Rich Pawlak

Speaking of re-tooling... What a shame that space is still empty. Someone needs to open a restaurant there. Anyone? It is in operation now, and has been for a year.

How comfortable can it be to have a Guinness, Harp or Boddingtons in a place called THE CELLBLOCK? Sheesh.

Hands down the best annual beer event in Philadelphia happens when the calendar graces craft beer enthusiasts with a Friday the 13th. Some years there are actually more than one, and for that those same enthusiasts are doubly and triply grateful. But this year, we are blessed early in the Philly area, and Mike Scotese (Scoats), owner/publican of the Grey Lodge Public House (www.greylodge.com, but you know that) has outdone himself. For the first time, 14 firkins of real, gravity-poured brews will grace the Grey Lodge bar, served up in two sessions on this, the eleventh Friday The Firkinteenth: Brewers Art Pepper Triple, Baltimore, MD Dogfish Head Aprihop, Rehoboth, DE Flying Fish Big Fish Barley Wine, Cherry Hill, NJ General Lafayette Scotch Ale, Lafayette Hill, PA Heavyweight TBA, Ocean Township, NJ Iron Hill Old Ale, West Chester, PA/Newark, DE Lancaster Four Grain, Lancaster, PA Legacy Nor'easter, Reading, PA Manayunk Buster Brown Ale, Phila, PA Nodding Head Imperial IPA, Phila, PA Sly Fox Scottish Ale, Phoenixville, PA Troegs Nugget Nectar Ale, Harrisburg, PA Victory TBA, Downingtown, PA Yards George Jefferson, Phila, PA Wow 14 fricking firkins! According to Scoats, the first 7 will be tapped and ready to go at 6pm. The second 7 will be tapped at 9:00pm. Much thought (and I'm sure much spirited debate) will go into having a good mix and balance on each tier. More info, as it becomes finalized, especially those TBA beers, will be on www.greylodge.com. But it's the honest, unvarnished, casual nature of this mini-festival that endears it to beers geeks up and down the East Coast. An added kick is the opportunity to hang out with almost all of the brewers themselves, who've provided the beers for the night. An extraordinary celebration of beer, worth travelling for.

Watched her eat 2 dozen hard boiled eggs just the night before on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Jesus Christ. You can actually see video streams of the whole damn Wing Bowl on www.philly.com. God help us.

Oh. A cheesesteak at Geno's followed by an Italian hoagie at Sarcone's Deli, followed by a plain cheese pizza at Tacconelli's, because, of course, it's on the way out of town. Don't need no stinkin dessert.

O, you poor bastard. I thought there was a Flying Fish brewpub at Disney World or Universal or Epcot, but I fear that may be the best you'll do.

PIZZA. As if there could be any doubt.

And no one has mentioned ROSSI'S BAR & GRILL in Trenton? Or CESARE'S?

I love the promotions that come from this place, my local beer hangout of choice. This is an excerpt from the bar's website, one of the most entertaining beer sites anywhere: <<"Groundhog Day/Lucky Cat Night" Monday February 2nd -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We will once again be chasing away the winter blues on Groundhog's Day with a day long Hawaiian Shirt Island Party on Monday, February 2nd. We will start things off at bright and very early at 7am with a Groundhog's Day Beer Breakfast. Catch Punxatowney Phil on our four TVs while enjoying some amazing beers and a free breakfast. At 7am, we will have on tap a sixtel of TROEGS MAD ELF, a sixtel of DOGFISH HEAD FESTINA LENTE PEACH LAMBIC, a 1/2 barrel FLYING FISH COFFEE PORTER, a 1/2 barrel of SLY FOX DUNKEL WEISSE, a 1/2 barrel of BREWERS ART LA PETROLEUSE, and last barrel of the 2003 batch of YARDS SAISON. We will have orange juice on hand to make Saison mimosas. The Mad Elf and Festina Lente will go fast, so make it in at 7am to make sure you get some. I'm sure you will agree that's a line-up worth showing up at the crack of dawn for. Also due at 7am is KING GROUNDHOG. The King is a Northeast Philadelphia native. His website is http://www.kinggroundhog.com At 8:30am we will have a contest for the best/worst Hawaiian Shirt. There will be prizes. And FREE LEIS ALL DAY! Later that day at 7pm, "Wissinoming Winnie", with the help of her "Inner Circle", will make her Beer Prognistication. Like Punxatowney Phil, Wissinoming Winnie - the Grey Lodge's Lucky Cat - is a prognosticator. Instead prognosticating weather (ho hum), she prognisticates BEER! She will determine if there will be 6 more weeks of winter seasonal beers or if the spring seasonals will be early this year. Immediately after Winnie's Prognostication, PAIN RELEIVAZ will bust some mad rhymes at the GLP. Pain Releivaz are D.J. LIL Guy (Bryan Selders, Dogfish Head Lead Brewer) and Grandmaster I.B.U. (Sam Calagione, Dogfish Head President). They will also be bringing with them a cask of DOGFISH HEAD 90 MINUTE IPA. >>> You can't imagine the crowd that shows up at 7AM. The crowd is almost as much fun as the one that shows up for the bar's annual "Friday the Firkinteenth" celebrations. More on THAT event THIS February 13th, a Friday), in another post. Of course, I have no financial or other interest in this or any event at the Grey Lodge. It's just a damn hoot of a place.

ROFLMAO!

