Eulogy Belgian Tavern in Philly

[Fay Jai]

Apparently Sean Pashley, (the chef on Average Joe 2, Hawaii, ok, I'm a geek...) is part owner of a place called Eulogy Belgian Tavern at 2nd and Chestnut in Philadelphia...(Who came up with THAT name? Anyway...)

Anybody been? Is it any good?

[foodE]

I've not been, but have heard good things.

[Andrew Fenton]

I've been, and it's pretty good. Same sort of idea as Monk's, with the Belgian beers, burgers, frites and whatnot. You can get Kwak (my favorite beer name) in the cool carriage glass. They have a room with a coffin in it. I found the food to be perfectly adequate-to-good, of the stuff-that-goes-well-with-drinking variety.

I'm sure that somebody (like Rich, for instance) can evaluate the beer list better than I can.

[sara]

I've found the food to be pretty subpar--it really doesn't even begin to stack up to Monk's IMO. The atmosphere, especially upstairs, is pretty weird--especially the coffin room. And the service is ridiculously slow. But the beer list is extensive, and it's definitely one of the less expensive more laid back places to hang in Old City.

[mrbigjas]

Agree with Sara about the food. When I was there the mussels were mushy, the fries similar. However, my wife has gotten good mussels there before at lunch, and I have only been there happy-hour-ish.

What I found amusing was their menu listing "150 (or however many) great beers you never heard of" including Yuengling Lager, Coors Light, Heineken...

[Rich Pawlak]

I've been, and it's pretty good. Same sort of idea as Monk's, with the Belgian beers, burgers, frites and whatnot. You can get Kwak (my favorite beer name) in the cool carriage glass. They have a room with a coffin in it. I found the food to be perfectly adequate-to-good, of the stuff-that-goes-well-with-drinking variety.

I'm sure that somebody (like Rich, for instance) can evaluate the beer list better than I can.

I found their food not so good, soggy frites, sandy mussells, an average burger.

And their beer selection leaves a lot to be desired; to have 3 taps of English beers in a Belgian beer bar seems odd to me, but Monk's , like Trenton tomato pie, spoils you for everything else that tries to pretend.

[Chris Hennes]

My wife and I ate at the Eulogy Belgian Bar on Christmas Eve. It was pretty empty, but given the holiday that was not surprising. It is a small space---we ate in the dining room upstairs from the bar. The appetizer we started with was a duck confit and mushroom strudel. It was a little too salty, but the phyllo was crisp and the whole dish tasted of butter (a good thing, in my book). As a main course I had three different wild game sausages served with some hybrid of mashed potatoes and carrots that tasted of nothing but white pepper. The sausages were very flavorful, if a bit overcooked. Of course, since the sausages were not made in house, I can only give them credit for good selections. I also snagged a few fries off of my wife's plate: they were not bad at all. Maybe not the best fries in the world, but worth ordering if you're here. While there we also enjoyed a few Belgian beers. Their beer list is so long as to be worthless; I just chatted with the waiter to find a couple to try. I think most of them are bottled, they only have around half dozen on tap.

[wkl]

just wondering........ why would a long beer list be "worthless" ?

[Chris Hennes]

Without any useful description of the beers, as far as I am concerned a long beer list is a cop-out: the restaurant refuses to narrow it down to some reasonable number of "best" beers, and instead includes every one they can find, indiscriminately.

[wkl]

you ever been to monks?

[Chris Hennes]

Nope. But if they pride themselves on having a long-ass beer list with no descriptions, I'm not interested... once you get beyond 20-30 beer selections I think you really need to include a) a useful categorization and b) a description of each. I feel the same way about long wine lists. At Eulogy the beers are arranged alphabetically, and the only description is "Lager," "Pilsner," etc. Your options are to a) drink a shit ton of beer and learn about them all on your own, b) ask the bartender, who will recommend one of the beers on tap, or c) close your eyes and pick at random.

[wkl]

descriptions or not i can't remember, it is long list.

you'd be missing out on one of the great belgian beer selctions in the country. food is better also. next time your in town you should go if you really enjoy belgian beers.

[Chris Hennes]

I'll be sure to check it out next time: I've walked past it on many occasions, but never stopped in.

[rlibkind]

Nope. But if they pride themselves on having a long-ass beer list with no descriptions, I'm not interested...

←

Look at this: Monk's On-Tap Beers. iirc, there are similar, if sometimes shorter, descriptions of the bottled offerings on the printed list.

[Chris Hennes]

See, now, that's what I am looking for in a beer list. Lots of great details there helping you to pick out what you want to drink.

[philadining]

I haven't been to Eulogy in a while, but there was a young Belgian waiter there who was pretty amazing - seemed to know the entire list of beers off the top of his head and could describe them all. But, I see your point, Chris, you don't want to count on him being there... and him being your waiter...

Still, it's nice to have an extensive selection in case you happen to have an obscure Belgian favorite. Even better to have descriptions in case you're looking for something new.