Last weekend, Tim and I checked out Earth Bread + Brewery in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philly. Definitely an interesting place!

The setup is pretty neat, though it’s a tiny bit cramped for the crowd they draw. That’s actually an understatement. It was uncomfortably crowded in there. Granted, we were there on a Saturday night at peak restaurant hours… But really, it was nearly impossible to walk around in there. (For the record, our server told us it was a slow night!)

Luckily, that is my only complaint about Earth Bread + Brewery. The rest of our experience was excellent!

The brewery is actually located on the floor below the main floor, but it’s fully visible from the restaurant above. Check it out:

Definitely a smart way to utilize a small space.

So how did the beer taste? Eeeeexcellent. They had four on tap. My favorite one was their Total Blank Ale. We kinda got the feeling that once the beer was finished, they weren’t sure how to categorize it, hence the name. It was a little malty, a little bitter, and extremely floral. Really enjoyed it.

They also had a sahti, a primitive beer style originating from Finland, which traditionally uses juniper twigs to filter the mash. Not something you see very often, pretty cool! I was also a big fan of their Wee Heavy, tons of caramel and roasted flavors. And finally, their mild ale was as you might expect — mild. But the transparency of this beer really showed the quality of their beers as a whole. I’d say the brewer here really knows his stuff.

Just like the brewery, the kitchen is in full view from the restaurant, so you can watch them twirl your pizza dough while you wait for a table!

Plus, they have a really neat, hand-built wood oven where they bake their pizzas.

I’m not sure what was more delicious, their beer or their pizza. The crust was perfect. I ordered the Traditional – house-made tomato sauce, roasted onion, fresh mozzarella, and arugula. Arugula on pizza = awesome. Tim had that night’s special, a BBQ chicken pizza. The BBQ sauce tasted like root beer, and it made me really want to try making a root beer BBQ sauce.

On the whole, I really liked this place. If it was in my neighborhood, I would probably go broke and gain 50 lbs. My only wish is that it was a little less crowded, with a little more convenient parking. But overall, it was definitely worth the trip.