| Urban Village Brewing Company 1001 N 2nd St | Philadelphia, PA 19123 (267) 687-1961 urbanvillagebrewing.com |
The start of Philly Beer Week 2017 brings with it the opening of a new restaurant and brewpub in the Northern Liberties neighborhood. Urban Village Brewing at Schmidt’s Commons on North 2nd Street opens its doors today, June 1st.
The concept, which pairs brick oven pizza made with naturally fermented yeast dough and craft beer offerings, is the brainchild of owners Dave Goldman and Tom Revelli, partnered with Executive Chef Chris Davis. Goldman is a homebrewer, graduate of the University of the Sciences Brewing certificate program, and founder of the Landmark Americana sports bars. General Manager Revelli was a longtime Landmark manager.
Surprisingly spacious, with a large central bar, open kitchen, and including cozy outdoor seating, the brewpub has a modern, warm feel. A multi-tone wood motif throughout, combined with matte metal trimmings and throwback psuedo-industrial lighting creates a welcoming atmosphere, both rustic and urban.
Urban Village opens with a lineup of 12 beers on tap, as well as local wines, cocktails, and some non-alcoholic offerings. Every beer is made with some local malts from Deer Creek Malthouse and Double Eagle. We sampled each beer on tap, including:
- Beach Day – 4.8% ABV Belgian Blonde
- Beets by J – 3.0% ABV Kettle Soured Berliner Weisse made with 300lbs of Roasted Beets
- Wildey – 6.0% ABV Wheat Beer with Orange Peel and Juniper Berries
- Nectar – 6% ABV Apricot Wheat with Peach
- Space Station – 5.4% ABV “Experimental” Ale made with Kölsch Yeast
- C.P.A. – 5.9% ABV Pale Ale with Citra Hops
- Huntingdon Drive – 6.7% ABV IPA with Simcoe, Citra and Amarillo hops
- Rye Bread – 7.5% ABV Rye IPA
- Liquid Courage – 8.6% ABV Belgian Golden Ale aged on American and French Oak Spirals
- Oatis – 7% ABV Oatmeal Stout
- Madagascar – 5% ABV Smoked Vanilla Porter
- Tyson – 9.7% ABV Imperial Stout with Vanilla Bean and Cinnamon
This is an impressively large and varied opening lineup, all the beers were solid – though some stood out among the others. My favorite was the Rye Bread Rye IPA (the couple crowlers of it in my fridge right now attest to that.) On the other hop-forward offerings, the Huntingdon Drive was nice and dank and sure to be a crowd pleaser; C.P.A., a modern Pale Ale, nicely showcased the Citra; the Space Station “Experimental” Ale is an unusual, non-traditional Kölsch-adjacent concoction that, while tasty, I feel would be better with the hop character dialed back a bit.
The Belgian and wheat beers were all solid, with the yeast and malt characters, respectively, right on point. Nectar, the Apricot Wheat was particularly refreshing and pleasantly balanced.
All the brews on the dark side shone individually. Notably, Madagascar is summed up in one word, vanilla, and to me that’s a good thing. A mild smokey malt character just slightly cut the sweetness.
We also had the pleasure of sampling several menu items, including a handful of the aforementioned brick oven pizzas, brisket sandwich, roasted beets, asparagus and portobello, and finished off with an Oatmeal Stout Chocolate Torte. Everything was delicious. As Dan remarked, “you had me at pizza.” You can view the entire menu here.
Urban Village is open daily from 11am – 2am, with the kitchen open Sunday to Wednesday from 11am to 12am and Thursday through Saturday from 11am to 1am. While your out and about this Philly Beer Week (and beyond) it’s definitely worth your while to stop in and check out Urban Village.
