Taproom

The way community residents describe a nearby taproom in West Philadelphia, the joint sounds like a mirror-image of the wild scene in the film, "Gremlins," where nasty creatures take over a barroom and misbehave in every humanly imaginable way. But unlike the scene from the 1984 Steven Spielberg movie, residents complain, real-life characters who operate and patronize the 6151 Lounge, on Market Street near 62nd, have no comic qualities. Patrons shoot guns, fight and stab each other, throw beer cans outside, drink and urinate on the sidewalks, flash passers-by, sell drugs, gamble, solicit prostitution and play loud music, to name just a few faults.

An off-duty police officer shot and critically wounded an alleged bandit during an armed robbery at a bar in the city's Mayfair section Tuesday night, police said Wednesday. The wounded man, Joseph Orr, 20, and three others were arrested and charged with robbery and related offenses, said Lt. Ray Evers. Around 11 p.m., a young male walked into McNally's Tavern on the 3300 block of Brighton Street and ordered a drink, Evers said. About six other people were in the bar, including two off-duty officers.

What people say in bars never ceases to amaze me. I think I'm hard to shock, having spent an unusual amount of time in taprooms even before I hit the legal drinking age. At 18, I started cocktail waitressing at The Barn in Finch Hill, Pa. The Barn - a name that said it all. I then proceeded to bartend my way through college at the Scarlet D, a sometimes rough-and-tumble tavern in Mifflinburg, the heart of central Pennsylvania's cow country....

Two robbers who started a blazing gun battle in a Kensington bar that left two patrons and a holdup man dead on Sunday may be the same pair responsible for at least six other taproom robberies in the area, police said yesterday. But the holdup inside Pier One Bar & Grill at G and Tioga Streets shortly before 11 on a chilly Sunday night was the most violent in a string of similar crimes that began Thursday. In addition to the three dead, two patrons were wounded in Sunday's shooting, one critically.

The son of U.S. District Judge James McGirr Kelly was shot to death early yesterday when three men robbed a taproom in the city's Overbrook Park section, officials said. Christopher Kelly, 35, who lived with his family in Overbrook Farms, was pronounced dead at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania at 2:47 a.m., 23 minutes after police were called to the bar. He had been shot once in the left chest. Detectives last night offered few details on the shooting, which occurred inside the Famous Bar and Restaurant, a small neighborhood establishment in the 7500 block of Haverford Avenue.

We crab eaters must be the best lovers, because we are ardent and scrupulously faithful. Who else would drive three hours to a Maryland restaurant to sit on the dock of the bay, inhale diesel fumes from arriving yachts and build red mounds of cracked crab shells with wooden mallets? Who would venture into the mosquito-infested salt creeks of South Jersey to trap blue-claw crabs, bring them home and cook them up in secret spices? Serious hard-shell-crab eaters, that's who. Frank Byrne, owner of Byrne's Tavern in Port Richmond, knows all about us. "Crab lovers are a special breed," says Byrne, who cooks nearly 50 bushels a week during the peak season.

Two bar patrons and a stickup man died in a frenzied Kensington barroom shootout last night, police said. At least two other patrons of the Pier One bar, at G and Tioga streets, were wounded in the 11 p.m. carnage. The two stickup men who burst into the corner taproom got nothing but woe for their trouble. One soaked up a fatal bullet. He staggered to the sidewalk, where he collapsed dead. Cops left his corpse there early this morning while they began their investigation.

Joseph Keenan Jr., 59, owner of the Frontier Saloon and Dining Room in Folsom, died Saturday at Crozer-Chester Medical Center. He was a resident of Wallingford. Mr. Keenan was born and raised in Chester and was a 1949 graduate of Chester High School. Active in community affairs throughout Delaware County, Mr. Keenan was known not just for the friendly atmosphere he set at his taproom, but also for his generosity toward others. He led fund-raising events for a variety of organizations and was deeply involved in the state beverage industry.

They tried to hide in plain sight - surrounded by the bright lights, sounds and smells of the holiday season. But the final two teen-age suspects in the Monday-night robbery that left a retired cop bleeding to death inside a Northeast taproom were captured yesterday. Police said the pair, who netted $500 in the fatal heist, were collared yesterday afternoon in the food court at the Franklin Mills mall. Alito Collantes, 19, and Robert Ramirez, 17, were arrested without incident after a shopper or employee spotted them and alerted police.

Paul DiMatteo and Dennis McNamara were relatives, best friends, business partners. Yesterday, money and a 9-mm pistol came between them. DiMatteo, 73, owner of a popular Delaware County nightspot, and McNamara, 47, the bar manager, finished their quarrel in a bloody heap inside DiMatteo's Bar, on MacDade Boulevard in the Milmont Park section of Ridley Township. Police said it was a murder-suicide. As morning traffic thrummed on the busy highway outside and the taproom lights remained dark before opening for the day's customers, DiMatteo and McNamara, his nephew, argued fiercely over financial matters related to the bar, said police.

