Andy Farrell shares details on City Tap House's bestial beer program

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Andy Farrell shares details on City Tap House's bestial beer program

POSTED: Thursday, April 22, 2010, 8:48 PM

Filed Under: Booze | Openings

Yesterday, City Tap House, the sprawling craft beer bar planned for the Radian (3945 Walnut St.) announced it would be opening to the public, with some 60 beers on tap to slake the thirsts of drinkers. Meal Ticket touched base with bar manager Andy Farrell (formerly of Bridgid's) to try to get a feel for what goes into such a behemoth beer approach. The Tap House will feature 72 total taps, with a dozen of those doubled up for high-volume macro brands like Guinness, Stella and Lager. For the remaining 60 taps, Farrell is looking at things "from a local level, a regional level and a global level," he says. About 60 percent of those taps will be dedicated to good-any-time-of-year craft beers — Dogfish 60-Minute IPA is one time-tested example Farrell gives, but also expect American craft and Belgian-and-otherwise standbys — while the remaining 40 percent be used to pour one-off specialty beers, harder-to-find regional selections, offerings from new breweries and so forth. They'll definitely look local first, though, with attention paid to seasonality. "With the amount of great crafts we have locally, there's plenty of room for representation for that," says Farrell. "From both the beverage and kitchen perspective, [we are mindful of] the 'buy fresh, buy local' movement." The Tap House also features a private 35-seat area with its own 10-tap system, meaning they could easily organize an exclusive Belgian beer dinner and tap a bunch of kegs specifically for the event. The bar will be purchasing its own firkins, and Farrell's working on building up relationships with breweries to get ahold of cask ales on a regular basis. They won't open with a takeout license for growlers or with a hand pump/beer machine, but both are in the works. Also in the immediate-future plans is a large-format bottle list that Farrell hopes Tap House guests will use in a similar manner as a wine list, purchasing a bottle to drink over a multi-course dinner.

City Tap House in pictures :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper

Posted 2010-05-07 17:54:31

[...] the beer: Farrell talked to Meal Ticket recently about his approach — he’s rocking 60 taps. Yes, he’s pouring a selection of what he [...]

Posted by Drew Lazor @ 8:48 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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Founded in October 2008, Meal Ticket is a City Paper blog about food, drink and assorted other things that make you go mmm. We do recipes, interviews, restaurant news, commentary and much more. We don't do restaurant reviews here — those are handled in print, mostly by our critic (and Meal Ticket contributor) Adam Erace. Got a tip, question, thought or concern? Just want to say hello? Please shoot a note to caroline@citypaper.net.

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