Written By Silas Chamberlin

Remember that weekend last fall when you and your buddies piled into the car and made an epic journey through the Corridor, consuming large quantities of only the finest beer and artery-clogging but delicious food? Well, those days are over. The girl you met at Pittston’s Coopa Cabbana became your girlfriend, and things are getting serious. Everything about her seems perfect. She is beautiful, intelligent, funny, and a die-hard Phillies fan. But, recently, your world came crashing down. A week ago, you took her to Terpstra’s Tavern in Jim Thorpe, and, playing the role of gentleman, ordered up a pair of $2 burgers and a couple pints of Stoudt’s Scarlet Lady ESB.

Terpstra's Tavern in Jim Thorpe is home of the $2 burger.

When the drinks came, she took a defiant sip of her water and stated, “Sorry, I don’t like beer. It tastes bad, and it makes you fat.” Your heart skipped a beat, not sure which hurt more—the fact that the woman you were falling in love with hates beer or the thinly veiled reference to your beer gut. “But,” she continued, “I would really love a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon to go with this burger.” A group of guys at the bar, overhearing the conversation, laughed heartily, as you tried to repeat those fancy sounding words to the waitress. “You know,” you thought to yourself, “if I am going to make this relationship work, I need to swallow my pride (and these two pints of Stoudt’s) and cultivate an appreciation for wine.” Turning to your girlfriend, you asked, “Honey, how would you like to do a wine tour of Eastern Pennsylvania?”

The Inn at Bowman's Hill is one of Bucks County's most popular Bed & Breakfasts.

You both agree to start in Bucks County to work your way north, and, after eschewing your customary pizza-flavored Combos for Vitamin Water and rice crisps, you are ready to start your tour. You make the short drive from the Inn at Bowman’s Hill, where you spent the night, to Crossing Vineyards and Winery, located less than half a mile from the Delaware Canal in the town of Washington Crossing. The grounds of this family-owned winery are breathtaking. In addition to 15-acres of vines, there are manicured lawns, fountains, flower beds, and a 200-year old stone home. You especially get a kick out of all of the winery’s green initiatives, from solar power and composting to recycling and sustainable agricultural practices. You decide to order a bottle of their Le Nouveau, a semi-dry wine culled from the early harvest, to drink on the patio. Your girlfriend points out the tannic structure; you think it “tastes…like wine.”

One of the gardens at Crossing Vineyards.

Regretfully leaving the idyllic winery grounds, you hop on scenic Route 32, which offers great views of the Delaware River, and continue north to the canal-side town of New Hope and its eponymous New Hope Winery. The winery sells bottles of its wines here, but the grapes actually come from northwestern Pennsylvania. Buy a bottle or two of their award-winning Riesling, which benefits from the cooler, lakeside climate. Try to pick out the rose petal aroma and perhaps an apricot aftertaste. You decide to stick around to listen to the local musicians who play at the winery. You’re lucky, this week the Simon and Garfunkel Tribute Band is in town!

The New Hope Winery offers tastings of their northwestern PA wines and live music.

Before hitting your next destination, you turn west for the Peddlers’ Village in Lahaska. “Uh oh,” you’re thinking. “The only thing worse than a winery tour is a winery and shopping tour.” But three million annual visitors can’t be wrong, and, after milling around the 70 shops and 6 restaurants, you have to admit that this is a pretty neat place. You’re especially fond of the Cock n’ Bull Restaurant, which serves an unforgettable baked brie with raspberry and walnut glaze. Now if only you could get “I am a Rock” out of your head…

Lahaska's Peddler's Village offers over 70 shops and 6 restaurants.

Sticking close to the river, you head north for Sand Castle Winery. This 72-acre estate, with views of the Delaware River, has been turning out bottles of Pinot Noir, Riesling, and other favorites since the mid-1980s. Amidst the vines, you’re starting to realize that half the fun of a winery tour is walking the grounds. The estate includes a light-tan stucco building with faux battlements and parapets—hence, “sand castle”—that gives the grounds a European feel. You marvel at the structure, wondering “how much it costs to insure this place?,” as your girlfriend purchases two bottles of the Private Reserve Chablis to serve at your annual clam bake.