An off-duty police officer shot and critically wounded an alleged bandit during an armed robbery at a bar in the city's Mayfair section Tuesday night, police said Wednesday. The wounded man, Joseph Orr, 20, and three others were arrested and charged with robbery and related offenses, said Lt. Ray Evers. Around 11 p.m., a young male walked into McNally's Tavern on the 3300 block of Brighton Street and ordered a drink, Evers said. About six other people were in the bar, including two off-duty officers.

Ten years ago, who'd have thought there'd be a $26 burger and a steak house on every (other) block? But here we are, as mixed-message as ever - packs of food bloggers sniffing out the terroir of the cheese, and open-air farm markets turning the city into a locavore's paradise. And, yo! Whose idea was it to put foie gras in the scrapple? Few trends redefined Philly's dining landscape as powerfully as the proliferation of BYOBs, a phenomenon unique to this region that saw tiny bistros like Django, Melograno, and Bibou transform low-frills spaces into dining destinations with serious culinary ambition, added value, and a dash of throwback "mom-and-pop" warmth.

The sign, at a glance, is as archetypal as it gets, neon-red and aglow in the postindustrial night that settles dark as a raven on silent North 13th Street, south of Spring Garden. It seems to float like a thought bubble near the shuttered Ottens Flavors factory, with only one thought: "BAR," it says, nothing more. This is the latest sign for a corner tavern now called the Prohibition Taproom, just weeks into its fifth? sixth? tenth? incarnation. (It was Zips once. It was the tough Carriage House Cafe, because it's across the street from the stables for the tourist-carriage horses.

The beer geeks can be relied upon to travel. Put a Green Flash IPA on draft, a Rogue tripel, or a Fuller's Porter, and they will come. Thirsty. But what of the old-school locals in this working-class Kensington neighborhood who were weaned on Anheuser-Busch? Confronting that fact was among the tallest challenges Brendan Hartranft faced since opening the Memphis Taproom in the spring at the corner of Memphis and East Cumberland with nearly 50 craft beers and not a Bud in sight. (Although he does offer Miller High Life, because he likes the cool label, and the thinking man's "Lite": Lion's Head Light.

Let's toast Philadelphia's Cardinal Justin Rigali for his visit to a Northern Liberties pub. In a taproom crammed with young people, the prelate grabbed a microphone and shared tales from his decades working for three popes. Rigali was the third prelate to participate in Theology on Tap, a national Roman Catholic program that sends speakers into places such as bars to reach out to young people. The fact that Rigali shared personal narrative, not propositional theology, and his choice of venue, indicates that Catholics are hip to a simple truth many other denominational leaders have been slow to grasp: If you want to reach non-believers, disbelievers and used-to-believers, you don't wait for them to show up in your pew on Sunday.

When David Srolovitz and Robert MacPherson went to a Princeton pub last week, they weren't just two Jersey guys going out for a beer. They saw the creamy foam through the cold eye of science. The two had just published a paper in the British journal Nature about the behavior of foam, ceramics and other "three-dimensional microstructures" - offering a solution to a problem that has stymied materials scientists for 50 years. It is well known that such networks of bubbles, grains or cells tend to become "coarser" over time: some cells become larger, while others shrink and eventually disappear.

After 18 months of sometimes-bitter legislative gridlock, City Council agreed yesterday by a narrow majority to ban smoking from almost all Philadelphia bars and restaurants by January. Mayor Street privately told Council members that he would sign the bill, meaning the city would join New York City, Washington, and all of New Jersey in the ranks of localities that have adopted smoking bans. Sidewalk cafes would be exempt. Private clubs and neighborhood taverns could seek exemptions.

It sounds like the beginning of a cliched joke: "A minister walks into a bar . . . " But the punch line - where the preacher buys the joint with $67,500 from the church building fund - is anything but old hat. Such is the lesson of the buying Baptists of the West Ward, the fed-up church folk in this working-class neighborhood who purchased a noisome bar just to shut it down. When you fight sin in the inner city, bring your Bible. But don't forget your checkbook. "I don't want to buy up all of Trenton," says the Rev. Simeon Spencer, pastor of Union Baptist Church, which finalized the deal in November.

Nat Potamkin may or may not watch the 14th Subway Series when it opens this weekend at Yankee Stadium. If he can find time between his massages and his sessions pounding a heavy bag at a Miami gym, then, yeah, maybe he'll watch a game or two. You'll have to excuse Potamkin, a South Philadelphia native, if he can't work up too much excitement. He is, after all, 95. The first Subway Series in 44 years means little to a man who watched the first Subway Series ever, in person, back in 1921.

If Old City is our SoHo - a charming yet overpriced restaurant-gallery district clinging to its fading patina of bohemia - then Northern Liberties is our Greenwich Village, friendly to artists and creative types, with just enough Old World charm to justify a concerted restoration effort. Though vast stretches of Northern Liberties still resemble East Berlin the day the Wall came down, slowly but surely that is changing, and economic anchors and people magnets are already in place on the Northern Liberties stretch of Second Street.