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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Bethlehem Day

The kids and I always take a day before Christmas and go up to Bethlehem for a day of Christmas shopping along Broad and Main, and lunch at Bethlehem Brew Works. Cathy went along last year, and had so much fun -- shopping at the Moravian Book Shop is a joy -- she joined us yesterday, too. She's between jobs right now -- last day at old one was Friday, starting her new one in January, great timing! -- so no problem. We found some fun stuff for gifts (the indoor mall of shops in the same building with BBW has some great stores, including a long-time favorite, the Foo Foo Shoppe), ran into the Malt Advocate office staff at their Christmas lunch at the Apollo Grille (not really "ran into," we knew they were going to be there, and dropped in to say hi), had some coffee...and got stuck into lunch and a couple beers.

BBW had that kitchen fire recently, and is on a limited menu, but we still enjoyed our sandwiches. The lobster and crab dip could have been better, especially for the price, but everything else was real good. I had an oatmeal stout (nice, a touch on the sweet side, that cookie character) and the new Neuweiler Cream Ale (hoppy, and with a sharp cut at the finish that brisks things up for the next sip; it emptied pretty quickly). A very good day, despite the cold and slicing wind.

2 comments:

Dan said...

I have been speaking about the decline of the BBW/ABW empire for some time. They absolutely alienated their devoted fan base and allowed their craft beers to suffer for the sake of nothing in particular. For the prices they charge, they are way out of touch. A shame. I spent many days and evenings there back in the day. Those times are long gone.

Lew Bryson said...

You and others, and I don't see the evidence of it. They still seem to do a ton of business, and I liked the beers I had. Really not sure what you're talking about.