Gritty McDuff's Brew Pub

187 Lower Main Street
Freeport, ME 04032
(207) 865-4321
Website

Freeport Maine is known for their reasonably priced active outdoor-wear, and Gritty McDuff's (probably). This place is pretty well known in Maine, and so I generally make it a point to visit when I am in the Pine Tree State for some beers and decent bar food. Check out the bowl of Iggy Azalea below. Just kidding, it is actually lobster bisque, not clam chowder.

It was certainly creamy. And had lobster chunks. I would have loved some sherry swirled in, or some heat to it, but overall it was solid comfort food.

One of the more interesting things I tried was the barley battered fried chicken sandwich. The chicken was great, a nice hearty crunch, and the portion was huge. I would have liked the Swiss to be melted, however.

Honey mustard, bacon, lettuce, tomato. Good bar food.

A pair of lobster rolls (it IS Maine after all) were again pretty tasty, though obviously nothing gourmet about them. For about $14, it was a nice deal, and made for a tasty bar bite.

The lobster was fresh and well cooked, nothing rubbery here.

A bit of bib lettuce made this basically a salad.

I would certainly order all of the above again, but would love if they stepped it up JUST A BIT. Either way, when you have bought all of the plaid shirts and rubber boots you can carry, this place is the next stop for a pint and bite.

Pic-A-Lilli Inn

866 US-206
Shamong, NJ 08088
(609) 268-2066
Website

South Jersey has some of the best food around. They make great cheesesteaks and hoagies, and their wings are only rivaled by the Philly 'burbs. The Pic-A-Lilli Inn is sister restaurant to the Pic-A-Lilli Pub in Atlantic City. Cheap beer and great wings can be had at both. The Inn is located smack dab in the middle of the Pine Barrens. So you can go ride bikes/motorcycles or kayaks, and then grab some cold ones and some wings after.

The cheesesteak at the Pic-A-Lilli is no slouch either. Served on a Liscio's roll, the meat is finely chopped, well seasoned, and came with a hearty ratio of American. The onions were fried well, sweet and caramelized without becoming mush.

Curly fries with a side of wiz rounded out this low calorie, low carb lunch. It was basically diet food.

The wings are actually counted in half wing. So an order of ten works out to be about fifteen to twenty wings. An order of six is shown below. The sauce can get hot quick, so if you skip "spicy" and go to "hot" be warned, they have the burn.

The meat is tender, and the skin well rendered. These are not the crispiest wings you will eat, but they just work. A combination of the deep flavor of the sauce, and the little morsels of deliciousness is enough to satisfy anyone from a biker (you will see lots here) to a chubby food writer (likely to find me here as well).

Billy Murphy's Irish Saloon

3335 Conrad Street
Philadelphia (East Falls), PA 19129
(215) 844-9683
Facebook

Billy Murphy's Irish Saloon is an East Falls staple. It's the quintessential corner bar, low key, no frills, but a great place to get a couple of beers and some delicious food.

Anytime there are pig wings on the menu, I have to order them. This was one of those times. Braised pork shanks, cooked until extremely tender, then fried to crisp up the exterior and tossed in wing sauce. Hiding under the discard boat, they peaked out like a seductive, sticky temptress.

As usual, these were incredible. It's a pork lollipop, with nothing but tender meat perched on a shank. The sauce was spicy and sticky, and had enough body to stay put.

The "Von Hayes" sandwich seemed remarkably similar to another famous Philadelphia athlete-inspired cheesesteak variation. Steak meat, cheese, fried onions, tomatoes, special sauce. It was an exercise in gluttony. Keep in mind, its pretty dark in here, so I struggled with photos a bit.

The famous "turf burger" is $5 on Tuesdays. This one has special sauce, American cheese, jalapenos, fried onions, lots of bacon, and more special sauce. A steal at $5, this is the kind of burger that makes for a great corner bar. Just bring cash (they don't take cards).

Split Rail Tavern

15 N Walnut Street
West Chester, PA 19380
(484) 999-8805
Website

Split Rail is a good place to stop in West Chester for a decent beer selection, and so I decided to try the "Split Rail Commonwealth Burger" that was talked up by the bartenders the last couple of visits I made.

On the menu, it had all of the right components. "All burgers are 6oz Dutch Meadow Farms 100% Organic Grass-fed Beef accompanied by a Russian dressing, shredded lettuce, tomato, red onion, choice of sharp cheddar, American or Swiss, a spicy pickle and house-cut french fries, served on a Big Marty's sesame seed bun." Sounds like a high-end fast food burger to me. Lovely. I ordered it with sharp cheddar, and caramelized onions ($1.50 up-charge on the onions). Which put it at $13.50. Still, when it arrived, it looked quite good, and the fries were tantalizingly golden brown.

The problem with the burger was flavor. It was bland city, the burger meat tasted like watery beef juice that had never heard of salt (and there was a hair on my vegetable toppings served on the side). The hair, well that sometimes happens, but the woeful under-seasoning, that should never happen.

I really wanted this to be awesome, look how good it looks, and is a nice medium (strong medium) which was close enough (I guess) to the medium rare I ordered so as not to offend. But I truly tasted nothing. I asked a dining mate to try it (having given no indication of my thoughts), and the immediate response- "wow, that is incredibly bland" followed by- "is that a hair?". I have been back and tried it again to be sure it was not a one off experience. And it was the same conclusion. Great components, poor execution.

