While my wife, her sister and our friend, Joy, who I work with went on a short cruise to the Bahamas, I decided to use some Southwest Airlines credit and fly up to Atlantic City (via Philadelphia) for the weekend to see what the poker was like. For the record, poker is bustling there and I will definitely give it as much if not more consideration than Vegas or even Tunica from now on since with flight (one hour non-stop) and drive from Philly (one hour via the A/C Expressway), it actually takes less time to get there than driving to Mississippi. For the record-record, I played three tournaments, one at The Taj, one at Caeasar's and one at The Tropicana with a final table at the last one to basically break me even for the trip.BUT ON TO THE BEER!!!
Of course I went looking for good beer as well while in Atlantic City and man, did I find some...yet another reason to return to the Jersey Shore. There are some nice Irish pubs in The Tropicana and Caesar's and while I did not try anything new (Black & Tans please), I was impressed with them. My first new beer to try was at Atlantic City's only microbrewery that I could find, The Tun Tavern, over by the convention center. From my understanding, this is a new location (and building) based on a historical New Jersey tavern with ties to the U.S. Marine Corp. They have several brews on tap and my first choice was Bullie's Brown Ale. Not too shabby although I wasn't keen on the aftertaste. I asked for their American IPA next and they were out. Shocker. These places always seem to not brew enough IPA per the demand. I tried the Devil Dog Ale instead per the recommendation of the waitress who said it was good..."just not as hoppy." Hello! Hops are why I ordered the IPA, sistah!! The Devil Dog was decent. Nothing I would order again. I didn't have time (or willingness to stumble around drunk) to try the stout, but will give it a go next time with hopefully a shot at the IPA as well.
While I researched The Tun Tavern on the internet (I will give credit where credit is due. The Tun's website is where I snagged the Ben Franklin quote that I have at the top of this blog. Well said, Benny.) the next place I kind of stumbled upon and I am quite happy that I did. It's called Firewater Ales and Martini Bar in the bottom of The Tropicana. They have 51 rotating beers on tap! Impressive. My first and favorite of the day was the Stone IPA.
An absolutely perfect IPA. Stone IPA is brewed in California and is a microbrewing legend. They produce world class beer with memorable names including the always funny, Arrogant Bastard Ale. Their distribution is far and wide. I have seen their wares at home and around (I even have a t-shirt of theirs that I bought online cheap because of the look of it - did I mention they have a cool logo - see above), but this is my first encounter with it on tap and I was completely impressed. Despite wanting another Stone IPA badly, I decided for the sake of research (yeah i know, kind of goofy isn't it) I would try another draught (hell, they had 50 more to choose from!). I wanted to try a pale ale from Hawaii but they were out and the barkeep said they had a bunch of Octoberfest brews just in if I was interested. Sure thing! I settled on the Flying Fish Octoberfest which was light, smooth and crisp and quite enjoyable. Probably, a good choice since I was off to play in a poker
tournament next and another Stone IPA might have made it hard to focus on the cards! Flying Fish is brewed here in Jersey and although the brewery is closed tomorrow I do hope to check it out next time I am up this way. I have a couple of stops planned on my way back to the airport as well that may involve some more Flying Fish brews.
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