City Tap House - journey to university city

We don't spend too much time in the University City/West Philly area these days - much to Chiho's chagrin (he has recently discovered he has a die-hard appreciation for all things that U-City has to offer). This is mostly because we have so many places yet to try in the rest of the city and frankly, we don't really enjoy drinking with college students because it makes us feel old. Well, it makes ME feel old. Don't judge me!

Anyway, we had heard about the recent opening of City Tap House at 40th and Walnut. Admittedly, although we were intrigued at the thought of a 60-tap draft beer offering, we still needed a bit of a push to get our butts to U-City to try this place. That push came last night when Chau, one of our hippest hipster friends, told us to meet him there for a drink and snackies.

:: City Tap House ::
address: 3925 Walnut St, Philly
what we ate: too many beers, shrimp and grits, mussels with chorizo
The most impressive thing about this craft beer bar is definitely its decor/space. It's located on the balcony floor of the Radian (fancy looking student housing apartments) Building, and both the bar area and the main dining room are wide and extremely spacious, with dark wooden panels and details throughout. Even cooler still are the outdoor terraces, one of which offers long bench-style seating flanking each of the 5 rectangular fire pits. Though we wanted to sit outside, it was ungodly hot last night, so we opted to sit in the AC available bar area.

I really did appreciate how large the bar area was - the bar itself was long and rectangular as well, with seating along 3 sides, but there were also small round high tables along the whole window/wall where you could sit and get service. Which is exactly what we did.

The Beers: IPAs, Belgian-styles and more
The beer list was definitely impressive, but I was disappointed to find that there were several beers (like the Rogue Capt Sig Amber) that were no longer available. We also found that some beers were on the list, but hadn't been tapped yet. Still, the three of us were still able to find beers that we liked and enough variety to keep ordering something different each round.

Here are the downsides. Our server, who was perfectly pleasant and friendly, kept messing up our order. She had to come back and ask us repeated what we had wanted to order, she gave us the wrong beers, then assured us that she hadn't made an error, and generally was very slow tending to any requests we made. I suppose I attribute most of this to the fact that they just opened and the waitstaff still is learning. BUT, I did have a problem with one fact....

Our server was 18. She admitted she had never tasted or knew anything about the beers on the menu, which is why she had a hard time distinguishing which one was what.

I'm not really discriminating here. I worked as a server for 9 months when I turned 18 as well. I know that in PA, you only need to be 18 to be a server. The difference, and to me this is huge, is that I worked as a server in a seafood restaurant, where though they served alcohol the focus was the food. At City Tap House, their schtick is that they are a CRAFT BEER BAR. To me, it doesn't really make sense that your server at this craft beer bar cannot make recommendations, doesn't understand differences in the beers, and potentially can't even tell what beers she is delivering based on color/consistency?

It was just so surprising and disappointing because this sort of thing would never happen at a true craft beer specialty bar like Tria or Varga.

What we didn't get to try, but definitely plan on ordering on a potential return visit would be the Beer Flights that they have available. City Tap House offers 5 or so different types of flight, categorized by beer flavor profiles like Bitters or Wheats, and offer a flight of 4oz beers for $10-15 (depending on the type of flight you order).

Anyway, those complaints aside, the food seemed to be pretty good.  

King Creole Shrimp and Grits: white cheddar grits + smoked tasso sauce
Thanks to my work, I have been fortunate enough to make multiple visits to the South a few times over the last 2 years. Usually, I don't really consider this an event of GOOD fortune, but in the case of tasty food, it has definitely given me many opportunities to try the amazing regional cuisine. During my visits, I would always try to have two things: BBQ and/or Grits. Nobody makes grits better than the South. However, the cheddar grits at City Tap House were pretty freaking droolworthy.

This is considered a starter, so there were 3 jumbo shrimps and the dish was a reasonably priced $12. The shrimp themselves were perfectly cooked and nicely seasoned.

The STAR was definitely the cheddar grits, though - it was likely more the cheddar grits PLUS smoked tasso sauce combination. Tasso sauce is made from tasso ham, which apparently is a specialty of Cajun cuisine, and is a spicy, peppery version of smoked pork made from the shoulder butt. It's my understanding that tasso sauce is essentially tasso ham, butter, cream and flour. Spoon that over perfectly cooked cheddary grits and how can you go wrong.... right?! This is 100% worth trekking to University City to eat.

Pacho Mussels: spicy chorizo + tomato + garlic + fresh thyme, topped with fresh-cut fries
The fries were very good! Crispy and flavorful, plus the accompanying spicy aoli was delicious. The mussels were well cooked and a good plump size. I really enjoyed the salty and spiciness of the chorizo with the mussels, but it did make the broth excessively greasy when we were trying to dip our bread into it later on.

Because the fries are placed on top of the mussels, they will undoubtedly get soaked by the broth at some point towards the end of this dish, but surprisingly they still remained crunchy enough to still be enjoyable.

Ultimately, I think that City Tap House is definitely a bar I'd return to, but mostly for the outdoor terrace seating, the grits and fries. Let's hope the waitstaff education improves before our next visit.