©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

‘Current’ adventure for local restaurant’s diners
by LEN LEAR

Larry Horwitz is the head brewer at Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant, 1460 Bethlehem Pike in North Wales, which produces distinctive, full-flavored, handcrafted beers. All beers are brewed on site and include six regular brews and one or more rotating specials. Horowitz told us that he decided to become a brewer while in college in Ohio because “I was already drinking so much beer that I figured I should get paid for it.” For more information, call 267-708-2000 or visit www.ironhillbrewery.com. (Photo by Len Lear)

The Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant at 1460 Bethlehem Pike in North Wales, about five or 10 minutes from Chestnut Hill, at the end of the Route 309 Expressway, normally keeps current regarding restaurant trends (for example, beer-pairing dinners, rotating beer specials, fixed priced dinners featuring two courses and two beers for $19.95, and curbside carry-out dinners).

However, on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 18 and 19, the restaurant was not very current, to put it literally. On Tuesday night, for example, according to restaurant manager Becky Koval, the restaurant and bar were filled with more than 200 customers, some of whom were there because of a Tuesday night “Texas hold-’em” poker promotion.

Readers may recall that on July 18, starting at about 8 p.m., there was a horrendous rainstorm accompanied by lightning and thunder. Soon afterwards, the lights began to flicker on and off at Iron Hill. Then they would go off for a few minutes and come back on for a few minutes. According to Koval, the chefs in the kitchen continued preparing food by candlelight. Finally, at about 8:30, the lights went off and stayed off.

Servers then went up to each table and informed customers that there would be no more food coming out of the kitchen, that they could finish what was on their plates but that the restaurant would then be closing. “Believe me, this was rough,” said Koval. “That was one of the busiest Tuesdays we ever had.”

Interestingly, the power also went out in every other building in the shopping center where Iron Hill is located. However, in the shopping center just across the road, which includes a movie multiplex, the power stayed on. “I live in Doylestown,” said Koval, “and the drive home Tuesday night was a little scary. There was zero power all the way up to Southampton.”

At about 1 a.m. on Wednesday, PECO workers were able to restore power to the shopping center that contains Iron Hill. The brewery/restaurant began serving lunch on Wednesday, but at 1 p.m. power went out again, this time because of a huge tree that had fallen on power lines. On Wednesday, electric power was also knocked out in the shopping center across the road.

The power stayed off until about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, which means that Iron Hill lost that night’s dinner business also. “Most customers were understanding (at Tuesday’s dinner and Wednesday’s lunch),” said Koval. “We apologized to everyone, but obviously it was out of our control. I never experienced anything like that before here. We hated to lose the business, but in a way we were lucky because it could have been worse.”

(Power was restored in time for Thursday’s lunch business, but as late as Friday night there were still 3,600 homes and businesses in Montgomery County and 5,000 homes and businesses in Chester County without power. This was one time when Philadelphia fared much better than the suburban counties because almost no one in the city lost power for an extended period of time.)

Opened in March of 2004, Iron Hill in North Wales features a huge dining area that can seat more than 200 as well as an open kitchen with a wood-burning oven, an exposed microbrewery, rich mahogany paneling, corrugated copper walls, gray slate floors, black wrought iron accents and a large, almost-always busy mahogany bar.

Beer enthusiasts are able to watch the fascinating hand-crafted brewing process through large glass windows that enclose the brewery. My own favorites are the Pig Iron Porter, a fabulous, robust, medium-bodied dark ale with a roasted flavor; Raspberry Wheat, a sweet Belgian-style beer with a touch of raspberry aroma and flavor; Wee Heavy, a rich, dark brown Scotch ale with a distinctly malty aroma and caramel flavor that goes perfectly with spicy food; and Hefeweizen, a spectacular medium-bodied, unfiltered Bavarian wheat beer with flavors of banana and clove.

The Iron Hill restaurants, named after a Revolutionary War landmark in Delaware, have been recognized by many area publications for their outstanding beers and food. For example, BrewPub Magazine named Iron Hill “Best Brewpub in the Mid-Atlantic Region.” Main Line Today Magazine called Iron Hill the “Best Brewery Restaurant,” and readers of Delaware Today Magazine voted them the “Best Overall Restaurant.”

As mentioned earlier, Iron Hill recently introduced “Curbside Carry-Out Dining in Four Easy Steps.” (There are several other Iron Hill Brewery/Restaurants in the Delaware Valley, but the one on Route 309 in North Wales is the only one to have curbside carry-out dining.) A customer can place an order by phone at 267-708-2000 after checking the menus at www.IronHillBrewery.com The customer is then told what time to arrive for the order, and he/she can pick it up without leaving the car at the designated curbside carry-out parking spaces in front of the restaurant.

“There has been no advertising of this so far,” said Koval, “but because of word-of-mouth, it’s about 60 to 75 percent of all of our takeout business.”

In August, Iron Hill’s $19.95 beer-pairing dinners will consist of New England clam chowder paired with Anvil Ale and a lobster bake with clams, mussels, potatoes and corn, paired with either Hefeweizen or Belgian Wit, depending on availability.