Successful Pennsylvania Beer Crawl - Part 2

In our last post we visited the Federal Taphouse in Lancaster and JoBoy's in Manheim. In today's post we'll visit two breweries in Mount Joy, PA.

The breweries of Mount Joy are almost complete opposites of each other when it comes to aesthetics. Bube's, the older brewery in town, is in a dank 150 year old brewery complex. Zuckfoltzfus, which has been open just over two months, is in a cheery little restored house.

Zuckfoltzfus seems to be focused more as a restaurant than a bar per-se. When you walk into the house you enter the bar area with 8 seats at the bar and a few more along the wall. There was a separate dining room with seating for about 20 more people. Everything was new and clean with decor suitable for the Amish country. We were here on a Sunday, so the food offerings were limited to four choices. We ordered the pretzels to go with our beers. We had a sample of all four beers offered: Oatmeal Stout, Squirrel Bait Nut Brown, Whiney Sarah Pale, and Woodshed Red. These are all nice beers, but of course our favorites were the Nut Brown and Stout. We ordered up pints of those beers.

The pretzels were awesome. They were more like pretzel nuggets that were made with the spent brewing grains. They served bacon jam with the pretzels. Yum!

We'd definately consider a trip back here to see what they offer for a regular menu.

 

 

 

 

Our next stop was a block away. Bube's Brewery was built in the 1870's and originally stayed in business until Prohibition. The building is dark and somewhat foreboding inside - and that's where it's character lies. Like Captain Tony's in Key West or Lafitte's in New Orleans. Small walkways, passages, basements, and catacombs add to the vibe. When we arrived for a Sunday lunch we were the only people at the bar. Everyone else was outside in the pleasant beer garden.

We both ordered chicken cheesesteaks for lunch. Very good choice. Holly had the blueberry kolsch and Dave had the Session Porter. Both were excellent.

We have some more photos form Bube's posted below.

Mount Joy should defininately be on the craft beer fan's list of places to visit. Our next post will visit Troeg's Brewing near Hershey Prk.

 

 

 

 

 

Successful Pennsylvania Beer Crawl - Part 1

In our last post we took a look at a failed attempt to eat cupcakes. The day after that event Holly and Dave found themselves in Pennsylvania and had a chance to check out some of the beer scene in the Lancaster County / Harrisburg area.

In Lancaster, we stopped at the Federal Taphouse. This newer downtown location does not make their own beer, but they do have 100 beers on tap. Before anyone says "Oh it's just Yard House", these are all craft beers - no major brewers represented. The beers were mainly from the east coast, but there were many breweries listed from across the country and abroad. 

The food was excellent - especially the brick oven pizza and wings. The room itself is mainly one big space with high ceilings and huge windows overlooking a small portion of downtown.

For beers, we stuck with pints from Pennsylvania. Holly had two beers from the same brewer: Saucony Creek in Kutztown. She really enjoyed the North Ramp Stout, but wasn't a big fan of the Bling Banger Porter. Dave started with Big Gruesome Peanut Butter Stout from local favorite SpringHouse Brewing. Loved it! After that he went with Stoudt's Heifer-in-Wheat. Too hoppy.

The pretzel appy is actually 2 big loaves of pretzel bread

Another fun stop was JoBoy's Brewpub in Manheim. JoBoys's considers itself a nanobrewery and specialized in BBQ (we didn't eat anything here but it looked good - next time), home made beers, and wines made in Pennsylvania. There were about a dozen items on tap - but a lot were pale ales (not all beers were listed on the chalk board).

We tried a sample of 6 six beers: Manheim Red, Porter, Summer Ale, English Mild, Wheat, and Raz-Ass. Out of them all we liked the Raz-Ass and Porter the best.

Below are a few more pictures for JoBoy's. in our next post we will check out what is going on in Mount Joy.

Cupcake Crawl Fail

Decided to play with the iPad's iPhoto Journal tool to document our recent cupcake failure.

Cupcake Crawl Fail - While in Warwick, NY Holly, Dave, and Dave's cousin decided to go on a town cupcake crawl. The first stop, TheSugar Shack closed at 3pm - we were ten minutes too late. The second stop, Fav's was closed due to an A/C issue. Our third stop, Eat Sweet, was open, but the two products we bought were dry. The tarts we bought for dessert were good.

Since this turned into such an epic fail, we went to a bar.

 

Meet the Muppets

Some folks on our charity running team, Team AllEars, had a great idea to help build a little fun into our daily lives. Following the premise of The Flat Stanley Project, our team members have been sending four Muppet Pook-a-looz across the country. Pook-a-looz was a short-lived brand of Disney plush toys that depicted characters as flatter characterchures of the original. The Muppets were dispatched across the country after their introduction at the Wine Country Half Marathon.

For a month or so we hosted the Fozzie Pook-a-looz. He traveled north with us to Superior, Wisconsin and Duluth, Minnesota for Grandma's Marathon. Most recently, he traveled to Chicago to join a few other Team AllEars members in the Rock & Roll Half Marathon.





We probably had a little too much fun with Fozzie. The ringleader of the Muppets thought we should be the first to host Fozzie since he was a bear and Tizzel was also a bear. On our team page we shared some of the fun times the two had together in this video:

Last week at the Rock & Roll Chicago Half Marathon something tragic happened.

