Monk's Cafe, Philadelphia, PA
Dug · May 8, 2008
It isn’t every day that I find something truly unique and special… something that transcends the normal ups and downs of life. I found this on my trip to Philadelphia, though, this week. Our good friend Joy at the training venue had mentioned it and told us how good it was… I knew the moment she did that it was someplace I had to go. So, on Monday night, I grabbed a cab after dinner and headed out… solo…
The cab ride was only 10 minutes or so. We pulled up to an old building with neon in the window. The building itself is not wide, skinny in fact, with a hallway on the left side that takes you to a door on the right. As I walked in, I noticed immediately that there was some serious beer drinking going on. The various ages and genders showed this was a popular place and the bar was completely filled up. I grabbed a place just across the walkway from the bar, picked up a menu and started perusing.
The menu system is good… they have a full menu with the bottled beer available in several different sorting orders. There is also good information in the menu about beer: how it is brewed, what goes in, styles, etc. They supplement the full menu with a dated, one-sided color printed paper that has all of their beer on tap. There is a yellow one for the front and a blue one for the back right now. The front has ~7 beers and the back ~14. From this list comes the sweet, sweet nectar. More on that in a minute.
Shown here: Menu (yes I paid $3), Front Tap Menu, Back Tap Menu (and yes, I received permision to take the front and back menus), and Tasting Notes
I quickly realized I would be standing all night if I stayed in the front, so I headed to the very darkly lit back bar where I was able to grab a seat after some folks left. Front and center, thank you very much. As I took my Monk’s Café Flemish Sour Ale to my seat, I started talking to the bar tender, Stasia, and it was all over after that. Stasia’s 7 years at the bar have her rivaling anyone I have ever talked to about beer… her knowledge and just plain good beer sense were amazing. Stasia has met Michael Jackson (may he rest in peace) on many occasions, has attended Avery Brewing Company tasting events, and has generally spent more time with beer related “stuff” than most people will in their lifetimes.
So, the taps started flowing and the bottles started being opened and I was off and running. I am going to attempt to cover them all below, but link style so as to keep the blog clean.
Needless to say, I had a great night… I didn’t drink to excess, but really had a great time. I have one small complaint and that is it… their bottled beer is far too cold. Much of it had to be opened and sat on until it warmed up. The taps were perfect, but the bottles had to be sub-40° F.
Last thing worth noting… it was really cool to see folks of all walks of life coming to the bar to try out good beer. Young, old, man, woman… it was really good to be surrounded by either other beer lovers or adventurous ones.
I think it is safe to say that this bar is the best bar I have ever been too, bar none. Thanks to Monk’s Café for showing me how it should be done!
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