Rows of vines lead up to the "Sand Castle."

In your attempts to duck out of conversations with overzealous tasting room winos, you’ve been reading the promotional materials at every winery, and as a budding sommelier, you recognize that as you head further north and turn west along the Lehigh River, you are entering a new viticultural area, or wine region. You had been in the Central Delaware Valley viticultural area, which spans some 96,000 acres along the Delaware River, but, as you head west on Route 22, you enter the 1.2-million acre Lehigh Valley viticultural area. With a similar climate to the Nantes region of France, Lehigh Valley wineries specialize in Chambourcin, a wine with the peppery spiciness of Shiraz, the softness of Merlot, and the aging properties of Cabernet. Or, so they say in the brochures…

Just south of Bath, Amore Vineyards great wine, fresh produce, and flowers.

As you head west past Easton, your longing eyes peer to the left, searching in vain for a glimpse of Weyerbacher Brewing’s non-descript warehouse. “Honey, keep an eye out for Route 512,” your girlfriend says, snapping you out of your hops and barley reverie and back to the task at hand. Your next stop is Amore Vineyards and Winery, just outside the small town of Bath. During a tasting, you discover that Amore vints a Cayuga that drinks like a Riesling but with a more complex floral bouquet. You are enjoying a second glass, when your girlfriend comes back inside chatting with Gregg Amore, the owner of the winery. “Gregg offers flying instruction in a 1970s era Twin Comanche,” she says excitedly. “He has an opening in two hours.” You thoughtfully remind her that the next winery is beckoning. (Besides, you’re afraid of heights.)

Clover Hill regularly offers tours of their facilities.

She takes the bait, and you are off to the west of Allentown, where both Clover Hill and Vyncrest wineries make their homes. Clover Hill is a relatively large winery, with storefront locations throughout Eastern Pennsylvania. Try their Spiced Apple wine, with hints of cinnamon and clove. It is surprisingly refreshing, even on warm summer days, and it would make a perfect choice for the crisp autumn nights that are just around the corner. Just up the road is the smaller but no less impressive Vynecrest Vineyards. Vynecrest got its start back in the heady days of 1973, when John and Jan Landis were swept up by the homesteading movement and bought five acres of farmland. The next year they had fifty vines in the soil, and, after about 15 more years, they quite generously decided to share their wines with the rest of us. You escape the heat by ducking into Vynskeller, the winery’s weekends-only wine bar, which also serves appetizers. Today they are featuring goat cheese from Stonecroft Farm in Macungie, and you sagaciously pair it with the house white.

The tasting room at Vyncrest fills up quickly on the weekends.

Next you head north for a little valley about 20 minutes west of Jim Thorpe, where Galen Glen Vineyard has made its home since 1995. The tasting room is located on a hillside and offers panoramic views of the vine-covered glen below. Before settling down at the tasting bar, you are lucky enough to run into Harry, an imposing figure who wows you with his knowledge of wine and, perhaps more importantly, food pairings. He shares his secret recipe for Spanish clams and shrimp tapas. “Pair them with our Grüner Veltliner,” Harry whispers, as if imparting sacred knowledge, “and you’ll never think of food the same way again.” Always the planner, you buy a bottle of Stone Cellar Barrel Twenty Nine, already imagining how good this port will taste sitting around the campfire on your next fishing trip.

The wine is as good as the view at Galen Glen Winery.

Swinging east to historic Jim Thorpe across an increasingly mountainous region, you drop in for dinner at Flow, a farm-to-table restaurant operated by the Carbon County Cultural Project (CCCP). Flow is located in a restored 1850s wire works factory, which also doubles as an art gallery and studio space. The local art is alright, but you are more interested in the large opening in the floor that provides a view of a gushing stream, running directly beneath the buildings. You settle in at a table near the stream, order up some whole wheat potato gnocchi, and settle on a bottle of Rose Eye, one of three wines produced under the CCCP label. “Ahhh,” you muse, “I could get used to this wine thing.”