Not to mention the unexpectedly dry bun. Usually these babies are soft and supple, but this bad boy was D-R-Y and crunchy, but not because it may have been toasted (it wasn't), it was stale. Even if the burger had come out medium rare and potentially dripping with jus, the crumbly bun still would have been noticeable.

The fries were the saving grace (I think they mistakenly used the burger salt on THEM). Perfectly fried, nicely seasoned, and pillowy inside, I loved them. Next time I would steer away from the burger, but perhaps try something else that was accompanied by these crispy potato dreams. That is if I venture back during dining time.

The Goat's Beard

103 North Wayne Avenue
Wayne, PA 19087
(484) 584-4979
Website

Wayne is not somewhere I often find myself, so when I was out that way recently, I decided to try a bar I was told about. The Goat's Beard holds down a cool disjointed corner lot. The inside is upscale(ish) and the outside lends itself to some pretty good people watching.

There is a great beer list, and some nice cocktails. I decided to try both (don't judge me).

The wings were labeled as "buttermilk fried with a 24 hour brine." But they seemed to have changed that up. I was told they were baked off first, and then fried to make them super crispy. Sounded exciting, but also nothing like the printed piece suggested.

The reality is that they were not as crispy as I had hoped. The skin was soft, and though somewhat rendered, there was little crunch to these things. The pickled vegetables were a nice change of pace, however, and I enjoyed them even more than the wings themselves.

I am not a fan of wings that are hairy (due to obvious reasons) and these were among the hairiest I have seen in a while. See below.

The pork and kimchi fries were my other snack on this trip, and a complete reversal of the wings debacle. The fries were perfectly cooked, and smothered with an addictive garlic aioli, bright kimchi, and unctuous pulled pork.

The portion size was perfect, and I could not get enough of the pork swirled with garlic sauce and bites of kimchi. It was a great bar snack.

Check out the crispy bits of pock hidden around the bowl. Fantastic.

All in all, the wings are a definite pass, but this bowl of fries might have me stopping by again, should I ever find myself in Wayne proper. I mean, likely not. But if you're there, go grab a drink and give any one of their fry options a try for me.

Poe's Tavern

2210 Middle Street
Sullivan's Island, SC 29482
(843) 883-0083
Website


Among the many places I love in Charleston, Poe's on Sullivan's Island is high on the list. A beer, cocktail, and burger bar it sits near the beach, and is completely filled with Edgar Allen Poe ephemera. He was stationed on the island and wrote "The Gold Bug" while there. So it makes sense there is a tavern dedicated to him.

The fireplace is particularly haunting.

I had already eaten lunch, and had dinner arrangements, but had to try the "Black Cat" burger anyway. Grilled onions, Edgar’s Drunken Chili, applewood bacon & pimiento cheese burger with a healthy serving of fries and some marinated bacon blue cheese slaw. I decided to go light and also get a side of roasted garlic blue cheese spread. I am making myself blush just writing this.

The burger was probably well seasoned (it was perfectly cooked), I wouldn't know because there was so much flavor in the chili topped with pimento cheese. It was a fantastic "fancy burger". Certainly not diet friendly, so we were fast friends.

Look at this thing. Unreal.

The slaw was a bit of a letdown, as it was lacking in flavor, and had no discernible notes of blue cheese nor bacon. It was fine, but not the over the top explosion of flavor I was hoping for. It looked pretty great though. Poe's is certainly a great place to visit on your way to or from Fort Moultrie. Though you may not be hungry for a while.

Brewster River

(Smuggler's Notch Resort)
4087 Vt Route 108 S.
Jeffersonville, VT 05464
(802) 644-6366
Website

A long weekend in Vermont led to some delicious food and far too many hoppy beers. Brewster River is located by Smuggler's Notch, and is a great bar to grab some food after a day on the slopes. Unfortunately I don't  have any pictures of what is most certainly the best thing on the menu, the teriyaki duck wings. I forgot I was writing about the damn place and failed to gather photo evidence of EITHER order of the drummettes. They were fried perfectly and were so good, I ordered a second round upon completion of the first. I'll also admit that there were a few drinks involved before arriving, so that didn't help my photo taking skills...

They had a "Pittsburgh sandwich" which was based on the famous and over-rated Primanti Brothers "sandwich". As underwhelmed as I am with putting french fries and vinegar slaw on your thick bread and claiming it as your regional identity, I was willing to give it a go, as I had been drinking and it sounded filling.

Brewster executed a great version, but as the Achilles' heel lies in the sandwich itself, it was just kind of okay. The fries were crispy and salty, the pastrami was tender and the slaw was well seasoned. But the sandwich was just a bit dry and flavorless. Too much bread and potato is usually the culprit. Again, I am not criticizing the bar, but rather the city. And the hockey team.

The Godzilla burger was over the top. Pastrami, pulled pork, Beef Brisket, pork roll, smoked bacon, fried egg, hash brown, pepper jack and cheddar. The meat sweats were soon to follow. My biggest complaint, was that the fried egg was fried hard. The whole point is a runny yolk.

I guess the burger was good? You can see the egg yolk, a solid yellow. Otherwise a glutton's dream. And a big fat high five for including pork roll. That is a rarity outside of our area, and a solid breakfast meat underdog.

After gorging on the pub food, we proceeded downstairs where they have an executive-size pool table. It was a lot of fun. Great place to warm up after a cold day on the mountain.