Earth Bread + Brewery

Is there a more soul-satisfying combination in the edible universe than handmade pizza and beer? I don't think so.

And it's a good thing, considering that pizza and beer are pretty much the main attractions on the menu at Mount Airy's funky new Earth Bread + Brewery. Actually, there are also a fresh salad or two, a creamy soup of the day, some mixed olives, and a cheese platter. There is also a surprisingly smart selection of international wines by the glass.

But brews and "breads" clearly rule the yeasty ambitions of this welcome new addition to Germantown Avenue, where an igloo-shaped oven in the front blazes ash logs at 700 degrees, and a petite set of brew tanks tucked into the back pumps out some eccentric beers worth driving for. It's a willingness to focus on doing these two things well (even if there's yet some work to do) that makes Earth Bread + Brewery especially intriguing.

A neighborhood institution can be built on such fundamentals. And Mount Airy has found a kindred spirit to its counterculture soul in this quirky, casual brewpub, where a handcrafted artisanal feel pervades the menu and the rambling bilevel dining rooms, and owners Tom Baker and Peggy Zwerver have shown an uncommon commitment to building a sustainable, eco-friendly restaurant. Everything that can be - from the pine floors (recovered from a barn in Maine) to the bar (from the old Michael's in South Philly) to the spent brewing grain (sent to the nearby Weaver's Way Co-op) - is recycled. Composting has cut the restaurant's trash pickup by half.

But for Baker and Zwerver, who've never owned a restaurant, keeping the concept simple and affordable (with larger pizzas topping out at $16) is also smart business. For Baker, a self-professed "control freak" who made a national reputation as an experimental brewer at his small but mighty Heavyweight in Central Jersey (since closed), the mini-scale of the brewery here - about a third the size of the typical chain brewpub - allows him the small-batch freedom to create beers that are anything but predictable.