CCCP's Flow Restaurant is housed in a nineteenth-century wire factory.

Making your way down the hill into downtown historic Jim Thorpe, you see a sign for Big Creek Vineyard. You slow down and stare into the rearview mirror, seeking—amidst the crates of wine and luggage—room for just one last bottle. “What the hell,” you say to your girlfriend, “you have space in the front seat, right?” Big Creek’s vines are actually located in Kresgeville, just east of Beltzville State Park, but they maintain a store front in Jim Thorpe to lure people like you into buying a couple of bottles on their way through town. After conversing with the staff, you settle on two extremes: the port-like Frontenac, which you enjoyed once in its homeland of Minnesota but haven’t seen since, and the Apple Raspberry fruit wine, which should go well with that block of blue cheese in the cooler.

Big Creek Vineyards has a storefront location in Historic Jim Thorpe.

Back in the car, you consult the map. “Well, it looks like we are just about back to the place where this all started,” you remark regretfully, not wanting your wine and food fueled journey to end. “You know,” your girlfriend hesitantly responds, “Scranton is not far from here…” You searched her face, trying to figure out what she meant. It had only been six months since you last toured the Anthracite Heritage Museum, so that couldn’t be it. Like any good Phillies fan, you can’t stomach New York teams, so no Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees game. The Steamtown Mall? The Houdini Museum? Sno Cove Water Park? “Hmm. I’m not really sure what you mean…,” you begin to admit but stop in mid sentence, recognition washing over you: “You want to go to Carmen’s!!??”

Carmen's is located within the recently restored Lackawanna Station.

Carmen’s Restaurant & Wine Bar, located in the grand lobby of the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel, is a diamond in the culinary rough of northeastern PA. Financially drained from your adventure, you settle for a bread plate with hummus and tapenade and, feeling courageous, an ahi tuna sushi pizza. With little thought, you select a 2007 Erath Pinot Noir to pair with the hummus and the sushi—a move that gets an approving nod from the impressed waiter. Sitting back in your plush seat, you admire the beaux arts structure with its vaulted, Tiffany-glass ceiling—a testament to the booster optimism of fin de siècle Scranton. This is even nicer than Weissport’s Boat Yard Bar, you think to yourself. Finishing your meal and pouring two more glasses of wine, you and your partner take to the dance floor…

The dining room at Carmen's, located in the Grand Lobby of the Lackawanna Station.

As the sun sets on another beautiful Pennsylvania day, you find yourself sitting on a bench outside the Coopa’ Cabana, the tiki bar that brought you and your girlfriend together for the first time. Attempting to impress her with your newfound appreciation for and knowledge of wine, you pull out a bottle of Bartolai’s Callabritto, made just down the river in Harding. “It is a unique dry blend, amore mio, with a sophisticated fruit taste,” you announce, in your best faux-Italian accent. She, laughs, and pulls out her own surprise—a bottle of Victory’s Yakima Twilight. “It has the tenacious grip of big, juicy hop aroma and character that slides smoothly into rich, dark malts,” she recites from the bottle. You look at her with loving eyes, as the sun dips below the horizon, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.”

You must be 21 years old to consume alcoholic beverages.  Always drink responsibly.

Rhoma Mostel recently visited New Hope and made a short video of her time on the D&L Trail.

Written by Silas Chamberlin

The Beer Mapping Project (no joke!) indicates the locations of breweries and brewpubs throughout Eastern Pennsylvania and the surrounding region.

People who live in Eastern Pennsylvania know it is an underappreciated Mecca of microbreweries, brew pubs, and beer bars. From Tröegs and Appalachian brewing companies in Harrisburg to Easton’s Weyerbacher, Downingtown’s Victory, Philadelphia’s Yards, Phoenixville’s Sly Fox, Adamstown’s Stoudt’s, Bethlehem’s BrewWorks, the many branches of Iron Hill, and dozens of breweries, bars, and distributors in between, there is an abundance of choices for the discerning beer drinker.

