Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Earth Bread + Brewery

7136 Germantown Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19119-1843
(215) 242-6666
Website

When I had been wanting to try Earth Bread, I never took into consideration that it would be a hippie commune. In retrospect, I don't know why I wouldn't have thought that. Anyway, this place would probably fit in better on Haight street than Germantown avenue, but it's nice that they are trying to make the neighborhood a better place.


The mural is bright, festive, and inviting, a nice touch to an otherwise crappy neighborhood.


The restaurant is on both the first and second floors, and has a lot of interior space. They offered three house brewed drafts, including one gluten-free beer. I went with the hand pumped IPA. It only took twenty minutes to get it up to me (the cask is on the first floor).


If you can tell from that picture, it's very dark in there. I also couldn't shake the feeling that most of the waitstaff (and half of the customers) were stoned. That would explain the reason that the service was so laid back, to put it nicely. I figured the traditional pie was a must to get a feel for the food. House-made tomato sauce, roasted onion, fresh mozzarella, garlic, olive oil and basil and topped with fresh greens, dressed with tomato vinaigrette. When it came out, the crust was well browned and the pizza smelled delicious. I initially tried to get a picture, but it was so dark, I had to get up and walk to the middle of the dining room. Luckily my dining partner was okay with it.


Everything on the pizza was good (including the pepperoni that cost extra, but was well worth it), and although I usually love dressed arugula on top of my pizza, the greens in this case weren't really dressed, but more of a drizzle of dressing. I took it upon myself to spread the tomato vinaigrette more evenly. I should also mention that after the pizzas were brought to the table (not by our waitress) she stood about twenty feet away, watching me take pictures in the middle of the room, and then stood at the bar watching us not eat for about five minutes. She hadn't bothered to ask why, until we signaled that we were missing plates and silverware. Pretty basic stuff for a server. She also failed to timely bring out an extra side of the tomato vinaigrette, when it as requested. It wasn't that the sauce was amazing (it was basically tomato sauce with vinegar in it), but I like to have something to dip my crusts into. It did eventually come, but I had been staring at a plate full of crusts for far too long. So anyway, the special of the night came out as well, a pizza inspired by Indian cuisine (and possibly Tiffin etc.). It was good, with chickpeas, chicken, cilantro, tomato slices, golden raisins, and a sauce of spicy jalapenos. I loved the jalapeno sauce, it was spicy, but not overpowering and added a nice flavor profile to the pizza.


Overall, I liked Earth, but I did not see anything I hadn't seen before, but I did really like the crust. The beer was just average, but it would be a welcome addition to any neighborhood. I would definitely go back, but I would not venture out of the city just for their pizza.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Indian-inspired pizza...something I would try!