The annual Main Line Brew Festival will take place on Saturday March 3, 2007 at the Desmond Hotel in Great Valley from noon to 3:45 pm. It will feature Beer Tasting, Tutored Beer Tastings, Food and other special events.

Breweries include: Appalachian, Bethlehem, Dogfish Head, Legacy, McKenzie Brew House, Sly Fox, Spaten & Franziskaner, Triumph, Victory and Weyerbacher.

A free shuttle will run from the Paoli Train Station to the hotel for those who wish to take AMTRAK.

Purchase tickets here.

The September issue of Philadelphia Magazine has a brief piece entitled “Pig Out”, listing the top 10 Italian style pork sandwiches in the area. As far as the ‘burbs go, Angelina’s Italian Kitchen in Pottstown ranks #2 and Soprano’s Deli & Catering of Broomall ranks #3 — however it is an omission that makes the biggest mark in our book.

How did Luigi and Giovanni’s of Newtown Square not make the list? For our money, their Italian-spiced pulled pork sandwich, with a slice of sharp provolone and lots of homemade roasted red peppers on luscious, chewy, sesame-seeded Italian bread, is one of the best — if not THE best — sandwich around, pork or otherwise. It’s available out front of the store on weekends, and some weekdays as well. If you’ve never had the pleasure, it is worth the detour. (3601 Chapel Road., 610-353-2080)

I moved to this area from the Boston suburbs in 1990; when my first experience going “out for ice cream” in the area led to Dairy Queen, I was appauled. I asked one of the people I was with if there were any real ice cream shoppes around; he could only give me a puzzled look and shrug. And while I learned to appreciate the cookie dough Blizzard, I still dreampt of childhood days at Emack & Bolios, Brigham’s and of course, Steve’s, the greatest ice cream shop ever created.

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Stephen Starr recently announced that the bar at Alma de Cuba in Philadelphia is going smoke free. If this works ok, he plans to ban smoking in all of his establishments. Kudos to Starr and co. — it’s about time a bar owner stepped up and took the smoke-free movement on their own shoulders instead of waiting for the bureaucracy to do it. (I should also point out that the bar at Mantra, a new place at 18th & Sansom, is also smoke-free.)

What does this have to do with the Main Line? Well, reading this story I couldn’t help but think that it is time for some ML establishments to adopt the same policy. (It should be noted that Glenmorgan does already have this, but personally I don’t spend a ton of time at hotel bars.) Here’s an idea — what about the new bar that is opening next to Teresa’s Cafe in Wayne? We already know that one of the reasons for this bar is to court people waiting for dinner next door, so why not allow them to wait in a clean air environment? I’m always hesitant to go to GAP while waiting for a Teresa’s table, mainly because I don’t feel like smelling terrible for the rest of the night. A smoke-free establishment would certainly offer a nice alternative, and it seems to me that Wayne is just the town to get this movement rolling.

I know Mike from Teresa’s occasionally reads this site, so if you agree, comment here and let the world know!

One of my biggest gripes about the Philadelphia area in general is that there are not nearly enough places with outdoor seating (a few flimsy tables on the busy sidewalk hardly counts), and this applies even more so to the Main Line. This is especially irksome when visiting cities like Boston, Montreal, Toronto and Pittsburgh, all of which have generally colder weather than this area, yet far more choices for outdoor dining. However, this trend seems to be improving of late, so I’ve attempted to put together a list of the various options available. If you have any suggestions that we missed, add them via the comments section below.

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I tried Herr’s “Philly Cheese Steak” Potato Chips for the first time today. They are one of four new flavors from local the local company along with “Buffalo Wing”, “Honey Mustard” and “Sweet Island”, and fit nicely alongside Herr’s “Ketchup” flavor chips in the strange flavor canon.

The chips themselves taste mostly like, well, potato chips, but do have a light seasoning that tastes somewhat like cheese steaks. I do, however, think they only taste like steaks because they told me it was cheese steak flavor before I bit. If I didn’t know that, I’d probably just say they taste “seasoned”.

And if you are wondering, the “Buffalo Wing” chips taste pretty much like barbeque, and the “Ketchup” ones are barbeque with an extra dash of, you guessed it, ketchup.

Try ‘em at your local store or order some here. (You won’t be fighting me for the last bag.)

Our friends over at songoose.com have put together a compelling post on candy bar reviews after a recent visit to Dylan’s Candy Bar in NYC. Sky Bar, Big Hunk, Idaho Spud — once you read one, you’ll read them all!

I’ve been digging stouts more and more recently, and this one from local boys Dogfish Head is no exception. The Chicory Stoudt, described as “A dark beer made with a touch of roasted chicory, organic Mexican coffee, St. John’s Wort, and licorice root. Brewed with whole-leaf Cascade and Fuggles hops, the grains include pale, wheat, roasted & oatmeal.” It is a dry, heavy stoudt (much heavier than Guinness) but also quite drinkable. Its coffee and cocoa flavors make it a great beer to drink with chocolate.

Sometimes readers send in suggestions for restaurants that we haven’t reviewed yet. This page will provide a forum for these suggestions.

The MLRG crew recently visited Hawaii for some well-deserved R&R (and crashed a few great restaurants while we were in the area). This isn’t meant to be a complete dining guide for Hawaii — we just went for 8 days –just a recap of the places we visited and a brief opinion on each.

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