I think it's time to disavow myself of the notion that I'm going to be able to use this blog column as a way to explore bars around the city. I thought at one point that maybe all this COVID shit would be dying down by the Fourth of July, and maybe it did in some alternate universe where Americans by and large have empathy for their fellow citizens and they wear masks over mouth and nose everywhere they go no matter what, but that is not our reality, so here we are.
Here I was, book in hand, looking for a beer to be enjoyed outside somewhere in Center City while I read. Options, unfortunately, are quite limited. This is a crowded city, and not everywhere has sufficient sidewalk space to house some customers (see you next year, my beloved McGillin's). There are options, for sure—I've been to Monk's and the Foodery in the past month, and both were great. But there's a difference between going back to the same two places over and over and using my time to go somewhere different every day. I can't do the latter, because there aren't that many places in walking distance open anymore.
Even bar/restaurants with plenty of outdoor space are declining to open, like Mace's Crossing and Con Murphy's. It's possible that there are other days of the week when they have outdoor seating available, but more likely it's that there are thousands of people who are working from home instead of in Center City, so that's 90% of your lunch crowd who aren't even working near you anymore, so why even bother opening? I get it. It fucking sucks, but I get it.
So I settled for Asia on the Parkway, which sits directly in between the two aforementioned bars, Con Murphy's and Mace's Crossing. Both of those are good bars, which means I've avoided the sterile, tourist-y looking Asia on the Parkway for my entire life until today. There was no reason to ever grab a beer here. What would've been the point? If I want a nice drinking experience, there were two more-than-decent bars a few steps in both directions. But current circumstances dictated that I finally visit, and find a nice, shady corner of the outside patio on a surprisingly sunny day. I mingled in among the sparse Windsor Suites Hotel crowd.
There are bars that specialize in beer, and those that don't. Asia on the Parkway was the latter, so the beer options were limited. That's okay, because I'm not a beer snob; my only concern is that my options for non-repeats are dwindling. They had Miller Lite and Bud Light (keeping Coors Light in my back pocket for an emergency), Heineken, Amstel Light, all that kind of stuff in bottles. I like all those beers, but I can't drink 'em if I want to drink something new every day. But this is my problem, not AotP's, so I'm not complaining, I'm just describing my minor dilemma.
Thankfully, they also had two Japanese beers available, and I've only had one of them so far (Tsingtao). The other one, Kirin Ichiban, seemed like a good pick. It's doubtful that I would be drinking this beer in any other context, so I'm not burning a new beer for a blog post that barely has anything to do with the beer itself.
If you want me to comment on the beer, I can do that: like many draft beers from shitty restaurants like this, the beer tasted a little buttery, which is the sign of unclean taps. I've had draft beers were A LOT worse, but still, you want fresh beer, and you can't really expect it from a lot of bars that clearly don't take beer tasting seriously (I'm starting to understand why my mom drinks exclusively from bottles when she's out at the bar). Otherwise, this was a normal American-style lager. When I burped into my mask, I didn't smell citra hops or toasty malts, I smelled beer.
So there ya go. I went to a bar I'd never been to before. Great. Wow.
This is not how I wanted this year to go. I wanted to check out a new bar every week, bars that I actually wanted to go to, instead of had to by default, ya know? I even had a list of bars in mind. Let's pour out a buttery draft lager for all the bars that I won't be sitting on a barstool at any time during this pandemic 2020 year:
Chuck's Alibi — this was my parents' usual haunt when they were my age (my dad was even on the Chuck's Alibi beer softball team), so I was going to check it out, and interview them about it. OH WELL.
O'Jung's — Reddit told me this was open at 7 AM on Sundays, so I could've visited when I was on the road for work. OH WELL.
New Wave Café — Ran into an old friend at the end of last year who said that she lived near New Wave, and I really wanted to meet her and her girlfriend there to catch up. OH WELL.
Ralph's Bleigh St. Bar — There was a few weeks in a row when I had multiple cases to investigate only a few blocks from this bar. I should've just checked it out then. OH WELL.
Scotty's Bar — I was also going to use this as an excuse to check out more of The Inquirer's Bar Code bars. OH WELL.
McGeehan's Rock Bottom — Even if one of those Bar Code bars is a safe space for MAGA racists. OH WELL.
Old Philadelphia — Kinda weird that there is a dive bar in Fishtown I've never been too... oh wait, this one is a MAGA bar too, FUCK. OH WELL.
Catahoula — Cajun food, and also not racist? Count me in! Oh wait, their bar area is closed. There's a pandemic. OH WELL.
My apologies that I will not be able to document my travels on this blog all that often, because there doesn't seem to be many places open to travel too. So, please excuse me while I stay safe and visit the Foodery every week for the rest of the year.
BEER: Kirin Ichiban
STYLE: America-Style Lager
ABV: 5.0%
BREWED BY: Kirin Brewery Company, Ltd.
LOCATION: Tokyo, Japan
PURCHASED AT: Asia on the Parkway, 1700 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
PAIRED WITH: Tenth of December
GRADE: 1.5 pukes out of 5
BEER COUNT: 265.5
No comments:
Post a Comment