Review of the Venues Visited on St. Patrick’s Day

We made it into 6 of the 12 or so locations that were listed on the invitations. For what I’m hoping will be the first “modern” Bridge St. Pub Crawl, I think we did a pretty good job. We stayed at a couple of the locations for over 45 minutes. I don’t think that’s good pub crawl etiquette, but it does say something about the quality of the seating and selection at those locations.

1. Our first stop was the Pickering Creek Inn. I’ve never been in there before and I have been interested for months. The bar has a horseshoe shape to it, which I thought was interesting. The side of the bar we were on did not have stools. We were seated on actual chairs because the floor is higher on that side. It was easy to read the extensive craft beer list they had. There were around 20 craft beers on tap. It was nice to see such a large selection at the very first stop. I was very impressed. Several of our group got food here also. The food received positive reviews and the only complaint was that the poutine didn’t have large enough cheese curds. Not too shabby. Since we ate, we were here for about 45 minutes. Since food was involved I can’t complain. I will definitely be coming back here, especially on food/drink special days.

2. Ahh, the Hacienda La Michoacana. Last year we stopped in here to grab some nachos and to see what it was like inside. Its a very large space that seems to have just a few too many tables. The food is good here. They have a blend of traditional Mexican with a hint of Tex-Mex. However, they do not have a good beer selection unless you enjoy macro-Mexican beer. They have the 7 different American style pilsners each with a different Latin sounding name and they all taste the same.  It was uncrowded and we were all able to walk right up to the bar and everyone got a different Mexican beer. I have a feeling that this spot will become an ironic stop on the pub crawl in future years. I have no problem with this, so long as no more than one drink is had.


3. Iron Hill Brewery. This is one of my favorite spots in town, so I knew it was going to be hard to not stay for a long time. The holiday weekend had a way of fixing this for us. Iron Hill is a popular night spot so there's almost always a wait, and it did this night. We were given the choice of either going to sit at the bar or wait an hour for a table. I swear a leprechaun came in and helped us because 6 seats opened up at the bar as soon as we walked in. Perfect. The beer selection here is always great. They have around 15 of their beers on hand at all times. They also have something special . . . the reserve list. If you have a couple extra dollars to spend and someone to share it with, make sure you ask for the list. Each wine sized (750 mL) bottle is between 20 and 40 dollars, and can easily be split amongst 4 people easily. If you like barrel aged beer you will be in heaven. The other half of the party got food and we only had a drink or 2 each before we moved on. I already like Iron Hill, but the reserve list will have me coming back even more.

4. Fenix. I feel that when I tell people about this tiny, but great spot I feel like I should say it like the Sizzler commercials would say Sizzler. It's nestled right next to Molly MacGuires and seems to be very fancy from the outside. When you walk in you see overstuffed leather couches and stools for seating. Again the pub gods smiled on us as a group of people vacated the best seats in the house for us. So we settled in next to the fireplace for over an hour. Fenix has a great drink selection which specializes in craft beer and unusual martinis. You would think that we all ate here if you just looked at the time, but no, it was just that nice inside. This was a stop on last year’s crawl, and I haven’t been back since. I will not make this mistake again.

5. The Bistro on Bridge, a tale of 2 bars. On one hand this is a craft beer bar with an incredible selection of beer and good food. On the other hand it was an overly crowded "college bar" with too loud music and Pabst on tap for cheap drinking. The Bistro is a long narrow open room with wicker chairs and couches in front. We were fortunate that there was a lot of room here. The rear is where the bar is, and it was shoulder to shoulder and I had to yell to order anything. We didn’t spend much time here. It wasn’t as comfy as Fenix, and just too loud to talk. I would like to come back on a less busy day to see what this place is like then.

6. The Sand Castle Wineries “Taste” store. It was fairly late at this point, so we were the only customers for the first 15 minutes. So we settled in down at the bar to sample several of their wines. The attendant was very knowledgeable and helpful in suggesting wines we would probably favor. I did like 4 out of the 5 samples that he suggested. They also sell higher end snack foods, but we knew we were heading back to the house, so none of us tried those this trip. It's not terribly pubbish, but I enjoyed an unusual way to end the outside portion of our evening. I know I will be coming back to share this relatively new store with friends

Only 6 stops made on the "Phoenixville Mile" this trip, but it went very well. 5 out of the 6 stops were winners in my opinion. Bistro on Bridge being the only speed bump. Next year I say 8 stops and I want to add at least 3 more people. See you then, Saturday March 15^th 2014!