After 2 days of nearly constant bar crawling, we were ready to take it easy. We headed to the very popular The Spread for a bagel.  The Spread bakes bagels in Montreal style wood ovens. It’s a clever idea, except when outside temperatures reach into the 90s. We retrieved our bagels and hurried over to Rittenhouse Square Park to enjoy our breakfast in the cool shade of the park.

We headed towards Reading Terminal Market for lunch. On the way, we peered into City Hall. We saw construction trucks inside and locked gates on the outside. Even William Penn was getting a remake.

Arriving at Tommy DiNic’s, a few of us ordered “America’s best sandwich”, DiNic’s pork sandwich. My wood baked bagel was still laying heavy, so I split a pork sandwich with broccoli rabe with John.

I love busy food markets and this is a great one. We all wandered around and enjoyed the hustle and bustle. Showing my usual restraint, I ordered an ice cream cone as well – Raspberry Chocolate Truffle. In my defense, it was a size small.

It was screaming hot. So naturally, we decided to hike to South Street for the wonderful German bar, BrauHaus Schmitz. Dennis, the wise and rational one of the group, decided to take it easy for the afternoon.

On the hot and long trek, we passed the Independence Beer Garden. We almost stopped but decided it was too hot. We did discover another beautiful park, Washington Square and paused for a break.

We finally arrived at the terrific German Bier Hall and Restaurant, Brauhaus Schmitz. They were participating in Philly Beer Week by provided gose samples appropriately called Gose Gone Wild. I order a flight and enjoyed them all.

Gose is an old German style of beer. Depending on your Google search, it either originated in  Leipsig or Goslar, Germany. The beer style is an unfiltered wheat beer, slightly sour and spiced with coriander and salt. It has been rediscovered by the craft beer community. I happen to really like it, although some of the funkier ones are pretty bad.

The Gose Gone Wild flight contained 4 gose beers. Below are my impressions.

• Leipziger Rauch Gose Pineus by Bayerischer Bahnhof Gasthaus & Gosebrauerei Smoke, leather, pine, and salt. Interesting beer,
• El Gose by Avery , Very salty beer with a touch of tartness. Clean and fresh.
• G&T Gose by Anderson Valley, I don’t taste gin & tonic which is good cause I don’t like either. Nicely tart with a bit of salt. A nice gose.
• Goseator by Leipziger Brauhaus Zu Reudnitz, Tangy tart and caramel sweet gose. Very boozy.

We all loved Brauhaus Schmitz, with lots of German beers, sports on the many TVs and good food like Schnitzel and pretzels. Plus it was great to get cool off.

We braved the heat and walked back to the Independence Beer Garden. There we watched Laura, Z and Mark play Jenga. Also, it was quite humorous to watch John and Mark try to play outdoor pingpong on a windy, hot day – more chasing than playing. I tried the Yards IBG Grapefruit Pale Ale – light and refreshing.

We collected Dennis and headed to the Village Whiskey Bar for dinner. We heard they served great hamburgers from George of Home Sweet Home.  The burgers were amazing and I would come back again just for that. I had a Yards IPA on cask, light, low ABV and low carbonation – just what I needed. I ended the night and the week with a Victory Golden Monkey – one of my absolute favorites and made near Philly.

We sat at the bar and watched Chris make cocktails.  I got a lesson in mixed drinks as Dennis and Dbear ordered a couple. Another great day in Philly!

Cheers!

Warren