Beinvenue à Trappe Pennsylvania et la maison du Trappe Tavern.

Trappe Pennsylvania.  Where the hell is Trappe Pennsylvania?  Good question.  It’s out in the far reaches of the suburbia about an hour from Philly.  Trappe borders on Collegeville, which may be better known because of Ursinus University.  Actually, if you are coming from the big city (as they call it out there) you city slickers will pass by the New Road Brewhouse and Ursinus College.

I can explain the Trappe in two words: college bar.  As the Muddy Duck is to St. Joes, the Trappe is to Ursinus.  The differences are that the Trappe is also supported by the locals; and where St. Joes people do have more of a variety of local watering holes, the poor little kids at Ursinus don’t.

From the outside the Trappe looks like an old inn with a huge new deck.  The building is a beautiful old style building but the deck takes away from the country inn image, making it look too commercial.  When you walk in the bouquet is the first thing to hit you.  I do not know how they get that bouquet but it smells like a real Irish or British pub.  The only other place that really has that bouquet is Chaucer’s.  The Trappe looks like a sloppily finished basement.  When you enter, you are greeted by the bar, and to your left is the large dinning area with movable tables and booths.  There is a large big screen TV in the corner and smaller TV’s all over the walls.  During the week there are so many tables it looks like a restaurant but on Thursday through Saturday nights they clear out the tables for standing room.  Out back is the deck and upstairs is a game room.  On tap are Boddingtons, Guinness, Yuengling, and other large American brewery products.

Now this is a college bar and like most college bars it’s inexpensive.  A pint of Guinness runs $3.00 while the domestic is $2.50.  Eat that you over priced downtown Philly bars with your $5 to $6 pints in your small pint glasses (who do you think you are fooling anyway?)—I fart in your general direction—your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberry!  And also like most college bars during the week they have drink specials like fifty cent Yuengling and twenty cent wings—you can’t beat these prices.  They also serve traditional bar food (the menu has not changed in such a long time that the phone number on the cover does not reflect the new area code!), which is very tasty.

With this all said and done, I am very surprised by the poor marketing.  They are sitting on a potential gold mine and don’t even know it.  I am talking about their location.  Those that are catching on continue to read; those that aren’t, go drink some real beer.  I’m talking Trappe as is “les frères Trappistes”? The Trappist Monks? The Belgium Brewing Brotherhood?  The bloody brewers of Chimay? 

With the coming of age of the Gen Xers, an evil little generation that does not take shit from Corporate America, government, and the establish, who when  drinking their father’s beer actually had the balls to say, “this is crap” (not like their spineless parents), who look at freeze dried coffee and say, “you gotta be kidding”, and who look on cigars as a real usage for tobacco.  The finer things in life are coming back and one of them is a refined palette.  Up in New York City there is a bar called Castle Burp, which is run by the Brewist Monks, a bunch of guys dressed like frères that create a Belgium ambiance.  I’m telling you, in a place like Trappe, go with the Belgium theme, maybe expand into a microbrew and you are set.

- As reviewed by The Nutty Irishman

His other reviews include: Brasils, The Erin Pub, The Elephant and Castle, Oscar's Tavern, The Samson Street Oyster House,  Maggie O'Neal's, Barnaby's, Shampoo, Rio, The Great American Pub, The Boat House & the New Road Brewhouse.