May 31, 2019 Philadelphia, PA
Ahhhh, Philadelphia! Despite the bumpy and cramped BoltBus ride, we arrived in The City of Brotherly Love for Philly Beer Week (aka Philly Loves Beer) hungry for lunch and thirsty for a craft beer.
The bus dropped us off at JFK and 30th close to the Amtrak train station. We meandered toward Tria Taproom for lunch. That meander included swinging on the swings at the train station and a quick visit with George Hummel at Home Sweet Homebrew. Among George’s many suggestions, he mentioned Love City, Yards and Evil Genius. It was great to revisit this Philadelphia craft beer fixture.
Tria is just around the corner. The food was as good as I remember. I tried a grilled cheese and was amazed by their multiple kinds of cheeses on this traditional staple. Also, I love Tria’s menu – iPads showing the percentage left of each of their many taps. And wow, what a beer selection!
A few of us finished off Tria with a heavyweight, Shake Chocolate Porter from Boulder Beer Company. It really does taste like a chocolate milkshake.
We dropped off our bags at our Airbnb “lofty” apartment and headed to Monk’s Cafe -perhaps my favorite place in Philly. I love the mussels, especially the Thai Curry and their Monk’s Cafe Flemish Sour. It’s the only place east of the Mississippi that regularly offers the amazing Russian River beers. Pliny the Elder, anyone? The 4 of us lumbered into the back room as co-owner, Tom Peters was frantically preparing for a Fonta Flora (a North Carolina foraging brewery) event. After a little friendly banter, Tom gave us a Fonta Flora menu and challenged us to study it. We did, and ordered a flight along with some mouthwatering mussels.
l-r Beets Rhymes And Life (yuck, it actually tastes like beets), Wolf Spit, Southern Saison, Hulihee and Jitterbug (with wild plums)
Back at our lofty Airbnb, we received our sheets and towels, so we changed the beds and managed to get the air conditioning to work for a few minutes. We decided to find a more comfortable place to hang at Brü Craft & Wurst.
Brü is well-known for scantily clad servers; a dynamite bottle and tap list; and at one-time, soccer goals in the urinals. Although the soccer goals are long gone, we still refer to Brü as the place with the urinal goals. We found them endlessly entertaining.
I savored a Toppling Goliath Brewing Co. Dragon Fandango, a rare treat.
It is hard to imagine a better day than today but wait for Saturday’s writeup. Some say it is the best day ever at Philly!
Cheers!
Warren
Monks is always awesome!
It’s a must when in Philly!
The flight at Monk’s looks pretty awesome. Quite colorful.
🌈🍻
Lofty… grin… there’s an understatement!