Beer Oasis in the middle of SuburbanTown

So, last Saturday, I spent the day doing adult things like helping brother shop for a new car and being an awesome person/sister. To reward myself, and the rest of our merry troupe, we ended up at Station Taproom in Downingtown, PA. Which, BTW, is absurdly far from the city, BUT literally across the street from the Septa R5 station, so good for you suburbanites living in this area.

I credit this find to Soopah because he had the handy Yelp mobile app on his BB and once we realized we were starving, he found this gem right away and OFF WE WENT.

:: Station Tap Room :: 
address: 207 W. Lancaster, Downingtown PA
what we ate: wings, fries, mac'n cheese, pulled pork, cubano, beers
So this place apparently JUST opened up and their website isn't even functional yet, but I am loving what they are doing here. The focus is on awesome beer, locally sourced food/ingredients (some of their produce is from Talulah's market in Kennett Square), and great service - all in a clean and spacious decor with a cool open kitchen concept.

First, the BEERS. As you can see, on tap, they were heavy on the Ales and IPAs here, but had plenty of bottled options and of course, wine as well.

We had a few pints of beer that the owner/bartender recommended. Then we saw the "Try a Flight!" message on the board. OF COURSE! How did we not see this previously?!

It turned out that you could get a flight of four 5.5oz beers for $7. Not bad, right?

#4 is the first beer on the left. My faves of this flight were the Sixpoint Righteous Ale and the Founder's Centennial IPA. They are just perfectly hoppy! As a sidenote, I'm really loving Sixpoint Craft Ales and Founder's Brewery. So happy to have discovered them.

When we put our order in (there were 3 of us), the owner was like "uhm, wow- aggressive" because we ordered 5 dishes. I don't think it was excessive; some could be considered appetizers, after all! Plus, obviously we can eat.

Short Rib Eggroll: fried + stuffed with collard greens
We kept going back and forth on whether or not to get this, but in the end, how could we deny ourselves an eggroll with short rib meat in it? It was flavorful, but definitely a bit on the greasy side. I think they have to figure out how to deep fry tender meat without having it retain all of the delicious but decidedly unhealthy oil.

Definitely an interesting dish, but I didn't love it so I doubt I'd get in on a return visit.

Cuban Sandwich: pulled pork + thick cut ham + swiss + spicy mustard + fries
Unquestionably my favorite dish that we ate at Station Taproom. It was just a really great blend of spicy, salty, rich flavors and the bread was just crunch toasted enough to give it the textures it needed.

I mentioned before that the service was awesome. Well, we didn't make it easy for the servers, mind you. Since there were 3 of us dining, I asked him to cut the cuban sandwich into 3 pieces for us. Not only did he do this, but he actually plated all 3 pieces separate so we could each have our own plate and fries.

OMG, the FRIES. The fries here were AMAZING. Hand-cut fries in the "english chip-style" where they were thick and super crispy on all the edges, but still soft on the inside. Totally a winner. Several of our dishes came with fries and we worried that there'd be much leftover, but seriously - we ate every single one off of each plate. Ridiculous feat.
   
Chicken Wings: thai curry sauce + bleu cheese 
Awesome wings. Here again, was another example of service that goes above and beyond - the owner let me sample the wing sauce base before we ordered! I really wanted to try the wings, but was hesitating because I don't usually like thai curry sauces (it's the coconut milk), so he brought us a cup of the sauce and let us try it out first. It was pretty incredible so we ordered the wings and devoured them.

In terms of quantity, you don't get too many - I think it came with 6 wings? I'd be hard pressed to make this a meal by itself. Still, it's really tasty and so worth ordering as a starter.

Pulled Pork sandwich: NC-style pulled pork (vinegar-based) + fries + coleslaw  
I was super excited about this because Station Taproom actually gives you 2 different options for the kind of pulled pork you'd like: North Carolina style with the vinegar-y base or Texas style with a thicker sauce (ketchup, cumin etc). We went with the NC style.

This was just okay. I suppose the downside to having 2 different preparations of pulled pork is that you don't really have pork simmering in the sauce over a long period of time. I suspect that they have pulled pork and then mix it in with one of the two different sauces. What you're left with was tender meat that hadn't really absorbed the flavor of the sauce. But again, the fries were so good!

Mac 'n Cheese: sundried tomato + olives + ? 
I wish I had taken a closer look at the menu to write this down. I had actually assumed I'd be able to pull it down off of the website and didn't pay close enough attention. What I can say is that the mac'n cheese was definitely UNIQUE and interesting; I've never had anything quite like it. You did have to make sure you got pieces of olive/tomato etc in each bite for it to be good, though. Otherwise, it was on the bland/boring side.

The other menu options definitely seemed worth checking out - lamb burger, regular burgers, truffle fries etc. Station Taproom seems like a wonderful option for beer and food lovers alike, that live in the area, and certainly can appreciate that it's a rare find. I don't know that I'd travel to Downingtown to eat/drink here, but I would definitely recommend it to others who live in the area. You can't go wrong with a knowledgeable staff, fantastic craft beer selection, good food and comfortable decor.