Thanks for your comments. You are exactly who we’ve failed to reach – and why we have struggled. I hear everything you’re saying. I disagree a little bit about the beer, but I won’t quibble. I’ve had to make some less potent offerings in recent years due to cash flow issues, but we never fail to use the best ingredients in (what I think are) inventive, tasty offerings. Perhaps you’re a hop-head or like a crisp lager. It’s irrelevant and a matter of taste, as you wrote. However, come back in when the Chocolate Thunder is on cask and I’ll think you’re opinion will change about the beer (a little bit). Anyway, the beer is certainly not the biggest issue at the General Lafayette Inn.

It’s complicated, for sure, and running a restaurant is a pain in the ass on good days. Anyway, I’ll give you a little background. I came here as Brewmaster in 1999. I took over ownership in 2004, as the owner who re-opened the place and installed the brewery died of melanoma, agreeing to sell it to me before he died. When I took over, we had a CIA-trained chef on staff. Also, the physical split personality was firmly in place. I had very little experience running a restaurant. So, I deferrred to my chef, as he worked his butt off. He certainly was a great cook and was making some incredible food. The business plan we had in place worked financially. It didn’t make sense at the time to make sweeping changes.

So, we were slow to adapt to meet the callenges of a sluggish economy and the competition of chains and great beer bars like Theresa’s Next Door with affordable menu options. Further, every bar/restaurant now carries at least a small selection of craft beers. Then, we got distracted and lost our shirts with the The Tiedhouse. It was an opportunity that came to us. I saw it as a chance to do exactly what we are starting to do now – fresh flatbreads, hand cut fries, pretzels, etc. It failed due to location and timing – for the most part. We did have some execution issues ther – as we’ve had here at times also, but I don’t think it was a major factor. My wife has told me for years that the food concept needs an overhaul but I’ve never listened. Live and learn, I suppose.

Finally, the atmosphere. I’ve struggled to shake the “two places” stigma for years now. We’re working towards rectifying that, but we just don’t have the money for the types of physical changes that could make that happen instantly. I did knock down the wall seperating the dining room and bar over a year ago. And, we do plan to build some booths, replace the carpet with hardwood (as cash flow allows), build a bar in the dining room and expand our bar-room ambience throughout the entire downstairs.

I agree with you about Victory, by the way. That place is impressive. My visit there this summer opened my eyes to the idea that we were missing our target market with the CIA chef – and he was bored to death. We needed to get back to simpler, more accessible, casual dining. So, we’ve gone that route. So far so good (it seems), as I wrote.

So, I guess you’ve reinforced my beliefs about the direction we should head. I hope we’re on the right track. If you want to stop in sometime soon, I’d love to say hello and maybe get a few more thoughts from you. Send me an email when you’re coming, and I’ll buy you a beer and a flatbread.

Cheers,
Chris

Did I completely miss the McKensie offerings? I don’t recall seeing it on the menu. Was it just me?

Today I am compelled to respond to you. I hope you will see this.
I live within easy walking distance of the General Lafayette; mere blocks away. We were here before the Inn opened. I was brewing my own beer at the time, and can remember being thrilled to see a brewpub opening. There is nothing like this in the area, it can’t lose, I say to myself. Yes, years ago. Yes, this is relevant.

Then we went to check it out when it first opened. We were escorted into a formal dining room, served dinner on pewter plates. “If you want food, you come this way.” Food was good, ok, but pricey, and we came for a pub. The beer was good, it was ok. On the way out, we realize there was a ’stage right option to go to the bar’. “Next time, we go to the bar” I tell my wife.

A few months later, we go stage right, to the bar. There is no real bar waitress, and the waiter/bartender is taking orders for drinks and food. Can’t get food to save our lives, because bartender can’t do both. Food menu even here isn’t what we’re expecting. I am really puzzled. The place cant decide what it wants to be, I say to my wife. She agrees. The dining room and ‘colonial dining’ deal isn’t working with the beer. I know, its a historical inn and site. But its not city tavern, and this isn’t Center/Olde City, its somewhere else. The bar has potential, it’s wasted.

We try it again a few weeks later. There is a semi-waitress, who comes by every 45 minutes. Same thing. We manage to get two beers, can’t get food. “What a shame”, I say to my wife. We pay and leave.

