Kennett Restaurant

Last night brother Mal and I met up at Kennett Restaurant to begin work on our nanobrewery business plan, and we made some good progress on that score. Mal's lovely bride joined us for brainstorming and along the way we did some barnstorming of the menu.

Apropos of today's Meal Ticket feature on the new wood-burning oven at Kennett, we sampled the "porchetta" pizza: pulled pork, farmer's cheese, whipped lardo and herbs. The crust was nicely blistered and the lardo disappeared into the other toppings, lending them a salty, piggy perfume.

Porchetta pizza

Business planning can give a man an appetite. So despite the pizza's richness, we sampled a few other items: the puy lentil salad, brussels sprouts, and roasted parsnips, in addition to the burger.

Puy lentil salad

Roasted brussels sprouts and sunchokes with bacon and crushed coriander

Roasted parsnips with parmesan

The burger is topped with bibb lettuce, pickled onion and anchovy mayonnaise. The latter lends a rich and savory counterpoint to the onion. Our specimen was cooked to a perfect medium-rare; the addition of bone marrow to the beef means that cheese isn't necessary.

Burger with bone marrow, pickled onion and anchovy mayonnaise

In addition to all the great food, the beer list is impressive. We sipped on Yards Love Stout (a fine choice when served on nitrogen), Left Hand Fade to Black Smoked Baltic Porter and Long Trail Hibernator Ale.

The nattily dressed staff was cheerful and attentive, the dining room cozy from Edison bulbs and the glow of the pizza oven. Kennett is one of those spots that make me wish I lived in the neighborhood. I look forward to returning soon to sample more of the menu.

Kennett Restaurant

848 S. 2nd St.

Philadelphia, PA 19147

267-687-1426

Friday the Firkinteenth and Yards "Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em"

Yesterday was Friday the Firkinteenth at the Grey Lodge: every Friday the 13th, the Lodge lines up dozens of beers and pours cask ale until the firkins are empty.  Yesterday's Firkinteenth was extra special since it fell during Beer Week, and starting at 9:00 am they had about 30 firkins on hand.  I had taken the day off and took the El up to the Lodge where I met Mal, Amanda, Julie and Lee.  Over the course of the morning, we sampled almost everything tapped thus far:

• Arcadia Sky High Rye (my 2nd favorite - I love rye beers)
  
• Dark Horse Double Crooked Tree IPA (at 12% the strongest I tried, but it was like drinking syrup)
  
• Iron Hill (West Chester) Irish Red
  
• Sierra Nevada Stout (my favorite of the day - smooth, creamy and slightly sweet)
  
• Sly Fox Standard Ale
  
• Dock Street Hop Garden (which had bits of hop in it)
  
• Voodoo Wynona's Big Brown Ale
  

The atmosphere was great - even though the place was packed, the wait for beers wasn't too long and everyone was in a good mood.  Every time someone would walk into the bar, the place would erupt in a cheer (and conversely, people would get a good-natured "boooo" when they left -- it is Philly, after all).

The glorious Beer Week Hammer of Glory was in the house, and making the rounds for photos (we sadly forgot our cameras, but Mal got a pic of this guy on his camera phone).  There were plenty of local beer mavens in attendance, including Lew Bryson, William Reed and Brian O'Reilly.

We rolled out around 1pm, aiming to hop the free shuttle to the Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em smoked beer and barbeque event at Yards Brewing.  After waiting a while for the shuttle, we decided to hop the 66 bus and the El over to Yards.  Like the Grey Lodge, Yards was crowded but not oppressively so.  The new brewery is very impressive - high ceilings, huge spotless kettles and fermenters and at the rear, a giant tasting bar where they were pouring 18 smoked beers from various breweries.  Around the perimeter of the tasting room, local restaurants had set up tables offering smoked meat in all its glorious forms: ribs, brisket, pulled pork and so on.

Hungry from standing around drinking all morning, we hit the tables with gusto.  Victory's pulled pork was excellent and Tommy Gunn's wasn't too bad either (and their corn salad was good).  Some of the other tables weren't as well marked so I can't give props to whomever made the awesome ribs.  On the beer side, I tried offerings from Oskar Blues ("Smoke on the Water"), Sierra Nevada (Smoked Imperial Porter) and Sly Fox.  Stuffed and sated, we wound down the day at Mal and Amanda's place watching the replay of the World Series.

It was a really fun day and I'm already looking forward to the next Firkinteenth in November.

Yards Love Stout

Absolutely delicious, served from the hand pump at Prohibition Taproom.  More stouts should be poured this way.  The warm temperature, light carbonation, and foamy head bring the sweet malt flavors forward.  This might not work for a dry stout (Guinness or Sly Fox's O'Reilly's, which really benefit from nitrogen) but for a maltier, sweeter variety like Yards Love Stout, it's pure romance.

Phillyskyline on Yards

Brad Maule over at Phillyskyline has a nice post about the rebirth of Yards Brewery on the Delaware River. It had been rumored that Yards would have a brewpub on site at their new location on Delaware Ave, but plans seem to have changed a bit:

"...a much anticipated brewpub at the new Yards facility won't quite be a full-time brewpub, as Kehoe doesn't want to cut into the nearby bars in Northern Liberties and Fishtown who sell his beer. "But really, we don't want to be here until 2 in the morning," Mashington (pictured at left) says with a laugh.

But they will be selling beer there -- by the pint, by the sixpack, by the case -- and soon. "Philly Beer Week is coming, and we'd like to have the place presentable by then," Kehoe says."

This is fantastic news! Philly Beer Week starts in March, so that means in a little over a month's time one can tour the brewery and stay to sip a Brawler.