Fork and Barrel

There are two reasons to go to Fork and Barrel: beer and atmosphere. With how well they present these two things, it's no surprise that Fork and Barrel are opening a location in Center City. It will thrive.

I must talk about beer first. The selection here in amazing. They have stuff that is just so rare, unique, and unavailable. Flights are $16 and come with five 5.5 oz pours, which for the quality of beer is an excellent deal.

I'm going to talk about all the beers I drank, and I expect most people to completely skip this paragraph. I'm not going to go into much detail, because we tried a lot of different beers. Gaspar Ale Picobrouwerij Alvinne was a Belgian IPA, finished too dry and sour. Didn't enjoy this one. Porterhouse Oyster Stout was on Nitro and was great. It was thick and incredibly flavorful, almost a dessert beer. Oyster flavor wasn't strong however. Wintercoat Cockney Imperial Stout was probably my favorite of the night, this Danish stout was strong and was so flavorful and smooth. 't browkot Netebuk was a smooth Belgian ale, we ordered this one twice. It's what Six Point Sweet Action wants to be. Schlenkerla Helles was a standard but delicious Helles lager. Gasser Huppendorfer Vollbier was on gravity tap and had a great thick, smokey flavor.

I was out with Rachel. For dinner, she had the lamb burger, and I had the duck confit. All of the entrees here are pretty small, but flavorful. The sandwiches were served on rectangular pieces of slate with small sides of coleslaw. We also ordered salt potatoes, which were small red potatoes covered with kosher salt. They were okay, I'm sure another side would have been more satisfying. The dishes here are small, but not too small. To finish the meal, we had the cranberry crisp for dessert. This was incredibly tart, and didn't taste much like a dessert at all. We both concluded that it needed more sugar and didn't finish it.

The service here wasn't great the night when we dined. Empty plates and dishes stayed on our table for a while. Our server seemed to have too many tables for her to handle. The decor is the downstairs is beautiful, it's entirely lit by candlelight, and they have a whole wall of beer bottles boasting some of the best and most rare beers in the world. There's hundreds. It's almost like eating in the most beautiful museum on beer you're likely to ever see. I didn't go upstairs, but they focus on American craft beer there, while downstairs is focused on the imports.
Bottom Line: Despite everything, we had a great night. Fork and Barrel has incredible beer selection, and the prices are pretty good too. Food is missable, but it's got to be one of the best spots in East Falls.