Imagine, for a moment, that you are a prospective restaurant/bar owner. Imagine that the spot you are planning to open is so eagerly anticipated, that nearly every time you leave your house someone asks you when it will open. Imagine that enough people are waiting with bated breath that someone forms a Facebook group in order to share hearsay, information; notice of a soft opening. We're not talking about the latest venture from some marquee-named chef or restaurateur who set up shop in the Lehigh Valley. No, the new (ish) restaurant/bar in question is Black & Blue in Easton, and the person who often couldn't leave the house without getting randomly (but lovingly) interrogated is Kelly-Jo Ditze.
You see, in April 2008, Ditze closed the much beloved Which Brew in Easton because her landlord terminated the lease. The dimly lit, dark and funky place with the clever name—are we talking about beer? Or witches? Or both!?—was best known for its excellent, varied craft beer selection, great bar food with creative names (i.e., pommes “frights,” the thin, hand-cut shoestring frites) and the deck in the back of the restaurant, which (along with the beer) turned every visit to Which Brew into a relaxing time warp. Ditze garnered a following that was beyond loyal, but this is not news to anyone familiar with the story. If you're a stranger to these two establishments, stick with me—it gets better, but first, we must backtrack a bit.
Which Brew opened in 2003 and was the natural outgrowth of Ditze's experience with the Weyerbacher Brew Pub, which was located next to the former Mt. Vernon Ale House. Ditze, a Phillipsburg native “in her mid-40s” has worked in restaurants since she was 16, and became the manager about a year after it opened, transforming the pub into a hub, and increasing brand recognition and popularity of Weyerbacher beer along the way. To hear Larry Porter tell it, “No one was going there. She really put that place on the map and turned it into one of the most popular spots.”
“It was not just me,” Ditze interrupts. “It was the people—the people [who] made it what it was.”
Other Things You Should Know About Black and Blue:
Black & Blue Easton
683 Walnut Street
Easton
610.438.3604
blackandblueeaston.com
Hours:
Tuesday through Thursday,
4 p.m.-11 p.m.;
Friday and Saturday,
4 p.m.-midnight
Reservations:
No (Arrive as early as you can on weekends; it fills up fast but you can always have a drink or eat at the bar while you wait.)
Payment:
Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover
Parking:
Street parking on Walnut can be tricky (you can only park on the right side of the street), but there are 30 metered spaces within walking distance.
What to Order:
House-made nachos, bat wings, mussels, pommes frights (which you can have with a sandwich or order on their own)
Specials:
Tuesday is Mugholder's Appreciation Night, with a dollar off drafts in your mug and 10 percent off your food bill if you bring your Which Brew mug. (Porter says they may do Black and Blue mugs in the future.)
Thursday is BYOV
(8 p.m.-midnight), or bring your own vinyl. Yep, bring out those records and the staff will spin some tunes no one's likely heard in years.
Live Music:
Black & Blue intermittently offers live music, but it's not regularly scheduled. Most of the time, you'll hear stellar Pandora randomness streaming in the background.
At the time, there were only a couple other places in Easton to drink Weyerbacher—Porters' and Pearly Baker's. But there was nary a brewpub that was warm and inviting, used beer in the dishes and served elevated bar food made with love from scratch, too. Naturally, people responded to that. The Weyerbacher pub was short lived: it closed in 2001 and moved to its current, bigger digs on Easton's South Side. “These people who were my customers turned into my extended family. The last day we were open, these guys, big guys, were crying and hugging me at the door on their way out.”
“And that's Kelly. She really connects with people, with good reason. People love her,” Porter says.
Unbeknownst to her, she was laying the groundwork for what would ultimately become an offbeat nightlife career here in Easton. After Weyerbacher moved, Ditze started to hold what she called “‘virtual pub meetings' where we'd do these roving bar crawls around Easton.” She'd call the bar owner ahead of time and let them know she and 20-30 people were coming, with the stipulation that the bar have one or two Weyerbacher beers on tap. When Which Brew opened in 2003, it gave a home to the community that had developed; the party was really only briefly interrupted. “It's rare to have that kind of experience, and when you find it, you hold onto it,” she says.
Black & Blue's name pays homage to the black of Which Brew (and the dark sense of humor shared by Ditze and partner Larry Porter, 49, of Porters' Pub), and the building's former tenant, the Bluetone Cafe. Black & Blue unofficially opened in June with a limited menu but to a packed house and for real in October. Much of the menu looks nearly identical to the one from the Which Brew days (including the font) with “appeteasers” that include Verboten chili, made with the Weyerbacher beer of the same name, “bat” wings (a.k.a. chicken wings) doused with either chipotle hot sauce or sesame ginger sauce, and the glorious house-made nachos, with nearly every ingredient made from scratch. And much of the staff is familiar, too—you may remember Tara, Michele, Nikki, or Caitlin—with Arvids Danielsons and Heather Bond in the kitchen. It's always been a priority of Ditze's to hire mostly women, “to give them this kind of opportunity,” she says—and the rare man who's comfortable being around strong, smart women.
