[these were also the owners/operators of Pizza Rustica at 36th & Chestnut till last year]
Everything old is new again.
At least, that’s what Rosemarie Certo hopes.
Certo has been contract brewing Dock Street beers since she regained control in 2001of the brand that she and her husband, Jeff Ware, had started as a contract brew in 1987 and developed into a beloved Philadelphia institution as a brewpub in 1989.
The pub was sold in 1999 and run into the ground by its subsequent owners before the new century was two years old. The bottle product, licensed to Henry Ortlieb after the brewery sale, was regained at a sheriff’s bankruptcy sale in 2001.
Now, Certo told the Beer Yard tonight, if things go as planned Dock Street will once again become a destination brewery and pub for local beer aficionados.
Certo said a a former firehouse at 50th & Baltimore, just off the University of Pennsylvania campus, will be home to a new Dock Street, where a 15bbl brewhouse will turn out draft beers for its own taps and accounts in both the city and suburbs. The restaurant part of the operation will be wood-burning oven pizza restaurant.
Dock Street Amber Beer and Dock Street Bohemian Pilsner will continue to be contract brewed and bottled at F.X. Matt in New York, as they have been throughout the brewery’s existence, included the brief, disastrous Ortlieb tenure.
The new site is slightly larger than 5,000 square feet, Certo said, and Dock Street beers will be marketed to beer bars throughout the area via their wholesale system and sold on draft and by the growler on premises. The pizza-oriented restaurant echoes the time when Certo ran a similar spot, the successful Pizza Rustico at 36th and Chestnut on the Penn campus, during the interregnum between her ownership of the brewery.
“I can’t wait until we start making all those distinctive, bold, draught beers we used to make again,” said a clearly excited Certo. “One of the first beers we’re going to make, one of my very favorites, will be the Viscount St. Alban’s Ale of Health & Strength. I don’t know how many people did, or will, like it, because it’s so distinctive, but I love it.”
Certo said that the company retains all of the original recipes and will be recreating a significant portion of the portfolio, “certainly including the Illuminator Doppelbock and our Thomas Jefferson Ale.”
There will be newer beers produced as well, she promised. “I know there is a whole audience of people out there who were part of our legacy and miss our classic beers,” she said. “You know, a lot of what we were doing then was seen as crazy and now it’s what everybody is doing. We’ll just have to reinvent ourselves and start getting a bit crazy again.”
Zoning, of course, is the great bugaboo that must be conquered by folks wanting to create a new brewery, but Certo notes that “we’ve been through all this before and, knock on wood, there won’t be a problem. We know exactly what they’re looking for. I want to get us back to the place where we started, and make Dock Street an integral part of the Philadelphia beer culture again.”
The “biggest challenge” facing the new Dock Street, she said, “will be finding a brewer who is in tune with what it is that we want to do. We’re lucky in that there are a lot more brewers around today than there were 15 years ago–we trained a lot of them, in fact. We’ve stayed in touch with the beer community, we have a list and we’ve started talking to people.”
Nevertehless, Certo added, Dock Street is anxious to hear from any interested brewers and that they can contact her via email.–JACK CURTIN
