Sharing Food

I love food!  I think I may have hinted at that once or twice in this space, I mean, except for the tomatoes.  But even those, I have learned to at least try.  I don’t consider myself any kind of chef or foodie expert, I just like eating and I think about it a lot.  I’ve recently given up sugar and nearly all processed or packaged foods which makes eating out a little trickier, but not impossible, maybe even tastier.  A few weekends ago my sweet and super-fun friends, Martha and Neil, invited me and my good friend Jackie, to go dining in Doylestown, PA.

There are so many cute restaurants in this town that it was hard to choose just one for dinner.  I will definitely be going back!

We started out at the Station Tap House. This place continued the “It’s Hard to Choose” theme because they have so many beers on tap. If you’re into craft beers (Like I am!), this is a good place to do some tasting. We each chose a different brew and enjoyed the Happy Hour crowd.

For dinner, we chose The Hattery, which is the bar and restaurant of the Doylestown Inn, a quaint little historic hotel in the middle of town.  The restaurant’s full name is The Hattery Stove & Still which combines a few things that the building used to be – a hattery, a cigar shop, a shoe store, a restaurant and a speakeasy.  There are so many cool things in the decor of this place.  I wish I’d taken more and better pictures, but here are a few things I enjoyed…

Hanging hat lights above the upstairs bar…

..and unicycle bar stools!

I didn’t understand why no one else was riding their stool.

The food was yummy! We shared some deviled eggs to start…

…I had the salmon with mushrooms and potatoes…

…and Neil offered to share his fries.  How cute is that little fry basket?!

My favorite part of the restaurant were these big frames hanging on the wall with all these great quotes about food.

Like this…

and this!

They reminded me of something my aunts often say, “Sharing food is a sign of affection.”

Because my favorite part of the night was… my friends!  I love food, but I love it even more when I’m sharing it with my people!  Thanks for a great night in D-town, Martha and Neil! You two are always a blast! (I’m not sure what kind of blast is happening to the lady behind us, but I hope she had as much fun as I did.)

#20 – You know what Ben Franklin said…

…”Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”  Amen.  I like beer, especially craft brews and drinking the local beers of wherever I happen to be.  Alaska has some good ones! But, lucky for me, I don’t have to travel that far to get some tasty brew.  I can even ride my bike to two of my faves!

This pretty path leads to fun towns with good restaurants and BEER!  We call it the “tow path.”

River Horse Brewing Company is in Lambertville, NJ, right on the bank of the Delaware River,  just a short distance from this biking trail.  I went with a few friends back in the fall when they had just released their “Hipp-o-Lantern” Pumpkin Ale. They’re into the hippos there.  River Horse = hippo.  At the brewery they usually have 3 or 4 beers on tap, one or two seasonal beers and then some of their standards, like maybe the “Hop-A-Lot-Amus” Double IPA.   For a buck or two you get 4 tastings.  I’ve been here twice and both times I was wishing that I could order a whole pint or bottle but they only do the samples.  It’s probably better that way because some of these brews are pretty potent.  They also give tours of the brewery but I’ve never done that.

We like pumpkin ale!

If you did want a whole glass of beer, which we did, you could walk back out to town and across the bridge that spans the Delaware River and connects New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  Just up the hill on the PA side you’ll find Triumph Brewing Company.  Triumph has locations here in New Hope and also in Princeton and Philly.  My standard here is their Honey Blonde which is pretty light and easy to drink. Jenna, up there, goes for the Amber Ale. I like to try their seasonals too.  My fave seasonal is their Raspberry Wheat.  Can’t wait for summer time to pick up a growler of that!  Triumph is a brewery and also a restaurant with some pretty good food.  So when my girls and I went for some brew we filled our tummies too.  And look what happened…

See that yellow tomato?

I ate it!

I was not into it.  I was more concerned with the setting sun, because next thing we knew the bike trail looked like this and the ride home was a lil dicey…

Where’s my head lamp when I need it???

A few weeks later we went to The Vault.  It’s a new brewery in Yardley, PA.  These guys renovated an old bank and turned it into a fun brew pub. It looks pretty cool inside and definitely feels like an old, fancy bank with tiled floors and bars and, well, vaults.  They serve pizza and tapas and play jazz music.  Sometimes they have live performances.  I’m not super into jazz music but I really liked the beer! We got the flights so we could try out a few…

That one on the left is sweet potato ale! I was a little skeptical but it was good like cinnamon and nutmeg and fall! Yum!

Which beer next?