The skeptics were wrong.
By all accounts, the first Philly Beer Week surpassed expectations for locals and out-of-towners alike, as the 10-day festival celebrated the city's unique brew culture and shone a spotlight on the sheer number of taverns pouring diverse craft beers.
"Many people think of Denver as America's top beer city," said Marty Jones, a cofounder of Oskar Blues Brewery near Denver. "But our beer-bar culture doesn't come close to what you have in Philadelphia."
A conservative estimate of 15,000 people attended nearly 300 beer-themed events in the city and suburbs from March 7 through 16, ranging from tastings at neighborhood taps with craft beers on draft to the Brewer's Plate fund-raiser at the Independence Visitor Center, where more than 1,000 guests paid $50 to $100 each to sample food and beer pairings from 21 restaurants teamed with as many craft breweries, raising about $30,000 for the White Dog Foundation.
No doubt about it, Beer Week filled the spring void left by the struggling Book and the Cook program's move to a fall schedule last year. (The Book and the Cook has promoted the city's restaurants for 24 years by hosting guest chefs and cookbook authors.)
Attendance at the beer events ran from about 30 folks supping in a restaurant's private dining room to 1,200 tippling at three sold-out sessions of the University Museum's annual tutored beer tasting. Several of the week's bar-hopping participants reported venues filled to capacity.
While no firm attendance figures are available as many events did not require tickets, conservative estimates suggest that Philadelphia's debut as a world-class beer town drew at least 15,000 drinkers and diners, on par with Book and the Cook at its prime.
Early reports from attendees and venues suggest that many pubs did weeknight business comparable to usual weekends', and that the weekends were, if not the best, then among their best ever.
"It was a coming-out party for Philadelphia's craft beer culture," said Beer Week cochair Bruce Nichols, head of Museum Catering based at Penn's University Museum.
"The response was way beyond what we expected. It was overwhelming. I kept hearing about places where you couldn't get in the door," he said.
"Philadelphia put its best foot forward," said Tom Peters, at Monk's Cafe, also a cochair. "Visitors were blown away by our beer culture, its variety of styles, the ability to get good beer not just in great restaurants but in dives. They've never seen anything like it."
