The Full Bar - all my pages

Monday, January 31, 2011

Hawbaker to Philly and a Center City brewpub

Following up on the earlier post, I got this from Terry Hawbaker:
The new place is called The Grainery. It will be located in center city Philly and is being put together by the Fork and Barrel folks. Think Fork and Barrel meets the Bookstore Speakeasy with a small artisanal brewery on premise.Very small brewery focusing on farmhouse ales, barrel-aged wild beers and all the freaky fun stuff... in addition there will be several more beers on tap and in bottle from all over the world with a bent towards the small, artisan producers from Scandinavia, Belgium, Italy, Germany and so forth. 
Which sounds exactly like the kind of place Philly's beer scene needs. Because like I said beforePhiladelphia needs more brewpubs to truly be a great beer town. This would be one more. I know of at maybe two others that are coming. Look, I love the ones we have, truly, I do, but Portland is laughing at us. You want to put up with that? I don't. I want more brewpubs. We can support them, God knows.

The problem I keep hearing is that it's so expensive, and we're not talking about real estate. We're talking about licenses, and inspections, and taxes, and labor costs... Hey, the city may need a government finance enema, but you know? There are still restaurants opening! Sell a brewpub to Starr, for God's sake, or to our man Garces, let's GO!

Folks: Terry's coming to town. He's gonna need competition to get his game tuned up proper.

9 comments:

MyBeer Buzz said...

Lew I paid your dentist to delay you to give me time to break it. ;)

Greg Yenner said...

Good for me, living near Philly. Bad for me, visiting the 'rents in Williamsport. Terry has been a blessing to trips to my hometown - I hope he's trained a young Jedi in the ways of the wild yeast strains!

Anonymous said...

Portland has quantity but a severe lack of quality and an even bigger lack of diversity, unless you consider a pale ale, an IPA and an Imperial IPA that much different.

From a NE PA native and a resident of Portland for the past three years, I'll take the Philly beer scene over the Portland hype any day of the week.

Of course, Terry can come out to Portland, but I'm pretty sure he already heard that pitch once before.

J T. Ramsay said...

Forgive me for saying this, but I think the last thing Philly needs at this point is another brewpub. Would be better if some of the current brewpubs underwent some kind of revival. My .02.

Lew Bryson said...

Don't get me wrong, BS: I've commented on that relative lack of diversity in Portland too. But our beer scene would definitely benefit from more brewpubs in the city. And JT...why would you not want more brewpubs? Might galvanize the ones we have (not that I'm saying they need it).

sam k said...

I knew Terry was destined for bigger things from the time I had his Oktoberfest at Black Rock way back when. He's honed his craft and focused his laser at Bullfrog, and I wish him the best in a new environment, something at which he seems to excel. That said, I'll miss him up here in the north of Penn's Woods. He's a genuinely good guy.

That, plus I don;t give a rat's ass who broke the story. I'm about content quality and journalistic integrity. I'm a STAG fan, and I can deal with an hour delay in delivery.

J T. Ramsay said...

@ Lew Many corner bars have craft beer now. Isn't the same hook for me. Also, brewpub food needs to evolve a bit. I just think that restos can serve great beer without getting stuck in that gastropub rut. I know I'm not alone in this sentiment.

Unknown said...

from the owner .. it will not be a "brewpub", small batch one off beers will be one piece of the pie, beer brewed in house will comprise 4 of the 24 tap beers. Included in the concept will be a victorian era cocktail program headed by NYC mixologist Damon Dyer, And rustic food program that includes house cured meats,game dishes,fresh harvested ingredients and noise to tail feasts.

J T. Ramsay said...

@ Matt Thanks for the clarification. That sounds like just what the doctor ordered!