Roeg's Picks for 2012: Best Gastropub

Best Gastropub: Perhaps one of the hardest categories to judge since there are so many new beer spots that focus on offering great food with a fantastic selection of beer.  The food could be described as eclectic, or at least not kid friendly, but if your adventurous you can try a delicious dish that you’d never make at home (or at least I wouldn’t) along with a fantastic beer (that’s at least why I was there).  Here are my favorite places:

Gold: Armsby Abbey, Worcester, MA – Armsby Abbey (http://armsbyabbey.com/) was my favorite gastropub last year, is one of Draft magazines top spots, and provides a great mixture of imported and microbrews on draft.  I stopped in once with Jacob for a gourmet cheese sandwich and a De Struisse Mocha Bomb.  On another my buddy Christopher and I stopped in for a Mikkeller’s Texas Ranger and an Allagash’s Bourbon Barrel Aged Black Ale with one of their slates, a kind of an upscale ploughman’s.  Their pickled slate had pickled beets, picked string beans, picked eggplant, and pickled ferns (the only edible kind I was told) served with a habenero sauce that was killer.  A potential stop for every trip to NH.

Silver: Deep Ellum, Allston, MA  – One of my (and Draft magazine’s) favorite destinations, Deep Ellum (http://www.deepellum-boston.com/) provides great food and an awesome beer selection.  Visiting with friends, I had poached eggs with some homemade corned beef hash to go with my Castelain Diversey & Lille, a collaborative ale with Two Brothers.  Chris went with falafel with a Slaapmutske Triple Nightcap, a huge Belgian Triple from, well Belgium.  Christopher went with the manly burrito with his Stone 16^th Anniversary Imperial IPA.  I loved this place, and can’t wait to go back.

Bronze: Black Birch, Kittery, ME – The Black Birch (http://www.theblackbirch.com/) is the newest watering hole right outside of the PNS gate, and would be a constant stop for me if I still worked there.  The food is eccentric (i.e., bacon and Bleu cheese mac, braised pork shank, etc.) but the beer selection was top notch.  On one trip I had a Jolly Pumpkin Maracaibo Especial, a brown ale with hints of fruit tartness in the mix.  The next was a Maine Beer Co. Collaboration 1, a Black Ale done with VT’s Lawson’s Finest Liquids.  Hey Jenn, isn’t it time for a date night?

Honorable Mention: Like I said, this was a hard category to narrow down my three favorites.  Others of note are Prohibition Pig of Waterbury, VT for the barbeque and specialties, as well as Philadelphia’s Standard Tap (http://news.standardtap.com.s86406.gridserver.com/) for their dedication to local cuisine.

"Who fed you the food of the God? Who gave you beer to drink, fit for kings…Let sweet beer flow through thy straw, their bodies swell as they drink." – Epic of Gilgamesh, ca. 3000 BC