Herb: 1) Lack of a consistent rating system. First Bells, now stars. Are they the same? Where is this explained. A reader would have to be clairvoyant to understand whether/where this restaurant fits into the ever shifting hierarchy, with ever shifting scoring criteria. 2) There's been a quite noticeable dearth of BYOB restaurants reviewed by LaBan at all. Why isn't he comparing this one to the others, or is it simply that there are no other previously BYOB's to compare this to? If so, then isn't there a burden to explain that this restaurant is or isn't being compared to "full service" establishments? That's an important distinction in terms of service required by the customer, 3) The noise level being a main criteria of the review. LaBan introduced the decibel meter to his reviewing system. It's the equivalent of the defense attorney "opening the door" on previously unintroduced or excluded evidence. Jas. says there's a mention of the noise level - it doesn't appear on the web version of the article. It's a criteria that's certainly been used in the past to lower a restaurant's overall score with Mr. LaBan, yet there's no mention of this in the body of the article even though Django is way above his acceptable noise limit. Any other restaurant that was reviewed previously and hammered about their noise level deserves at minimum, an apology and rightfully, a return visit where the noise isn't calculted into the final score. You can't just change the "rules" in the middle of the game. Please don't misunderstand me. I LIKE Django and wish them the best of success. It's LaBan's inconsistency that I find disturbing. I think Robert Parker's wine scores are nonsense, but at least he's consistently full of shit in the same way... The paper I read showed bells. And Laban often doesn't refer to the noise level within the body of the review, but always in the sidebar column that accompanies the review.

One of my very favorites: "Ich Bin Ein Berliner Weiss", at Nodding Head Brewpub in Philadelphia

Do Heartland, John; food is quite good (the mini bison burgers were quite tasty the last time I visited in October), and Farmer John's Oatmeal Stout and Heartland's Black Lager are a must-quaff duo!

I did however get to grab a pint of Appalachian Grinnin Grizzly, from Appalachian Brewing Co, Harrisburg, PA, last night at the Grey Lodge Public House in Philly. Big fruity nose on this winter ale, lotsa ripe pear and orange in the nose, and a very nice subtle hint of cinnamon and ginger and nutmeg in the first few sips, and a bit of that orange in the finish. A very very nice winter beer, with lots of layers of flavor in each and every sip. Another stunning beer from Appalachian.

I had to pop my bottle of Abita Christmas Ale, too, John, and I also found it a bit lacking. Pretty thin for a winter beer, and it struck me like a watered down ESB, with some malt, but not enough, a little hop tang, but not enough, a little caramel, but not enough. I feel cheated.

Terrace in the Sky, right? Did it go out of business? Cellar In The Sky was part of Windows on the World.

Yeah, well, you're the one with the creepy, hypnotic eyeballs (see , third, from the right), you tell me. Positively creepy.

It is still amazing to me, after living here for 7 years, that so many people are willing to wait OUTSIDE at both the Hudson St. Delorenzo's, as well as the Hamilton Ave. Delorenzo's (try the white pie with asparagus and red peppers---wow!). Until, of course, you taste the pies. It's all worth it then. When the wait at either place seems unreasonable, I've been heading over to the Top Road Tavern, 1142 Brunswick Pike, in North Trenton, whose tomato pie, to me, is a very close third place to the two Delorenzo's places. Thin, crisp crust, that perfect mix of tomato and cheese, and a retro atmosphere that is very welcoming. Good, simple antipasto too. It is one of the places I intend to drag our next meeting of PIZZA CLUB ( scroll/ skip to the latest posts, for details of our next outing, Jerseyites) . This will spoil our happy group forever.

I always thought Cellar In The Sky was very romantic, but alas.... For me the most romantic place I've ever eaten in NYC was Cafe Des Artistes, althought the food was only good, not great by any means, but, given the company at the time, I couldn't have cared less. I also second River Cafe. Damn, what a stunning place.

Think it would work poured over ice cream, like an upside-down beer float?

Jim , when we did the now-infamous Rib Run last September, we hit 3 rib joints in deep South Jersey for about $25 ( I think it ended up being a few bucks over, but not much).. Two of the places set up buffets, for lack of a better term, and one of the places just served us heaping plates of ribs and chicken and sides and some cornbread at the tables. After two of the places , we were stuffed, so these two 'cue joints should do the trick.

very true. i'm wondering what the pp price would be. let's assume 70 people, since it'll be somewhat well located (not as far as Trenton, Perth Amboy, or West Chester), outdoors on a nice day (or we have to plan for it this way). Would it be more than $12.50? Yea, probably. Jes wondering how much more. The alcohol ban is something we've thought about previously, when last we thought about having an outdoor event. Still haven't solved it, but it's in our head. But I know Fairmount Park allows alcohol, b/c I've organized events there. actually, probably better to assume, 60 people or so. pleasantly suprised if more. Oh Lord, what mental masturbation. It will be SO much easier to just visit both places, located as they are on the same road and just a few miles apart. The cost to have both places cater and the effort to find an open place that wont get us into trouble, surely cant be worth the effort.

Jim, you are an evil provacateur; there are a lot of crazed 'cue fanatics in the DDC alone, not even counting those who post here and haven't been to a DDC event yet. I have had Lucy's 'cue, but haven't heard of the other place on State Road, though friends tell me it's phenomenal. "Revenge of Rib Run". God, the possibilities. All I know is that I don't want to even think about anything called Rib Club. Please.

but apparently Kirin is made to the exact same standards in LA by Anheuser-Busch as it is in Japan by Kirin, to an anal retentive exactitude, right down to the classical music that is played in the factory to calm the yeast. FWIW I like Kirin Ichiban a lot, its a solid japanese-style lager. I find almost all Japanese beers undrinkable. It might just be me, but they just dont have the balance, the malt, or citrusy hops notes I want.

If I were eating sushi, I would try to find: Stoudt's Pils Victory Prima Pils Straub's Saranac Pilsner Yuengling Lord Chesterfield Ale (my personal fave with seafood) Brooklyn Pilsner