that Time, the bar that’s taking over the space formerly held by Ludwig’s Garten (1315 Sansom St., Center City), has remade the tavern’s shabby tap system with 20 new faucets. No announced opening, yet.
Six months after his demise, Michael has left the house. This month’s Rare Beer Club newsletter, which accompanies a shipment of Leireken Buckwheat Bruin, is the first to be published without the Beer Hunter’s name. I emailed Beverage Bistro’s Rob Imeson for an explanation:
As you are aware, Michael helped to found the club and was certainly our inspiration. In his role, he selected the breweries and the beers for the club well into the future. In fact, all of the breweries and many of the beers that are on the schedule for next year (and the foreseeable future) are ones that Michael approved. So, while our focus will always be to carry on in the tradition that Michael started—we also want to be very careful that we do not mislead anyone particularly as we progress to the point where the beers—and even the breweries—are not specifically selected by Michael as, at some point, will inevitably be the case. We did discuss the issue with representatives from the estate and considered other iterations but, in the end we amicably agreed that the best thing we could do would be to remove Michael’s name from the logo but, at the same time, put together a page on the website that commemorates Michael as our founder and inspiration. We think about him everyday and make every decision with the belief that he is looking over our shoulder.
FYI: Rob was a very close friend of Michael’s, and he helped raise money for Parkinson’s research after his death. I have to believe that the decision to remove his name from the club had to be incredibly difficult. I’m going to toast Michael and Rob tonight with my botttle of Leireken.
The Inky’s Marilyn Marter pulled together a nice look back at Philly Beer Week, including this quote from Marty Jones, the gracious beer writer and Oskar Blues rep:
“Many people think of Denver as America’s top beer city. But our beer-bar culture doesn’t come close to what you have in Philadelphia.”
Note to the denizens of Falling Rock: Please don’t run Marty out of the bar! Instead, join him next year when he returns to our town for Philly Beer Week ‘09.
Until the state legalizes beer sales in movie theaters (don’t hold your breath), the next best thing is movie night at your local tavern. Rembrandt’s (741 N. 23rd St., Fairmount) hosts a monthly film festival featuring movies from independent filmmakers. There’s one tomorrow (Wednesday) at 8 p.m., with some cool-looking features that I won’t even begin to describe.
Compared to the rest of the neighborhood (Bridgid’s, Bishop’s Collar, Belgian Cafe, St. Stephen’s, London, Aspen, Jack’s Firehouse), Rembrandt’s draft beer list is only so-so (Stoudt’s Gold is the only local craft). But the food is very good and beer at the movies is a pretty good way to spend an evening.Â
Despite its continuing makeover, the atmosphere at Brasserie Perrier (1619 Walnut St., Center City) is still decidedly jacket and tie, but beer lovers oughta add it to their list of Philly joints nonetheless. The restaurant is doubling its taps to 6 (currently pouring Victory Golden Monkey, Prima Pils and Anchor Porter) and even more impressively has added a bunch of new bottles, including some rarities: RiverwestStein Beer, Warbird Warhawk, Innstadt Passauer Weisse, Voodoo Love Child and the primo St. Somewhere Saison Athene.
And yes, for those on the prowl, the pickup scene at BP is still thriving.
I should’ve posted this earlier, but here’s one of the videos I did for GoPhila.com. It’s a look at the taverns of Northern Liberties. I’ll post the others shortly, wandering through Old City, Center City and Fairmount. Enjoy…
In the end, it’s all about great beer in a great beer-drinking city. But to give you a taste of how the rest of America sees the Philly beer scene, I’ve compiled a bunch of links below. It’s just the tip of the iceberg. An informal report on media coverage from the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp. notes there were at least 45 out-of-town TV reports and 50 newspaper reports on PBW.
It’s Easter weekend, so I’ll be searching for a good beer to go with those marshmallow chicks. How about this?
The NCAAs kick off tomorrow. I’m going to plant my butt at the Boathouse in Conshy, which has plenty of TVs, great beer and a hoops-crazy crowd.
Friday night - TotalBRU is hosting its monthly Full Mooner free beer tasting at the Garage Bar at Ugly Moose (443 Shurs Lane, Roxborough). Yes, that’s FREE beer, with samples from Yards, Dogfish Head and Victory from 7-9:30 p.m.
Saturday - Split Thy Skull barleywine fest at Sugar Mom’s (225 Church St., Old City) starts at 1 p.m. Beer lineup TBA. Victory Old Horizontal, Stoudt’s Old Abominable, Arcadia Cereal Killer, Sly Fox Ichor, Founders Devil Dancer, Stone Old Guardian, Thomas Hooker Old Marley, Breckenridge 471 Double IPA, Iron Hill Quadfather, Flying Fish Eisbeer, Porterhouse Old Buck Bourbon Barrel Old Ale.
The Mt. Airy Learning Tree has posted my spring schedule at the Trolley Car Diner. The dates are April 22nd, May 13th and June 10th, each at 7 p.m. Head on over here to register.
This is a fun class that will get you updated on the Philly scene, with lots of great, local beer and food.