The Take Out isn't much to look at, but it features a bountiful beer selection.

For the sake of brevity, let’s narrow our focus to the bounty of beer selections within the Corridor itself. Imagine you are setting out on a weekend of adventure that will take you from the southern end of the Delaware Canal to the northern reaches of the Corridor. You and your friends will load up the car, fill the tank, grab some bags of pizza-flavored Combos, and hit the road, with the simple goal of drinking great beer in one of our nation’s most historic and dynamic landscapes.

Triumph Brewing Company is located near New Hope's historic train station.

Because you’re a pragmatic beer drinker, your first stop will be at the Trenton Road Take Out in Fallsington. Here, you can stock your cooler with ice and a fine selection of American microbrews and rare imports to get you through the gaps between restaurants and breweries. The Take Out carries most of the big name craft brews, like Rogue, Dogfish Head, and Allagash, plus the standard macrobrews.

The Porterhouse in Lahaska offers its own and guest brews.

Armed with your cooler, you can begin to head north. You’ll want to stop in New Hope, home of Triumph Brewing Company, a brew pub that offers their flagship and seasonal beers on tap and an extensive menu of gourmet dishes.  Do yourself a favor and try their rauchbier, with just enough roasted barley flavor.  After you’ve had your fill, cross the street to the New Hope train station and hop a ride on the vintage, steam powered train. The train makes the 17-mile trip to the small town of Lahaska.

An inconspicuous warehouse is home to world-class Weyerbacher Brewing Company.

Jump off the train and head for the Porterhouse Restaurant and Brew Pub, which offers a respectable beer list, as well as their own brew.  Try their House Brown Porter.  The Porterhouse usually features several beers from a guest brewery, so you can familiarize yourself with their offerings too.  In the past, they have featured Yards and Philadelphia brewing companies, neither of which have their own restaurants.  Today it is Yards, so you enjoy an after-lunch Love Stout, and then have the designated driver head up scenic River Road towards Easton.

The BrewWorks has locations in Bethlehem and Allentown.

Easton is home to Weyerbacher Brewing Company, one of Eastern Pennsylvania’s world-class microbreweries.  Take a short tour of the brewery, before enjoying some free samples.  Although the company brews a couple beers that might slip into college sports bars, most of their line-up is geared towards the serious beer drinker, who can respect ABVs of up to 13% and beers that are packed with taste. Don’t miss QUAD, Weyerbacher’s award-winning quadruple style beer, which should go down perfectly on crisp November and December days.

From Weyerbacher, head west on Route 22 towards Bethlehem and Allentown. Each city boasts a branch of the BrewWorks, a brew pub that has a nice list of flagship and seasonal beers.  At the Bethlehem location, you will find the Steelgarden, a trendy, club-like lounge that redeems itself by offering over 100 Belgian beers.  When President Obama visited the BrewWorks, he stuck with the home brew and settled on the Fegley’s ESB.  A few miles to the west, at the recently-opened Allentown BrewWorks, you’ll find a respectable Beers of the World Menu, as well as an in-house tap list that differs from the Bethlehem location. During the holidays, order up the pierogie casserole and some Rude Elf’s Reserve to wash it down.

Emmaus has got it all: beer, pizza, and... more beer.

Since you’re in Allentown, head a few miles south to Emmaus. If we were on a quest for the greatest pizza in the country, we would head to Armetta’s on Main Street. Since it’s beer we’re after, you will want to try one of two places. In terms of ambiance and amazing beer, you cannot go wrong with the Farmhouse. Dinners will cost $25-40 a plate, but since we are still full from that pierogie casserole, we can just sit at the bar and enjoy a tap list that always has something special. Whereas some bars settle for a Sam Adam’s Boston Lager, the Farmhouse’s featured lager is typically something you cannot pronounce but is worth the linguistic struggle, like Aecht Schlenkerla Helles Lagerbier. More impressive than what’s on tap is the list of vintage bottled beers. Everyone knows that the best beers only improve with age, so how about an Eldridge Pope Thomas Hardy’s Ale bottled in 1986 or a Lindemans Cuvee Rene Gueuze from 1994? If there was ever a time to splurge on beer, this is it.

