| Craig - Good afternoon, my thirsty friends, and welcome to this hopped-up edition of our weekly food chat. It’s the Philly Beer Week Special, and I’ve invited some of the region’s leading beer authorities to pull up a stool for an hour at the cyber-bar, crack open a favorite brew and answer some of our most pressing questions about the local state ale and lager.
We are just three days away, of course, from the second annual Philly Beer Week, which is about to grip the city in a sud-soaked frenzy of brew-loving festivities. By the last insane count, more than 670 events are on the schedule at 150-plus venues across the region from March 6 through 15. (Can this number be true, or have you all been drinking too much barley wine?) Still, that begs the question: how to choose? Joining me today to answer that question and more are four of my favorite local luminaries when it comes to drinking beer:
-Beer bard, PBW co-organizer and author of the “Joe Sixpack” column in the Daily News: Don Russell
-Belgium’s greatest ambassador since Jacques Brel, Knight of the Brewer’s Mashstaff, co-owner of Monk’s, Grace Tavern and the Belgian Café, and probably the greatest single reason Philadelphians actually know a Gueuze from a Guinness: Tom Peters
-Co-founder of Yards Brewery, local brew pioneer, one of the driving forces behind the current craze for firkins and hand-pumped English-style cask ales, and soon-to-be sumo wrestler: Tom Kehoe
-One of the first local restaurateurs to prove that beer not only competes with wine in sophistication, but can also happily coexist, Tria owner: Jon Myerow | 