When we were growing up in New Jersey, our families never thought of vacationing in Philadelphia: on weekends, we went to the Shore. Those were the days before “weekend escapes.” And long before we became beer travelers.
Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence over pots of ale in a local watering hole.
(Maryanne Nasiatka)
This summer we spent a weekend in Philadelphia, a city that has rediscovered its centuries-old brewing tradition. Your high school history teachers probably didn’t tell you, but that tradition played a definite role in our country’s founding. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence over pots of ale in a local watering hole. The Continental Congress met in Philly because of its abundance of taverns. So did the Framers, who celebrated their drafting of the Constitution with drinks and dinner.
The City is Ours
We began our exploration of beer and history at the Manayunk Brewery & Restaurant (4120 Main St.). It’s located in a neighborhood whose name comes from the Native American word meaning “where we go to drink.” It still is; Main Street is filled with restaurants and bars. The brewery is located in the former Krook’s Mill, a textile factory established in 1822. (Krook’s Mild, an American pale ale, honors the former owners.) The building afforded Manayunk plenty of room in which to grow.
In addition to the bar area, where a scale once used to weigh cotton serves as a conversation piece, there are brick-walled dining rooms, an upstairs game room and a deck overlooking the river. Recently, the owners added a sushi bar—the first one we’ve seen inside a brewpub—and a wood-burning pizza oven. The beer lineup included several lagers: Schuylkill Ale, a raspberry ale named for the unpredictable river, and California Dreamin’, an imperial IPA. Soon after our pints arrived, a fellow enthusiast joined us at the bar. He praised the quality of the local beer and pointed us to some of his favorite places to drink it.
By the time we left Manayunk, the downtown office workers had gone home for the weekend, leaving Center City for us to roam. First stop: the Independence Brew Pub (1150 Filbert St.), where we were welcomed by none other than Ben Franklin. He graces the logo on the brewery’s sign, holding a tankard of ale and wearing a rakish grin. The picture windows look out at the Reading Terminal Market across the street, a Mecca for foodies. A long wooden bar dominates the interior, curving around the stainless steel brewing vessels, and two barber-pole-style pillars guard the bar area.
We ordered an India pale ale and a red ale from the six-beer range, which also included a kölsch and oatmeal stout on both conventional draft and hand pull. Tourists and what remained of the after-work crowd created a steady buzz of conversation while we compared notes and figured out where to go next.
Philadelphia is surprisingly walkable. Downtown is laid out on a grid, and street maps are placed at strategic locations. Even better, we found two days’ worth of beer destinations within a short walk of one another.
Within minutes, we arrived at our next stop, Ludwig’s Garten (1315 Sansom St.). It’s only a few years old, but it has the ambience of a Bavarian beer hall from King Ludwig’s days. Its two rooms are decorated with portraits of long-dead royals, Bavarian flags, and well-dried hop bines, along with a few old dueling swords. The wait staff wore traditional costumes, and the host answered the phone with “Guten Tag.” But to remind us that we were still in America, Steely Dan played in the background and a couple of Eagles fans got into a heated, but friendly, debate over their team’s chances this season.
As for Ludwig’s beer selection, it exceeded our expectations. There were more than 100 different bottles in the cooler, and the draft choices included such hard-to-find beers as Köstritzer Maibock and Gaffel Blonde.
