Eulogy Belgian Tavern      

  136 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19106    

Phone: (215) 413-2354

Like all guys, I wish it were bigger...the bar, of course.

The best part of Eulogy is that the place defines the word "unassuming." The bartenders serve up Belgian beer with patience and little fanfare (there are a lot of beer selections, so patrons sometimes have a hard time deciding). The problem with Olde City is that there has been a trend towards upscale bars. This is fine if you're into $8 martinis and no beer selections. But c'mon, this is America! You can't watch a ball game at one of these frou frou bars enjoying a Dirty Girl Scout or slurping on a Muff Rider . You need beer dammit!

Eulogy has got beer "out the yin tang." Let's start with the taps. We're talking over 10 selections here - and they're primarily Belgian. Their stalwarts are Stella Artois, Leffe, Kwak, Lindeman's Frambois, Pilsner Urquell, Hoegarten and Murphy's Irish Stout. Ok, ok, those last 3 aren't Belgian, but they're pretty darn good beers nonetheless.  If the 10+ beer taps don't get your head spinning, their fridge in the back is packed with all sorts of bottled delights (this is where they keep hard to find stuff like the Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout).  

The "Eulogy set-up" is a long dark wood bar downstairs (probably seats about 15 patrons) and a dining room upstairs. A handful of tables downstairs are prime real estate for ogling the Chestnut Street eye candy. (On a recent visit to Eulogy, we observed some of the local eye candy first hand. It was a rainy Friday night. Out of the downpour, two ladies clad in nothing but leather bras and panties came strolling past the Eulogy storefront heading east towards the river. Sure this review has gone off on a wild tangent, but you had to see these girls. Good God!) 

To create the ambiance of a Belgian brown bar, they've dimmed the wagon-wheel lights. Old fashioned pictures and beer mirrors break up the monotony of the mustard colored walls. A CD Jukebox and a couple of TV's provide the entertainment. What's with the budda behind the bar? How about a couple of monk statues? Ah, I guess that's too obvious.   

Negative comments about this place are few and far between. Eulogy is a tight fit. If you're standing one row behind the bar seats, you're in the way. For the warm weather, they installed a wall mounted Air conditioning unit. Unfortunately on one of the nights we visited, the A/C kept blowing out the breaker and as a result, it was about 100 degrees in the bar. Hopefully, this is a problem that will be corrected before the summer really kicks in.

You can't go wrong with their sandwiches. They are all served with fries and a mayonnaise sauce for dipping the fries into - strange , eh? But very tasty!  I ordered dinner on another visit and was disappointed that my shrimp ka-bobs were rubbery.

It's a cool laid back crowd at Eulogy. Patrons are post-college age up into the thirtysomethings. They don't keep the juke box too loud, so the lost art of conversation is easily practiced. If you're in Olde City and looking for something different, stop by and give Eulogy a try, you're gonna love it.