Check out the Farmhouse's vintage beer menu.

Your other choice is Tap & Table, which is located on the same street. With meals only slightly less expensive than the Farmhouse, you’ll probably want to order a cheese plate and save the rest of your money for the extensive draft and bottled beer selection. They don’t have everything, but they have more than enough to keep even the most intense beer snob satisfied. As a patriotic beer drinker, you’ll appreciate that the Tap & Table’s beer list includes America’s best beers, listed side-by-side with even the most prestigious imports.

The cozy Tap and Table is home to great food and exotic beer.

Reluctantly leaving the Farmhouse and/or Tap & Table, check that cooler to make sure you don’t need to restock. If you do (and even if you don’t), head over to the Lehigh Valley’s most famous beer distributor: Shangy’s. This place is hallowed ground to most Eastern Pennsylvania beer drinkers. Visitors often drive over an hour to stock up on cases of local microbrews, rare imports, and glassware. You could easily spend a few hundred dollars buying cases of Sam Adams Triple Bock or some Duchesse de Bourgogne, but, hey, save some money for the rest of the trip!

With three world-class sources of beer and one mind-blowing pizza place, is it any wonder that Emmaus consistently ranks within Money’s Top 100 Places to Live. But, we need to keep moving. To bring ourselves down from beer heaven and to reaffirm that not all great beer is expensive, let’s stop at the Riverwalck Saloon in Parryville. Situated at the confluence of the Pohopoco Creek and the Lehigh River, with Lock 13 directly across the road, this is a good place to regroup before heading further north. The Riverwalck is a relatively new restaurant that offers standard fare, with a tex-mex twist. Station yourself on their expansive deck, order some nachos, and enjoy a Yuengling Lager. As the crow flies, you’re about 30 miles east of Pottsville, where Yuengling is brewed. Sitting here on the deck, river and creek flowing down below, golden lager in hand, you forget why you paid $17 dollars for a trappist ale at the Farmhouse. Must have been the Pecorino San Marzalino…

Bottles of Yuengling roll off the line at their Pottsville brewery.

Anyway, you have your eyes set on the north, so you keep on moving. If you had the time, you would stop and camp in Hickory Run State Park (although your cooler might be more welcome in a private campground). Maybe you’d fish in the Lehigh or the numerous streams emptying into it. Perhaps you would hop on a bike or raft and ride through the Lehigh Gorge. But, this weekend you’re on a mission, so you keep on going until you hit Wilkes-Barre-the symbolic terminus of the Corridor.

You regret hurrying past the Lehigh Gorge's spectacular scenery.

Wilkes-Barre’s Lion Brewery, built in 1905, is the second largest brewery in the state. You’ve probably had one of their beers and just never realized it. In addition to Lionshead, their flagship line, Lion also brews the well-known Stegmaier brand and the lesser-known Pocono, Gibbons, and Bartels lines. Lionshead drinkers know that the best part of opening a fresh bottle is the tiny rebus puzzle on the underside of each bottle cap. You are a savvy tourist, so you checked Lion’s website to reserve a spot on their tour and get to watch a large brewery in action. They don’t have a pub or restaurant, but you can sample the product at the end of the tour.

Under each Lionshead bottle cap is not only a great beer but a fun rebus puzzle.

You worked up an appetite from walking all of those narrow stairs between conditioning tanks, brewhouses, and bottling machines. Now you want to sit down and enjoy a meal. The impressively-named Elmer Sudds Ale House is one option. This is a traditional pub, and they’re proud of it. They have reasonably priced food and a good tap list, featuring several of Breaker Brewing Company‘s beers, as well as some microbrew mainstays. Why not try Breaker’s I Love PA–a cleverly named IPA that appeals to the hearts of lifelong residents of the Commonwealth? The other option is the Anthracite Café, which boasts a more developed menu and an impressive bottled list. Right now the ‘cite has several pumpkin ales on tap, but they do a nice job of matching their offerings to every season.

