Written By Breweries In PA Contributor Tricia C. (@trishie143 on Instagram)
Saturday brought the first real signs of Spring, or early Summer, weather to the Philadelphia area and what better way to enjoy this first spike in the warm weather then to head to Philadelphia’s first microbrewery. We have been wanting to take the tour of the brewery for a long time and we were not disappointed. Dockstreet and their neighboring Cannery & Lounge is located on the corner of 50th Street and Willows Avenue. The outdoor seating area in front of the brewery was extremely popular on this beautiful Spring day.
Dockstreet Brewery is what you could consider the baby of co-founder Rosemarie Certo. A woman with a passion for craft brewing in a world still very dominated by men co-founded Dockstreet in 1985. The early years of the brewery focused just on distribution and the brand spread out to 26 states and touched some international locations as well. After about a decade with some growing pains including a separation from the brand after not seeing eye to eye with investors Rosemarie in true motherly fashion swooped back in and rebuilt the brand with the help of VP Marilyn Candelero. It’s important to note that the brewery prides itself on being both a women & immigrant run business even having the honor of being named one of the largest women run businesses in Philadelphia. The brewpub today is housed inside a century old firehouse complete with a brick pizza oven. The recent addition of the Cannery & Lounge in 2017 right outside the side entrance of the brewery provides more seating, additional tank capacity, and space for their canning line.
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The brewery offers a tour for the extremely reasonable price of $5 (reservations can be made online) which includes a story of the brewery’s history, information about their focus to brew their beers with natural ingredients using very manual processes, and of course their passion for community. We sampled 3 beers including a not yet released IPA named Table Manners straight from the tank. After the tour we were given a pint glass adorned with their name and a sticker with the breweries nautical inspired logo.
We decided that we had to stay for their pizza because it looked and smelled too good to resist. The pizza side of the menu features nearly 20 very unique options along with calzones and the other side includes appetizers, small plates, salads, wraps, and burgers. We chose 2 small pies to share- the Florentine & the Flammenkuche. The pizzas were baked to perfection with fresh ingredients like crème fraiche, leeks, caramelized onions, bacon, spinach, and the perfect mixture of cheeses and seasonings married together on just the right amount of crispy thin crust. Needless to say, they do pizza really, really well.
Their current draft selection includes 6 beers and they have a specialty cask offering as well. For our beers we chose the Nino’s Prickly Pear Gose to share, my plus one decided on the Farmhouse Saison, and I settled on the Take ‘Em to the Bridge brown ale (pictured above). Like the beers we tried on the tour, these also did not disappoint and I would recommend all of them as great Spring/Summer beer choices.
If you are ever in the Philadelphia area and are looking for a small local brewery with a huge history and amazingly bright future Dockstreet should be at the top on your list. Go for the history, the beer, & the vision…stay for the pizza. They are located on S. 50th street.
And make sure you visit them on their website and follow them on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to keep up with all they are doing!
