Quotations

paddyos

Pennsylvania

4.2/5  rDev +16.3%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$

My wife and I stopped in here for a few beers after dinner and beers across the street at Iron Hill. It turned out to be a pleasant end to our big trip out to the burbs.
The bar is to the right as you walk in through a corridor. There are a few small tables in the bar area in front and dinner is served in the back room. The bar itself is a light wood with different quotes burned into the top. It probably seats about 20 with plenty of room and a few tvs behind it. The only complaint I have about the room is that it is way too bright.
The tap selection was pretty good and since I have never had the pleasure of Bell's Two Hearted off the tap I started off with that and never looked back. Also to be found on tap were Aventinus, Javer Dark, Hoegarden, Something from Blue Point - DIPA maybe? Pyramid Apricot, and a couple of others.
There was also a very nice lineup of bottles and the beer menu goes into some good details and explanations of each.
All in all this place is a very good beer bar and between it and Iron Hill across the street it might be enough to draw me out to the burbs on a somewhat regular basis.

02-08-2007 17:16:31 | More by paddyos

StoutHearted

Pennsylvania

3.83/5  rDev +6.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | food: 2.5 | $$$

Great beer, cute atmosphere, but you're gonna pay for it. It seemed that no matter what my boyfriend and I ordered, domestic or import, bottle or draft, they charged us $6 a beer. The beer list is fantastic: They had my beloved Duchesse de Bourgogne on tap, a definite plus. I read reviews about the bad service, but we had good service at a bar table. It was a crowded Friday night with loud music, but the waitress didn't abandon us. Non-smokers beware, the local clientele was lighting up all around. Sports games were on the TVs, which kind of clashes with the literary atmosphere of famous quotes being written all over the walls, tables, and bar. Oh well, might as well get some learning in between watching Philly blow another chance at a championship. Food wasn't anything to rush right over for. We ordered spicy cheese fries, which I heretofore will refer to as Coronary Fries because they had a swamp of cheese on top. They did a curious thing where they wrapped foil on top of a typical fast-food red basket, and put the fries on top, so we had all that wasted, empty space in the basket. Why not just put them on a plate? So we ended up with a side of fries with cheese soup on top of a basket. Not very impressive. Best bet is to have brews at Quotations, and then go across the street to Iron Hill for some decent food.

02-06-2007 15:36:10 | More by StoutHearted

WonderWoman

Pennsylvania

2.79/5  rDev -22.7%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3 | service: 1 | selection: 4 | $$

Want to save a buck...go to Quotations. I don't mean the four legged forest creature, I mean money. It's not because the prices are great, it's because you may walk out before even being served.
This is the second time I've been here. I thought I'd give it another chance after the first time I was here.
It is a brightly lit bar as there are huge windows facing the street, great for people watching. The tables and bar are a light wood color with quotations burnt into them. I should have observed the bar a bit more but I was so frustrated with the dirty table and dirty silverware I was afraid the bar would be just as filthy. Sure enough when our drinks came our glasses had food particles stuck to the side of them. This was my first visit.
I thought I'd give it another try, but this time go directly to the bar.
The bar was clean and the bartender greeted us promptly unfortunately, that's where it ended. No drinks were to be had, as after sitting for upwards of 10 minutes with no return of the bartender we opted to give up the beers we were hoping to try and save some cash and leave. It's not that our bartender had mysteriously disappeared, he was helping other people and chatting with what appeared to be friends. The deciding factor to leave Quotations was when our bartender choose to do dishes instead of helping us, curious beer patrons.
I hope whoever goes there next doesn't have to experience what I had to, I have never been serviced so wretchedly in my life. It's a shame as their beer selection was great.

07-16-2006 00:35:43 | More by WonderWoman

DarkerTheBetter

Pennsylvania

2.91/5  rDev -19.4%
vibe: 2.5 | quality: 2.5 | service: 2.5 | selection: 4 | $$

7-15-06 update.

The last two times I have been here have been miserable. A month or so ago, I brought my girlfriend here for lunch. The table we were seated at was absolutely filthy. There were chunks of food all over and the silverware itself was encrusted with old dried food. The glasses we were served our beer in were crusted over with filth as well with little particles of someone else's food floating around inside. We went to Iron Hill for lunch.

Now, today I head in for a beer and the frizzy haired male bartender greeted us with a smile and threw down two coasters for us. He then proceeded to help some other patrons. He then left the bar to help a band or something set up their speakers. Then he returned to the bar to help his two friends get their drinks. I was at wit's end by now. His next move was to wash dishes at the sink so he could still talk with his buddies. Unbelievable! I We were ignored at the bar for over 10 minutes! I have never been treated so poorly at a bar in my entire life.

It's too bad their rotating selection is so awesome, because I'll never go back!

-Original Review-

...So I ran across the street to see what this place was all about. The boring, bland, and generally lame exterior had me a little put off from the get go. But once inside, I was singing a different tune.

The entrance of the building takes you down a relatively long, windowed corridor with a wall on your left and a view of the bar on your right. As I walked this, I kept wondering when I would be let in so I could get at all of the goodies. I finally ran out of glass barriers and found a hole in the wall to let me into the bar area. The general lay out of the place from this vantage point is that there is a bar up front, and dinner seating in the back, mostly in the form of booths. I preferred the bar, as I was really following a terrible side track from a shopping trip to the Trader Joe's across the street. Once at the bar, I had to scan around to get the gist of what was on tap. Instead of one centralized tap center, all of the taps were spread around the large bar. When I got tired of squinting at taps, I noticed a tap and bottle list on the bar next to me. That will help. After a little deliberation, I realized that I wanted either the Double Daddy from Speakeasy, or The Poet from New Holland. I asked for a sample of each and figured the Double Daddy had enough of my attention to warrant a glass. When it came, it arrived in a Leffe long-stemmed chalice. Very nice. Whilst savoring my beer I noted the lay of the land.

As I said before, the front is all bar, and the back is all eating. Over all, the place had a very open feel to it with an all glass store front allowing tons of sunshine into the building. The bar itself was really huge with tons of space around a small beer cooler/island in the middle. I can't imagine tenders getting caught up back there, even on the busiest night. Looking down at the bar itself, it was covered with quotes (like the name, I get it!). I sat next to something inane said by Charlie Chaplain The light woods of the bar seemed to reflect the other light colors of the place, like the white ceiling, and the light green on the walls. Around the bar was a series of small tables where a few patrons were having their lunch. Over all, the openness really struck a chord with me. Ah, but alas, I have not been here on a Saturday night.

On tap it looked like they had Rouge Dead Guy, a Chimay, Hoegaarden, Double Daddy, NH's The Poet, OD's Oak Barrel Stout, Guinness and Harp. The bottle collection also was nothing short of stupendous. I spied on the menu a Stone RIS '06! I snatched one of those bad boys up for my fridge at home. Man, what a place! Their taps rock, their bottle rock and the bar tender I spoke to explained that their tap handles seldom reflected what was actually on tap because things changed so much, and I was there on a Wednesday! Kinda makes me feel all warm inside.

Someone here clearly cares a lot about beer. Also, the bartender who helped me on my way also knew a lot about beer. I even asked her for a recommendation for the Iron Hill across the street and she had some ideas about that as well. This is really a quality place with some quality employees! I'll be back! After I finished my beer, I headed across the street to the Iron Hill to see if their specialty beers were all that good...

9-12-07 update.

Well, I stopped back to see what was on. Had an amazing brew and our server was awesome. What can I say? I'll bump my numbers up to reflect more of an average.

05-24-2006 20:50:32 | More by DarkerTheBetter