Eddie was passing Fozzie over to teammate Stan for a photo opp. Unfortunately they had this bright idea while standing on a bridge over the Chicago River..... Fozzie ended up in the drink.


This loss was announced to the team moments later via Facebook post. Within minutes tributes were posted:

Our team Facebook page erupted with comments. Most were sad, but some were skeptical and suspected foul play. Public outcry and media coverage demanded an investigation.

The next day we learned the truth as the film from the race was finally uploaded to Vimeo:

Yep! Eddie procured a stunt-double to take the fall. We shipped the real Fozzie off to the next team member signed up to look after him. We'll miss Fozzie. So will Tizzel.

A Few Fun Things in Warwick New York

Last weekend Dave went to his hometown of Warwick, NY to visit with family. While there he had a few new experiences.

The Bellvale Farms Creamery was perched on the top of Mount Peter and overlooked the farms of Warwick Valley. The place was packed at 3pm with a mix of families and hikers whom may have spent the day, or past few days, hiking portions of the nearby Appalachian Trail. Dave and his Grandmother chose to have hard ice cream vs. the soft serve and enjoyed the views and people watching.

Dave had a chance to visit a few other local eateries. The first stop was of course Franks's Pizza. Dave has been coming here since he was a kid for the best New York style pizza. This one sets the standards that all others are judged by. A few places do better, but anywhere in Chicago falls below these standards.







Railroad Avenue didn't offer much when Dave was growing up, now it has become Warwick's restaurant row with bakeries, a French cafe, chocolate shop, wine bar, Irish bar, and Italian restaurant. Dave picked up some chocolates at Sweetbriar's, had breakfast with his family at Le Petite Cuisine, and picked up some desserts one night from Eat Sweet Bakeshop.


Croissant French Toast



Eat Sweet



After Sunday breakfast with the family Dave walked over to the Farmer's Market. It's held in the main parking lot in town right behind Main Street every Sunday in-season. Lots of different vendors were on-hand selling produce, beef jerky, breads, flowers, and wines from some of the local wineries.

One sign caught Dave's eye while at the market. He noticed one of the local farm markets advertised themselves as a brew pub? How was this information withheld from him all weekend? Dave enquired more and found out that the market was also hosting a car show that day. Sounded like something Dave and his dad should check out.

Pennings Farm Market has certainly evolved over the years. It used to be one of those places you'd stop at for local produce and flowers. Now, you can eat in their bar, enjoy their ice cream and baked goods, and pet their chickens. They also have a beer garden and outdoor bar - where Dave and his dad sat and enjoyed some regional beers. For the brew pub purist - we will warn you they are not brewing on-premise. They are contract brewing their cider and are growing hops to go into a beer they will be brewing in partnership with a local brewer in Chester. With that said, we had a great time sitting there enjoying a pleasant summer afternoon.

Finally, here's a short video of Dave picking up and eating NY Pizza from Frank's.

Guest Post: "Fast" Eddie McCoy

Our good friend "Fast" Eddie McCoy posted the following on Facebook the other day. It really summed up what running/walking has done for us. We are pleased to present to you Team Tizzel's first guest post!

If you are looking for some inspiration read Eddie's story of how he went form weighing over 300 pounds to becoming a multiple Boston Marathon qualifier in 4 years. He's been a guest on The Marathon Show with Joe Taricani and The Mickey Miles Podcast. We've attended several marathons this year with him and instead of running his own race, he's hung back to enjoy the race with friends. Eddie is definitely someone you should get to know in the running community.

"Yesterday, I was approached in the grocery store because I was wearing my Flying Pig Marathon shirt. This gentleman was I'm guessing in his 50's, but he was just so excited to talk about running. He congratulated me on running a marathon. I then was able to find out that he was about to run his first 10K this weekend. It will be his furthest distance race at this point. His dream is to run a marathon.

I was just honestly delighted to see his excitement and enthusiasm about running. It was a very brief encounter but it reminded me why this sport is so wonderful. When you train properly and go after a goal, the result is so meaningful and it has nothing to do with time as much as it proving something to yourself. This man didn't care whether I was fast / slow or anywhere in between. He was just amazed at the accomplishment which someday he is trying to attain.

There is so much reward in this sport. Sometimes it gets lost, but the one thing that I love the most is going out and running each day. There is a clarity that it brings to my life and sets the tone for the day. It is a time when I don't or won't think about work. I can get in a zone and just be myself. If you want to challenge yourself, it is there for the taking. If you want to have fun with friends, that is also there as well. Running is what you make of it.

The fun in running comes from the grounded feeling you have by hitting the pavement each day and finding yourself. I was very pleased and excited to talk to this man about to run his first 10K."

Next time you are at a race look for this guy with a Bright Running shirt with his name on it.

Chain Livin': Kiddie Pool Sunday

We are in our 40's with no kids. And we have a kiddie pool. It's part of our weekend. Saturday we hit the chain for lunch and maybe a band at Blarney Island, but Sunday is about relaxing in the backyard.

 

Holly wanted to watch the Tour de France while in the pool today so we set the old Mac up to pull off the Directv receiver with Slingbox.

 

We used to have this pool, but it got a hole in it. It was expensive and lasted one season.

 

The new pool is from Walmart and cost 1/5th the price of the fancy one. We like it so much we bought two more for backups.

Really good pool

 

Random side note: this guy was on our patio table this morning.