Sixpack Sez

Jan. 26, 209 | Pack up the SUV, there's new beer in the 'burbs

IN LAST WEEK'S column, I caught up to a collection of new city beer joints. This week, I'm venturing out to the suburbs, where the beer scene is growing even more dramatically.

In recent months, there's been a gush of big-time, multitap lineups. Here are four that attracted this city guy.

"A lot of places," said Gary Fry, who runs the newly opened Craft Ale House (708 W. Ridge Pike, Limerick, Montgomery County) with his wife, Melissa, "just want to hire hot-looking girls. I didn't care if Quasimodo walked in for a job - I just wanted craft beer-knowledgeable and friendly employees."

Spoken like a true beer geek.

This is a guy who met his wife at a backyard beer olympics competition, who brewed his own beer for their wedding.

Fry makes no excuses about his single-minded passion. This is his first bar and, so far, he's making no compromises on its big-time, 16-tap draft beer list.

Fantome de Noel, Victory Old Horizontal and Breckenridge 471 greeted me on a visit earlier this month, but the kegs are kicking so quickly, it's impossible to say what'll fill your pint.

The only place you'll find a macrobrew is in the corner of a long row of coolers left over from the building's former life as a deli. My guess is the boxes could hold 400 different beers, which makes it an excellent option for those who prefer to bring sixpacks home to their own cul de sac.

But don't leave without a bite to eat. With chef Steve Howells (formerly of Center City's James restaurant) in the kitchen, the menu already features some curious delights.

My bowl of creamy winter squash soup was topped with a generous portion of herbed crabmeat. It paired beautifully with a glass of Hoffman Helles from New Jersey's Climax Brewing.

And about the wait staff - I didn't see any Quasimodos.

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Alison two (424 Bethlehem Pike, Fort Washington) is not a beer joint with good food, it's an excellent restaurant with a superb beer list. It's chef Alison Barshak's second Montco spot (Alison at Blue Bell is a nearby BYOB), featuring international cuisine leaning toward Asian/Indian.

At a recent lunch, I tasted a verdant mix of brussels sprouts and root veggies, and a Vietnamese-style pork hoagie with pickled vegetables and homemade potato chips. Both were deceptively simple dishes, like something you'd whip up with fresh ingredients from Reading Terminal Market - if you had a clue in the kitchen.

A less imaginative chef would spend a month designing a wine list to pair with her menu, then toss in overpriced bottles of Heineken for the Neanderthals.

The beer selection at Alison two, though, is hardly an afterthought; it's a brilliant, even daring offering that will complement a wide range of flavors.

Stoudt's Old Abominable barleywine, Russian River Damnation strong golden ale, barrel-aged Allagash Curieux - these are not beers for fainthearted foodies. Yet, paired with Barshak's dishes, the palate-challenging drafts will appeal even to novices.

Bring your mother, order her the curried shrimp salad and a glass of Brooklyn Savoir Faire biere de garde. She'll never gripe about your beer gut again.

I won't go into the bottles, other than to note that they're very reasonably priced for a high-end restaurant (Orval for six bucks). It's almost as if Alison two is saying: Forget those $12 glasses of wine, try our food with beer!

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Ron's Original Bar & Grille (74 E. Uwchlan Ave. Exton, Chester County) - known as Ron's Schoolhouse Grille before a makeover last year - is the kind of place where office workers in Dockers and BlackBerries head for a deep-fried lunch.

Pizza, hoagies, cheesesteaks, strombolis, wraps, burgers, fries - the menu is a panorama of junk food. I swear, there's an entire page of hoagie choices, and dinner includes a kitschy blast from the past, surf and turf.

The food service is quick and the dishes are perfectly fine, if not completely memorable.

But I didn't come here for the food, so thank god for 20 taps (Weyerbacher Delta, Founders Breakfast Stout) and a massive selection of bottles that includes those darlings from Scandinavia, Nogne-O and Mikeller.

But who's drinking all that good beer? On my visit, everyone else was cradling glasses of Miller Lite and complaining about their sales commissions.

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The Tap Room & Grille (427 W. Crystal Lake Ave., Haddon Township, N.J.) is an oasis in the midst of the craft beer wasteland known as South Jersey.

At more than 10,000 square feet, the former dairy is immense and meandering. I lost count of the bars, and that was before I got outside to the large deck featuring two more sets of taps.

There are 52 spigots, most of them devoted to the usuals. But here's a clue: Turn left after entering the bar, and you'll find a separate line of taps pouring Flying Fish, Troegs, Rogue, Smuttynose and other micros. On my visit last week, they were just finishing up a keg of extremely rare Captain Lawrence Smoked Porter.

The owners, who have spent the last year rebuilding the restaurant, are earnest about improving their beer selection, and for good reason.

"We got rid of the Coors dollar nights," said co-owner Joe Kreps, "and now craft beer accounts for 30 percent of our beer revenue."

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