We do this a few times, still trying to convince ourselves that its a fluke, that its just new restaurant growing pains. The pattern continues. We stop coming.

EVERY time I pass those copper kettles on Germantown Pike, I shake my head at what *could be*.

Years go by, I see the signs that the Inn is in trouble. My wife and I try dinner again, January 2009. Its a snowy night in January, and we’re looking for someplace we can ‘walk’. We take a look on the website, decide to give it a go. We try to order various drafts from the menu. Several are out, including what we came for. It takes a long time to find out that the raspberry mead is out, and number two and three are also out.

We get some substitutes. The Abbey double is good, but its just good. The food was again somewhat pricey, but it was good, actually very good. But still not a brewpub dinner. The place is dead. Granted its a bad weather night, but its deader than that. 100 bucks for dinner for two, with some OK beer. We casually look in the bar, also dead. Once again, we just sigh.

Don’t get me wrong, I like good beer, I like good food, I’m willing to pay for them. I’ve got a basement full of belgian and german brews thatcost me plenty But a Brewpub needs to offer a menu that can be casual and good. It can offer more expensive dinners, but its got to fit the Beer.

But it just seems to me like you guys never found your place. If you aren’t a Brewpub, why did you drop all that coin for the beautiful copper kettles?

The beer is personal preference, I understand. I want to love the beer that I can walk to. I want to bring my growlers in to get filled when I take a walk. Over the sampling times though, I find it just OK. Other times we came to sample whats on the menu, and its out. A the food never compels us to return.

When we saw that the place was ‘expanding’ to Tithing House, we were confused. So many issues and undelivered business at the first place, and they open a second? How can they do that? Time passes, and it looks like the rest of the world agrees with us.

They can’t. A few months ago I stumble on your blog, and read the sad,
bitter, confused posts and comments around Tithing. Still I ask myself, why is this hard? No, I know running a brewery/restaurant is incredibly hard, hard enough when you have the formula right. But the formula: good beer, good (reasonable) food that matches it, casual and fancier options: thats the easy part. The market exists. Add some decent service staff, and you should at least have a running go at the place.

So today, I stumble on your site and then to the blog, and I read ‘we’re not dead yet.’ Small Plates, Large Plates, Mussels. House made Pickles. House Made pretzels. WHERE were these things YEARS ago? Yes, ‘Gastropub’ is cliche and everybody is on the wagon now. But small plates/large plate/gastropub are just names. Some decent, reasonably priced, smaller food selections, some good service, some good beer.

No, I’m not the perpetual disgruntled, and impossible to please customer. I’m really not. I didn’t take 25 minutes to type this to tee off on someone. That’s what killing me here. Take a walk over to ‘From the Boot’. See how they took a strip mall restaurant and turned into standing room only. Good food, good service, the RIGHT formula for their audience. We can walk there. We OFTEN do.

So I want to believe you, I want to. Can you convince me? It’s hard after all this. I try lots of brewpubs, and yes I’ve singled you out, you’re
the closest. There are both good and bad examples in the area.

We make the drive up to Sly Fox one night, its a pretty good distance for us. They have the right formula, and they completely blew it on us. A waiter who corrects my (correct) pronunciation of “Saison”, and then brings me the wrong beer. Bad service, confused staff, late food, 15 bones in a tuna steak ‘fillet’ sandwich. 35 minutes to get a second beer. The order doesnt go into the bas for 20 mins. Then I can see the beer sitting on the bar for 15 minutes. Late apologies at the end of dinner, too little too late.

Victory Brewpub hits it out of the park every time we go. Yes, they are big now, yes they have big pockets. Yes they have a commercial beer distribution behind them. But they did it right from the day that opened that place in a factory, on a side street, in an industrial complex. When they were nobody, we were driving there for the pub. You have to want it to find them. Their beer is amazing, the food is fantastic. It’s a BREW Pub. I’ll DRIVE there anyday.

I want to walk to you.

Booths, casual dining, Good Beer. There still is plenty of room for this in Lafayette Hill. Maybe I should try it again. Maybe I should come back. But I’ve been burned now many many times, Chris. And please don’t take this the wrong way, this is not a rant, not a tirade against you and your establishment. I’m not an armchair quarterback who thinks its easy, that he could do it without blinking. I’m not a malcontent. I’m just a former customer who WANTS to WALK to a GREAT Brewpub.