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This
Northern Liberties spot is in the forefront of a welcome new wave
Craig LaBan
Philadelphia Inquirer
Published: Sunday, September 23, 2001
This gastro-pub has now earned a third bell in its quest to redefine the bar-restaurant
experience. The moody Northern Liberties tavern is the showcase for the best
local beers, a rocking jukebox, and an ever-ambitious kitchen serving food
worthy of any white-tablecloth eatery, from sublime duck confit to soulful
sauerkraut with venison sausage.
— Craig LaBan, Philadelphia Inquirer, March, 2005
In the early 1980s, a Texas Monthly magazine writer named Jim Atkinson wrote
an homage to the "bar bar" and its fight to survive the "wimpifying"
influence of the fern bars sprouting up across the country.
The Standard Tap in Northern Liberties: Leading a revolution. (Michael S.
Wirtz / Inquirer)
The "bar bar," he wrote, was usually a dark, whiskey-drinking place
where the arts of conversation, listening, killing time, and holding forth
were still prized. And "if somebody knows where you are," he added,
"you aren't in a bar bar."
The fern bar, meanwhile, was "about "being" there — being
there to be seen." And its trappings were too horrible for Atkinson to
bear: wine spritzers and pina coladas, fried zucchini sticks and fake Tiffany
lamps, guys named Biff scoping out girls named Heather, and bartenders in
striped shirts wielding computerized liquor guns to maximize profits.
What Atkinson described was only the beginning of the struggle between independent
bars with character and corporate clones such as Bennigan's and Houlihan's.
And the situation would get worse before it got better.
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But get better it did. Not only have unique "bar bars" been thriving
in Philadelphia, but some have begun cooking up a storm in some of the least
likely corners.
How about the New Wave Cafe in Queen Village, which, before its current chef
arrived, was most noted as a waiting room for the restaurant across the street?
Or the Black Sheep, near Rittenhouse Square? All right, the crowd there "can"
be "ferny," but the owners earn big points for opening an Irish
pub without shamrocks.
Perhaps the most "bar bar" of the new generation, though, is the
Standard Tap in Northern Liberties. It's the kind of place Atkinson would
love, half-lit with the yellow glow of a gas chandelier that gives the occupants
of the hand-built cherry-wood bar and the dining room banquettes a moody air
of "I'm not here."
The beautifully renovated building, which has been a Northern Liberties taproom
for nearly two centuries, is set at the northernmost fringe of this burgeoning
neighborhood. The crowd has an edgy, effortlessly cool air — an artsy
mix of salt-and-pepper bohemians, restaurant industry insiders, and thirtysomethings
with shoulder-blade tattoos who make the Old City folks to the south look
like trendy wannabes.
Three other bars with good food:
· Black Sheep
· London Grill
· New Wave
There is no television here. So conversation is the sport of choice if you
can surmount the formidable din of the jukebox playing Tom Waits and Iggy
Pop. That is, unless you play darts. In which case you'll be doing your damnedest
not to hit one of the servers as they exit the kitchen door just a few inches
left of the dart board's well-pocked wall.
There may not be quite enough whiskeys for Atkinson's, or my, taste. But the
Standard Tap is a premier venue for local beers, with as many as 13 brews
on draft and no bottled suds in sight. This commitment to fresh beer is no
surprise since one of the Tap's two owners, William Reed, spent five years
as a brewmaster at the now-closed Sam Adams Brewhouse on Sansom Street.
But the focus on local goes beyond the beer, from the wood that Reed and partner
Paul Kimport used to build the bar and banquettes to the ingredients in Kimport's
surprising food.
Servers must trust no darts will go astray as they exit the kitchen. (Michael
S. Wirtz)
There is an austerity to the blackboard menus, which simply read "squid,"
"duck salad," "smelts," or the like. And those bony little
pungent fish say "bar bar" as much as anything else.
Don't let the low-key menu fool you, though. This food is ambitious with an
honest homemade quality that rises far above the potato-skin/nacho cliches
that fern bars worked so hard to standardize.
The duck salad features one of the best legs of duck confit in town, steeped
for four hours in a pot of its own fat and then crisped until the skin protects
the soft, herb-infused flesh like salty brown parchment.
An appreciation of good ingredients is apparent in some of the other salads,
too — the crimson mound of sweet roasted beets sided with a dollop of
sour cream, or the slices of lusciously ripe red, yellow and tiger-striped
green heirloom tomatoes served splayed around salty shards of Locatelli cheese.
I saw only one dessert offered during my visits, but it was a nice rendition
of the bistro classic many restaurants flail at: a creme brulee with real
vanilla and a still-warm-to-the-touch caramel crust.
A few renovated bar standards still need work. The fried squid with aioli
was inconsistent and tended toward bland and chewy. The burgers, while tasty,
had a fancy-bun complex, served on a chewy, flour-dusted roll that smooshed
the beef to pieces before I could bite through it.
The duck confit salad is one of the best in town.
An upscaled grilled cheese sandwich was also defeated by a poor choice of
bread, a puffy focaccia that overshadowed the tasty blend of jack cheeses
inside. And a beautiful pork chop with greens was overcooked to a parching
dryness.
The Tap's kitchen thrives on the rustic, hearty flavors that used to be reserved
for European-style bistros, not neighborhood bars. There is a homemade breakfast
sausage at Sunday brunch that occasionally finds its way into a creamy corn
stew at dinner beneath a crisp fillet of red snapper.
The pate is also made in-house; the night we ordered it, it was a slab of
chunky pork and venison ringed with smoky bacon. The soups were excellent:
thick lentil one night, an icy-cold vichyssoise another, its creamy potato
puree redolent of sweet leek.
Crisp fried softshell crabs were a delicious ode to late summer garnished
with cool cucumber puree and tomatoes. And the roast pork sandwich was a monument
to gusto, a sopping mound of shredded tender meat on a bun that was absolutely
swamped with fennel-scented juice.
As I laid long, roasted green chiles on top, the wonderfully sloppy mess came
alive with the kind of heat that made me want to get up and dance. Or at least,
throw darts in a genuine "bar bar."
ABOUT THE RESTAURANT
Standard Tap
901 N 2nd St.
Philadelphia, PA 19123
(215) 238-0630
Neighborhood:
Northern Liberties
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DETAILS
Rating
30 stars
Cuisine type
American, Brew Pub, New American
Style
Timeless, low-key and a little scruffy
Hours
7 days (dinner) Sun (brunch)
Meals Served
Brunch
Dinner
Late Night
Reservations
Not Available
Payment methods
MasterCard
Visa
Specialties
Beet salad; cold potato-leek soup; duck salad; heirloom tomato salad; pork
sandwich; softshell crabs; seared snapper with corn-sausage stew; creme brulee
Other Features
Fun hangout
Alcohol
There is a small selection of affordable wines, but the focus is on local
draft beers from Philadelphia Brewing, Victory, Stoudt's and others, including
a wonderful ESB ale from Troegs in Harrisburg
no-smoking section
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