Finally, after far too long a time, after too many years of suffering through can after tepid can of big-name beers, Americans are learning how fantastic a pairing partner beer can be with food. And not just pub grub, either, but the kind of thoughtfully-composed, multi-layered dishes that restaurants with serious wine lists send out of their kitchens every day.
Here in Philadelphia, of course, this really isn’t anything terribly new. We live at the center of what many beer lovers consider to be one of the country’s most exciting brewing regions. There’s Troegs in Harrisburg, Victory in Downingtown, Dog Fish Head in Delaware and Yards right here in the city of liverly love, among other notables.
While the majority of the beers of Triumph Brewery may not achieve the same levels of complexity that some of those others do, they certainly stand as worthy additions to the local beer scene. And the fact that they are served in a restaurant whose menu is very much in line with these dining times—small plates, a wide-ranging selection of dishes—is good news for the city’s growing legion of suds-heads.
That menu is full of surprises: The full dining one is divided into six sections (not including the listing of half a dozen side dishes), many of which you generally don’t find at other “brewpubs” in the area. There’s also a bar menu that features more standard pub fare, though even that shows evidence of aspirations higher than run-of-the-mill bar food. No matter from which one you order—or, if you’re hungry, you can taste dishes from both—the items are beer-friendly enough to warrant a bit of playing around with the pairings.
Belgian endive salad with a pretty tangle of upland cress and a sherry vinaigrette, for example, found an interesting match in the honey wheat, a beer whose subtle hints of sweetness played well against the buttermilk blue cheese and found a certain sense of harmony with the crushed candied walnuts.
Crab fritters, an attractively plated trio of crispy crab cakes, also provided ample opportunity for pairing with Triumph’s beer. The helles, a traditional Munich-style brew, was my favorite match for it, though the witbier, with its crisp citrus notes, cut through the heaviness of the crust of the fritters and brightened up those richer flavors with aplomb.
The fritters themselves took their cues from that most modern of restaurant play-books and were presented on a long rectangular plate with what Triumph referred to as a red-beet remoulade, a black-mustard emulsion and a tomato emulsion, though that first accoutrement was really more of a fine dice of sweet beets than a remoulade. Whatever they called it, the flavors worked surprisingly well together.
Other dishes, however, were less memorable. Or, rather, they were memorable, but not in the way you’d hope. Orechiette with broccoli rabe, spicy chunks of sausage, bacon, butterbeans, garlic and goat cheese was just ill-conceived. It reminded me of the kind of dish a budding home cook might attempt in order to impress a date. All the trendy ingredients were there—butterbeans seem to be everywhere these days—but the sum of the parts was both overwhelming and unimpressive. Plus, those little ears of pasta were so woefully overcooked that their texture was closer to that of glue than to anything you should ever eat.
And the Cuban panini, while perfectly decent, failed to be anything much more than that. The slices of pickle needed to be far more piquant to counter the richness of the pork and ham, and the entire sandwich seemed a bit dry to me. This was the fault of the bread, which, had it been thinner, would have allowed what was inside—slow-roasted pork, Mad Range ham, Gruyere, spicy mustard and that perplexing pickle—to play the lead role, as I assume it was intended to do.
As far as desserts, you’re better off skipping them and ordering an extra cone of fries—for the calories and fat content, they’re a lot more enjoyable. Crème brûlée suffered from a presentation that, in itself, prevented it from being a success: Served in an espresso cup, there was far too much crème beneath the caramelized crust of sugar crowning it all. This is a dessert that’s always been about a carefully calibrated crust-to-crème ratio, and this particular one didn’t stand a chance from the beginning. It was served alongside another demitasse filled with a forgettable chocolate pot au crème.
The cookie pie, however—scoop of vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two extra-thick chocolate-chip and peanut butter chip cookies—was much better. It didn’t try to be anything terribly fancy, though it rendered the classic ice-cream-and-cookie combination very well.
All told, and despite a few missteps, Triumph is a solid addition to the Old City scene. The space itself is striking and makes terrific use of the industrial feel of the building. It features one of the best beer deals in town: A sampler of all the beers on tap is a mere $8, and if you’re not going there to get your drink on, it’s a perfect amount to allow for some experimentation with pairings. I particularly liked the hefeweizen, whose distinct banana aromas were evidence of a carefully brewed beer, and the Irish dry stout, which, with its chocolate milk and coffee flavors, made a lovely partner for dessert.
Maybe that’s the secret here. Let the beer be your guide. That way, you’ll only order the good stuff. And mercifully miss out on the pasta.