“When we opened, I had a whole other idea of what we'd serve here—I wanted to do all small plates.” But people kept asking about frights, made with the addictive Blithering Idiot Barleywine reduction sauce. And the mussels. And the nachos. And the roast beast and garlic chicken “sandwitches.” You'll find entrées (seafood pasta, paella) and fresh, delicious salads, too. “We're still trying to find our place with the menu,” she says, but they're committed to offering a dozen or so small plates in addition to the regular menu—look for the Mediterranean tapas, the blackened tuna bites and arancini (deep fried scallop and risotto balls). The menu, however, is absent the veggie-heavy pizzas that made good use of Weyerbacher's spent grains, because local supplier Tombler's Bakery, who made the dough for the pizza, had a fire in the spring of 2011. (Hopefully Tombler's—and the pizza—are back soon).
When it was time to fill out paperwork and put a name on the business, Porter, along with much of the bar's following, says he “always assumed it would be called “Which Brew.” Ditze nixed it, and logically so: it's three years later and she is a different person. “It's exactly where I am now,” she says. The place feels like the sophisticated older sister of Which Brew. With its draped curtains gently creating a sense of intimate space, small tables with chairs that make it easy to stay a while and a subtle Art Nouveau style, Black and Blue has left the flying broomsticks and cobwebbed window displays behind for the most part. (You will still find the same witch-on-a-broomstick pendant lamps along the bar.) “I wanted a more grown-up version; something a little sexier. When you leave here, you feel good about yourself,” Ditze says. And so anyone who says it's “just like Which Brew” isn't looking closely enough.
With Larry Porter involved, it's not a surprise that a varied, quality selection of beer is available, with 12 on tap and about 50 in bottles. One of those taps is always reserved for a Flemish sour, something you wouldn't have necessarily seen at Which Brew, but beer drinkers are more adventurous and sours are increasingly popular. Black & Blue's list leans heavily on the Belgian offerings, which Porter points out are served in the appropriate glassware. (It's true and sadly, rare to find beer served in appropriate glassware in the Lehigh Valley.) You'll be introduced to beers you might not find elsewhere in the region, such as Double Black Damnation from De Struise Brothers, a 13 percent Belgian imperial stout aged in whiskey barrels for six months. “I think we have the only keg of it in Pennsylvania,” he says. Similarly, you might find Founders KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout), a barrel-aged stout akin to alcoholic coffee: thick, rich, with notes of vanilla, coffee, oak and bourbon. You'll find the beers on tap listed on a de rigueur enormous chalkboard: the artwork (always by a local artist) changes monthly but the beer selections may rotate more frequently than that.
As for the rest of the libations, Porter says, “we don't really have well drinks (common house liquors). If you ask for a gin and tonic, it'll be made with Bluecoat, which is a gin out of Philadelphia,” he says. Porter and Ditze have taken a similarly thoughtful approach with the wine list, which consists of six to eight offerings from small labels with high ratings, available by the glass. “Kelly-Jo and I admire uniqueness and are always looking for stuff that's off the beaten path,” Porter says.
Perhaps nothing is more unexpected than the fact that Black & Blue serves not one or two, but five varieties of absinthe in the traditional “louche” style; most of what they serve is European but one, Vieux Carré, is from Philadelphia. The lore of this anise-flavored spirit is that it was illegal for some time, could reputedly make you go blind, and was somehow responsible for all sorts of artistic and/or literary experimentation—nefarious, brilliant or somewhere in between. You may have encountered it served neat, but you lose some nuance. The traditional process involves pouring water slowly through a specially designed slotted spoon over the glass to mix with the absinthe, thereby diluting the spirit and releasing the components that aren't water soluble—the fennel, anise and star anise. The drink clouds and the flavors bloom; “louche” means cloudy. It's not something you're likely to find anywhere within a 50-mile radius, and helps the place earn its moniker “dark, delightful and delicious.”
Ditze has learned a lot from her years of working in restaurants. During the three years in between bars, she realized a few pivotal things. “There's an allure to working for yourself. Once you become your own boss, it's hard to go back,” she says. The stress of Which Brew understandably took its toll, but she decided on a different approach. “I'm trying to have more fun this time around,” she says. By the looks of it, living up to that promise has been easy, probably because of her most important epiphany. “I realized how much a part of me it was.” She pauses. “This is my house. We invite you into it every day at 4 p.m.,” she says.
Just make sure you get there early. That place fills up fast.
