Upon first hearing of
The Ways Restaurant and Brewing Co., I had to wonder what sort of ways they were talking about. "Let me count the ways" [how I love you], in Elizabeth Browning's poem? Or "knowing how way leads on to way" in Robert Frost's Road Not Taken?
None of the above! Way is the surname of two brothers, Tim and Steve, natives of the town next door, Jenkintown, who opened this cozy pub about six months ago. Steve Way operated a popular food truck, Smokin' Tacos, for some years and played at home brewing on the side. Tim Way spent some years as a nurse in an ER and then opted for pro-level brewing with studies at the American Brewers Guild school in Vermont and a turn at Weyerbacher in Easton, PA.
Tim makes beer on a ten-barrel system with a novel array of finishing tanks: four fermenters and six brite tanks. The brite tanks link directly to six of the dozen taps behind the bar. The other six dispense from kegs, three of their own and three guest taps. I tried two different stouts to go with a bowl of Guiness beef stew, just right on a chill December afternoon. The first was Attache Case, an English style stout, sweeter than Irish versions, dry-hopped with Fuggles and EKG hops (5 % abv). Next was a pint of August West, an Oatmeal stout with local coffee and chocolate added (6.6%) type which came next. Both delicious in their different "ways".
The pub was doing a good business
in gift cards and growler fills this last Saturday before Christmas. The other beer choices in the local offerings were four IPAs, a Helles, an Alt, and a fruit lager with blueberries and tart red cherries in the mix. Rapidly becoming a neighborhood fixture.
The Ways' logo features the intersection of a highway and a railroad's tracks, which describes the pub's location perfectly. It sits smack beside the SEPTA lines to Doylestown and Warminster and is a stone's throw from the station.
(Visited 12/21/19)
