First, it was those two grizzled strangers sitting next to me one night at the Las Vegas Lounge in Center City telling me, "You think this is a fun bar? Youze gotta' go to the Grey Lodge, man!"
Then, it was the respected former food editor of a very stylish Philadelphia-based magazine who chided me: "You call yourself a food writer yet you've never even been to the Grey Lodge?"
Esquire Magazine, too, told me in black and white: This year, the Pub is one of "America's Best Bars."
Ditto for the Beer Advocate, who bestowed the GLP within their pantheon of "Top 50 Beer Bars in the USA."
I got the point and quickly took the trip to Frankford Avenue, discovering why they call this section of town "The Great Northeast."
More than just a tavern, Grey Lodge Pub is a veritable shrine that's dedicated to three things: beer, fun and beer. Aficionados come from far and wide to sample the liquid gold pouring forth from those 18 hallowed taps and from 50 well-thought-out selections of bottled beers, ales and specialty brews.
It's better than "Cheers" here. Besides everybody knowing your name, Grey Lodge provides lots more to do on a regular basis than sit on the same stool and b-s with Norm and Cliff each day. At GLP, there's Quizzo (the inane yet crazy-popular fact game) and darts - both are taken way seriously here with major weekly tourneys and shoot-outs for fabulous prizes. Beer brewers and authors make seasonal pilgrimages to the pub; there's poetry readings and politicos, who are continually invited to talk their talks and, like any great bar, the locals have pretty much turned the joint into their own public civic forum.
Something else "Cheers" never had is good food. The pub's does; better now than ever before from what one regular tells me. Sure, they offer typical pub grub like chili, fish & chips and Philly cheesesteaks, but the culinary bar has been raised with the addition of such tasty dishes like Thai curried mussels, duck spring rolls, and seared tuna.
It's lively and smoky downstairs, decorated in late-20th century beer hall paraphernalia and bric-a-brac. A recent expansion upstairs now yields another bar amid a smoke-free environment. The coolest decoration (for me) though, was stepping into the hand-tiled men's room, its shiny mosaics greeting me with colorful sayings and pithy quotes. I hear that the ladies room is fashioned similarly.
I now know why everybody - from a couple of plaid-wearing lushes to one of America's top men's magazines - have all extolled the virtues of the Grey Lodge Pub. It's all about the beer, the fun, and the beer, man.
