Dock Street Brewing Company
Ah, Dock Street! You were one of the first “real” restaurants I visited in my college days, so how fitting that you have now moved out to West Philly. After your many ups and downs, my favorite parts of the menu of my youth have been restored.
I ordered the sampler, so I can tell it to you straight… their beers just don’t do it for me. On tap that evening was their Royal Bohemian Pilsner, Centennial IPA, Hop Garden Double IPA, Man Full of Trouble Porter, Rye IPA and Sudan Grass (a naturally gluten-free beer.) My favorite: the Sudan Grass. If you’re into hoppy, Dock Street has some great choices. I am not. Their beer is, and always has been, secondary in my book.
Their trio fries, on the other hand, were spot-on. I have always considered the basket of white potatoes, sweet potatoes and leeks the signature dish at Dock Street. When they pulled it from the menu way back in the day (chasing a more “upscale” menu, as I recall), I would still request it back every time I went in. Today, they are just as good as I remembered. Nobody does a fried leek like Dock Street.
Dock Street’s menu has salads, sandwiches, appetizers and entrees, but everyone seemed to be ordering pizzas made in their wood-fired oven. In honor of the old days, I ordered one found on their classic menu, the flammenkuche (caramelized onions, guryere, creme fraiche and bacon.) bda got pepperoni, which was a good pairing. The sweetness of the onions was a nice contrast for the spicy, meaty pepperoni. They have a classic American thin crust, pleasantly doughy, and tasty enough that I ate the ends…. at least until I realized that we had way too much food on the table.
If you haven’t been to Dock Street since the days when it was in the now-Public House location, the atmosphere is totally different. It’s a much more relaxed, noisy place, with concrete floors and wooden chairs. When they served my water in a plastic cup, it was perfectly in keeping with their new style. You can still buy a pint glass to take home, and the pillars are plastered with their old bottle labels (a tiny walk down memory lane unto themselves), but the mammoth, plush operation of 18th St. has been stripped away. The focus here is food and beer, and, given the crowd on a drizzly Wednesday night, that seems to be suiting them just fine.
Dock Street Brewery
701 S 50th St
Philadelphia, PA 19143-1689
(215) 726-2337
