The former owner of the now defunct Sam Adam's Brew House is the proprietor of Standard Tap.  This time around, the concentration is on draft selections rather than brewing beer. Some of the brews poured proudly at Standard Tap include: Loves' Stout,  Stoudts Pilsner (brewed in Wilkes-Barre, PA), Stoudts American Pale Ale,  Woodchuck Amber Cider, Woodchuck Granny Smith,  Yuengling Lager, Yuengling Porter, Sausage Ale, Flying Fish and, of course,  Victory Golden Monkey &  Victory Hop Devil.

The first floor of Standard Tap contains an old wooden bar (seats about 12), upright tables and booths. For a kitschy appeal, there's a dart board, a juke box and a phone booth built into the wall behind the juke box. The phone booth is a Godsend. Every libatious alcove  should have one. Who amongst us bar flies hasn't shouted into a beer soaked cell phone while trying to look sexy for the bartender. Shouting into a phone doesn't exude sexiness.  

There are bathrooms, another bar and more tables on the second floor. Actually they expanded the 2nd floor in the fall of 2004 to include an additional dining area in the rear. 

The walls are painted either dark red or dark green, depending upon where you are. Breaking up the monotony of these earthy tones are paintings of farms, streams  and oceans. There are even bookshelves stocked with books built into some of the walls.

The wait staff was great. We were lucky enough to get a booth on a Saturday night, seated right near the dart board. It wasn't long before the solo waitress (on this floor) came over to our table and took our order. The rest of the night, she was there to keep the brews coming in spite of the fact that she was working the entire first floor.

The crowd was comprised of mid-20 year olds on up to people in their 30's. It was a very laid-back, anything goes, pub atmosphere where it's not unusual for someone to walk in with their dog. And we're talking a real, honest to goodness beer crowd here - practically everyone has a pint of something in front of them.

Second Street is very wide at this point because the street is the back exit of the old Ortlieb's Brewery. Those beer trucks needed plenty of room to navigate onto the city streets. Lucky for the patrons of Standard Tap (and the surrounding bars), this wide section of street opens up lots o' parking spaces since cars don't parallel park, but rather park "nose-in."

Speaking of Standard Tap's neighbors; the 700 Club and Liberties are within a block of the Tap. If you're looking for a new part of the city to investigate, it would be a safe bet to visit these Northern Liberties' offerings.

Standard Tap figured out what you do when you've got a lot of wall to fill.