You will find Chris Miller and Mark Lehman's Breaker Brewing Company beers on tap at Elmer Sudds. (Photo reproduced from the Keystone Edge)

So, you finally made it to the top of the Corridor. You’ve eaten and drank your way through most of Eastern Pennsylvania, and you even have a couple bottles of Pennsylvania’s hands-down greatest beer, Tröegs Nugget Nectar, left in the cooler. “But,” you think to yourself, “I drove the whole way to Wilkes-Barre, and I can pretty much see Scranton from here. Dare I go just a little bit further, so I can visit my favorite spot in northeastern Pennsylvania?” You turn to your travel mates, who are all thinking the same thing. “Come on,” everyone yells. “We’re going to Coopers!”

Coopers' display of tap handles is a testament to their wide-ranging beer selection.

Believe it or not, Coopers Seafood was awesome even before The Office began referencing it as a favorite meeting place of Kevin and other staff members. Since 1948, this place has been serving great seafood in a hard-to-describe nautical atmosphere, complete with a pirate ship exterior. With over 400 beers on their bottle and tap list, there is something for everyone. Oh, by the way, when it is your birthday, Coopers gives you a free lobster dinner. Need I say more? You’re feeling adventurous, so you decide to try out Coopers’ Pittston location, which features the irresistible Coopa Cabana. What better way to celebrate the end of your journey than a night of dancing in a coal-region tiki bar?

As the sun sets over the Susquehanna, you reflect on your trip.

As you stand on the deck of the Coopa Cabana and watch the sun set over the sinuous waters of the Susquehanna, you can’t help but reflect on the great beer you drank and the timeless memories you made this weekend. Could any place in the world rival Eastern Pennsylvania for excellent beer, beautiful scenery, and honest folk? Methinks not; God broke the mold…

You must be 21 years old to consume alcoholic beverages.  Always drink responsibly.

Recently, with the help of three college interns, Landmark Towns of Bucks County completed a 10 week mural art and landscaping project in downtown Bristol Borough. The 2009 Community Partner Internship Program, an initiative of the Pennsylvania Downtown Center (PDC), selected Landmark Towns as a grant recipient based on an application submitted in December 2008.

The project received the full support of Bristol Borough Council and the Artists of Bristol, a local group of artists, who partnered with Landmark Towns on the application.
Other organizations providing approval were the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED), the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) and the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program (MAP). Funding for the 10-week summer program is provided by PDC and DCED. Professional mentoring and technical support is provided by the PDC, PHS, and MAP.

Local businesses, non-profit groups and foundations, residents, and artists from the region provided additional cash and in-kind donations to support the project. Hundreds of volunteer hours were provided by local residents and area artists to complete the painting. Volunteers ranged in age and ability from the very young and novice, to mature, experienced artists.

The projects act as bookends to the downtown. The landscaping portion provides a gateway, welcoming visitors to enter, on the corner of Mill Street and Old Route 13. The mural, which depicts the history and people of Bristol Borough, occupies a former blank wall, above the Kelch House Restaurant, facing the Delaware River. Located at the top of the mural is the likeness of a wooden sign that reads, “Welcome, Friend”, a motto that has invited visitors and served the borough since 1824.

A ribbon cutting ceremony took place on Thursday, August 6th, dedicating the mural to the past, current and future residents of Bristol Borough.

Despite the previous week’s rainy weather, over 30 people attended the Landmark Towns of Bucks County and Friends of the Delaware Canal Town to Towpath Bike Hike on Saturday, June 6th. DCNR Park Ranger Ian Kindle kicked things off with an informative lesson for participants in proper trail etiquette and safety techniques.

Bikers were led by a volunteer guide, courtesy of Firehouse Cycles, beginning in Yardley’s Buttonwood Park, through the historic Borough of Yardley, along the Delaware Canal towpath to Washington Crossing State Park.

Several area businesses participated in the Bike Hike by providing refreshments, complimentary massages for participants and coupons for lunch and dinner.