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Booze
As you may have noticed, I really like the El Bar (1356 N. Front St.). Part of the draw of the Fishtown watering hole is how cheap it is, thrifty pricing that extends to what they call the Kensington Happy Meal. For a measly $5, you get two hot dogs, a PBR tall boy, a bag of chips and a prize. The idea originates with one of the bartenders, whom everyone refers to as Fish. "A lot of construction workers come in here for lunch and happy hour. They're always ordering hot dogs and beer, so [Fish] figured, 'Why not put it all together and make it a special?'" says Christi Finley, who's worked at El Bar for more than three years. The bar has been offering this special (not to be confused with the Citywide) for a few months and plans to keep it going until interest dies down. The deal stops at 7 p.m., so if you're planning to make a night of it, get there early.
Photo: Alexandra Weiss
Amis (412 S. 13th St.) had to push its first-Monday Industry Night back a week for March, giving the Belgian-beer mafiosi who staff Monk's, Fergie's and Belgian Café ample time to navigate their cellars and blow dust off the good stuff. We hear Monk's capo Tom Peters will be showing up this Monday, March 12 with a cache of large-format bottles of who-knows-what, complementing Dock Street drafts, Sly Fox cans, Italian large-formats via Alla Spina and the "Red Velvet," a beer cocktail combining Monk's Sour Ale, San Pellegrino Chinotto and creme de violette.
View galleryWHERE YOU AT? I stopped at Stateside (1536 E. Passyunk Ave.) during that unseasonably warm spell a couple weeks ago. The bartenders had flung the windows wide open and the steady din of cars stopping, starting and rumbling around the Passyunk Fountain provided some good ol' South Philly background noise as a friend and I chatted over half-price drafts.
Here's some sudden unexpected news for the Philly cocktail set — Phoebe Esmon, who's been responsible for overseeing the cocktail side of the beverage program at The Farmers' Cabinet (1113 Walnut St.) since the joint opened a year ago, is gone. And her fiancé and partner Christian Gaal is gone, too. "The couple has a desire to work jointly, in full collaboration, on a beverage program," reads a statement Esmon blasted out, "a desire that their present position did not fulfill." This means that Sixth-and-Spring Garden tiki bar project we wrote about in December will no longer have their stamp on it. Is it off the table altogether? Have a request in to F-Cab for more info on who's in charge moving forward and will update when we hear.
UPDATE [10:15 p.m.]: "We have been looking around the country for a new leader of our cocktail program and will announce our plans soon," says F-Cab partner Matt Scheller via email. "Any future plans that we have are not affected by their departure."
Chances are the date March 9 doesn't hold broad significance to you. That's why Harry Baker wants you to take off work and come marathon-drinking with him to commemorate the passing of one of America's most treasured alcoholics.
Eighteen years ago Friday, Charles Bukowski succumbed to cancer after decades of rakish existence, during which the Angeleno writer cranked out countless stanzas, chapters and paragraphs. Most all of those words were spurred into a gallop by Bukowski's meticulously documented drinking, as vital a part of the writer's mythology as any turn of phrase. "He wrote his own legend," says Baker, a poet, rugby player and former bartender. (Fittingly, we first met Baker, in his third year of organizing Bukowski death-day tributes, over rocks glasses at The Khyber.)
To commemorate Buk's passing, Baker, who now makes his rent working for SEPTA and coaching high-school tennis, has organized a series of events at bars throughout the city. His Occupy Barstools plan capitalizes on the strength-in-numbers strategies of that protest movement with an honest purpose: getting loaded, the most populist of all playing-hooky persuasions.
This coming Saturday, March 10, the team at 1 Shot Coffee (217 W. George St.) is hosting a Buffalo Trace pop-up bar in honor of the launch of Vivo Chocolate Co. Created by nutritionist Juliet Burgh and her husband, Vivo specializes in handcrafted raw chocolates. In its raw, unroasted form, it is very high in antioxidants, vitamin C, magnesium, iron, fiber and Omega-6 fatty acids. It also balances hormones and is good for weight loss. "It's an amazing thing, getting so much nutrition from one fruit — and it really is a fruit," says Burgh of her specialty.
Attention, beer geeks, attention: Iacopo Lenci, mutton-chopped brewmaster of Tuscany's Birrifico Bruton, is in town. Part of Italy's new beer guard gaining global attention, Bruton brews will be flowing tomorrow (love their Lilith ale) at a.kitchen (135 S. 18th St.), and Lenci will be in the house to chat about them. Chef Bryan Sikora has come up with three vegetable, three fish, three meat and two dessert dishes, priced $8 to $19, to support the Italian drafts (all $6). You can order a la carte or get a four-course tasting with beer for $65. We’ve got out eye on the Dieci, a potent barleywine paired with chocolate panna cotta and pomegranate semifreddo. Check out the full menu after the jump and call 215-825-7030 for reservations.
Bartenders and brunch go together about as well as Krazy Glue and kittens, so cheers to Al Sotack of the Beard-nom'd Franklin for fighting through the pain for a bourbon-ified event this Sunday at Farmers' Cabinet (1113 Walnut St.). He'll join F-Cab booze boss Phoebe Esmon at noon on Feb. 26 to mix up a complimentary bowl of punch using Angel's Envy bourbon out of Kentucky. Brunch at the Cabinet runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
State stores will soon stock a rye-based counterpart to Philly Distilling's XXX Shine — Bristol-based Mountain Laurel Spirits has released Dad's Hat Pennsylvania White Rye. Currently an SLO item in the PLCB system, the unaged, 100-proof white whiskey is the first foray into the market for partners John Cooper and Herman Mihalick, longtime friends who met as UPenn undergrads and founded the distillery in 2009.
Working off a 500-gallon still, they're using raw grain sourced from Bucks and Lancaster counties as a nod to Pennsylvania's distinction as the birthplace of rye whiskey. Though they're also aging their distillate in quarter casks for seven to eight months for a pending brown-booze release, the white is available right now. Flavor-wise, Dad's Hat is a bit more measured of a spirit than its spicier counterparts. "We're not trying to 'out-rye' other people," says Cooper, likening distiller oneupsmanship to craft beer producers piling on hops to top the competition. "What we're looking for is up-front spice with a full and round mouthfeel. It's a very smooth whiskey."
Dad's Hat White will eventually make its way into a limited number of state stores, and the distillers are aiming to have their 90-proof aged rye on shelves in time for Father's Day.
Homebrewer turned craft-beer professional Tim Patton, who incorporated his Saint Benjamin Brewing Company in 2010, has locked in a physical location for his nascent nanobrewery. This past Friday, he closed on an industrial-zoned property at 1710 N. Fifth Street (intersection of Cecil B. Moore) that he hopes to have up and running by this summer. (By Philly Weer Week ideally, but more likely in the July/August window.) Most recently a warehouse, the building used to be a sewing machine factory; before the 1920s, it was a carriage house for a beer company. Bringing the address back to its pre-war roots, Patton aims to start out by brewing three to three and a half barrels, or about seven kegs' worth, at a time.
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