Food & Drink

How do the judges, lawyers, law students (and their friends!) of Irish descent rejoice in the St. Patrick’s Day season in Philly? They gather their members of The Brehon Law Society together, get John Byrne & Maura Dwyer of The John Byrne Band to play some music and they meet at Tir na nOG in the city on March 11th. With a great turnout, and the food & drink superb, the craic was mighty.

And, with guests like Patrick Murphy, the former Pennsylvania Congressman and current host of MSNBC’s monthly program “Taking the Hill” (which is airing this Sunday, March 22, at 1PM Eastern Time), in attendance, you can always count on The Brehons to throw an exceptional shindig!

Check out our photos from the evening, and see who else showed up for the party.

Second Story’s John Wible and Ken Merriman

The twos were just too overwhelming to ignore.

When native Dubliner Ken Merriman was looking for a name for his new brew pub, Second Story Brewery seemed like a natural. It’s at 117 Second Street, a few steps from Front Street, in Philadelphia’s Old City neighborhood. The gleaming stainless steel brewing vats that once held Triumph Brewing’s craft beers are on the second floor of the 19th century former cotton and silk warehouse.

And it’s a second story—meaning a real passion for something–for Merriman, his partner, Debbie Grady, and brewer John Wible. “Deb is a farmer (Tilted Barn Farm in Pottstown) and we’re going to be using the wheat, hops, barley and probably yeast from her farm to make the beer,” explained Merriman last week during an invite-only preview that served as a dry run for the pub. “John is an IT guy in Cherry Hill who started as a home brewer. And me, I’ve been drinking beer all my life and now I’m making it!” He laughs.

It’s a second story in another way for Merriman, who grew up in the hotel/restaurant business. It’s his second Philly restaurant adventure. He was until fairly recently the general manager and partner at Tir na Nog at 16th and Arch and continues to run District Riverton Bistro in Riverton, NJ, where he lives.

Serendipity brought the three together. Merriman and Grady met years ago on the rugby field while watching their sons play for St. Joseph’s Prep. Wible is married to Grady’s daughter who started him on his obsession with beer making when she suggested he “find something to do with my time” while she was living temporarily in Vancouver.

“I didn’t know anything about home brewing but then I found a place close to my office that sold the equipment,” says Wible, 29. “Within two months, my new hobby had become a serious obsession.”

It was something of a learning curve to go from making 10 gallons to 500 gallons, but Wible started brewing and testing his own tried and true recipes on a grander scale for Second Story back in July and has 8-10 winners that will be available, along with a few ciders and six outside beers, including Guinness, and a test line done in 10 gallon batches. There’s also a beer engine at the bar for naturally carbonating beer as it’s pumped from the cask which adds a different texture to the beer, explains Wible.

“He’s really not happy about that Guinness,” Merriman confided later with a grin. “He says he’s working on a good dry Irish stout for me so we may be carrying that.”

Like the craft beer, the food is also farm-to-table, including an imaginative array of “bar bites” like black bean egg rolls, sliders with tomato jam and manchego cheese, and grilled wings that are brined, then baked, then grilled.

And the venue, warmed by oak floors, exposed brick walls, a working fireplace, and heavy fire doors that date back to its warehouse days, does double duty—both as a restaurant and event space. There’s a large room with a separate bar upstairs that can handle large parties.

Surprisingly, in a big beer town like Philly—where one section of the city is called Brewerytown—there are only a handful of brew pubs so Second Story doesn’t have lots of competition and certainly not in its neighborhood.

“Philly is a huge craft beer town but what it has is craft breweries,” says Merriman. One of the latest, for example, is St. Benjamin’s in Kensington, where they brew and deliver beer to local bars but don’t yet have a pub (one is in the planning stage). “If you go to a place like Denver, for instance, there are brew pubs on every corner,” Merriman says.

The brew pub is even catching on in Ireland, where traditional pubs are in decline. “I got a great laugh the last time I was in Ireland,” Merriman says. “The Irish were always trashing American beer. When I was back there in February and on the computer researching brew pubs, when I came across six or seven of them in Ireland and they were all advertising ‘American style craft beers.’” He laughed. “I just loved it.”

Kathy Meehan-Guilin with Her Father Jimmy Meehan

This past Sunday, close to 500 people gathered at the Irish Center to show their support for Kathy Meehan-Guilin. The daughter of Donegal native Jimmy Meehan, one of the most beloved members of Philadelphia’s Irish Community, Kathy was diagnosed with breast cancer in February of 2014, and it’s been a long road. From April to July, the mother of three children (Jimmy, 18; Moira, 14 and Anna, 13) underwent chemotherapy treatment, in early September she had a mastectomy and she’s about to begin six weeks of radiation. And in the midst of all of this, her husband of 19 years, Dave, was laid off from his job.

Among the Irish, there is a particularly strong tradition of community, and when someone in the extended family is in trouble, people come together.  So when word got out last spring about Kathy’s diagnosis, the Irish in Philadelphia mobilized. Calls were made, a committee was formed and Jim Boyle and Liam Hegarty took on the role of co-chairing a fund-raising effort.

“Tom Boyle called me and said, ‘Jimmy Meehan’s daughter needs help,'” Liam explained. “That was all it took. Thirty people showed up at the first meeting. Historically, you start out with a large group of volunteers, and people fall away. Not with this group. You couldn’t go wrong with this group. Everyone pitched in immediately, everyone took on a job.”

The fundraising initially began by reaching out with a leaflet that members of the group took to local parishes and grocery stores, telling Kathy’s story. Volunteers spent untold hours collecting money and selling raffle tickets.  Vince Gallagher and Marianne MacDonald talked about Kathy’s story on their Sunday Irish radio shows. Leslie Alcock, who is the Director of Community Programs at the Irish Immigration Center of Philadelphia, was appointed the group’s Public Relations person, and set up a Facebook page and sent out newsletters. In June, the planning began for Sunday’s big event—a culmination that brought out everything that is wonderful about a community that knows how to pull together.

The Irish Center donated the space, Paddy Rooney’s Catering in Havertown donated the food, local musicians donated their time and talents, raffle donations poured in from local pubs and restaurants and individuals who donated baskets of goods as well as larger items that included a bicycle, a signed Donegal Jersey and tickets to an Eagles game.

“I’m overwhelmed,” Kathy said. “I’m amazed at how many people showed up. The way these people have been so generous, it’s a source of strength. It’s really lifted my spirits—people just want to help. Strangers, people I don’t even know. I don’t know how to thank everybody. People come up to me and say, ‘You’re Kathy, Jimmy’s daughter, I know your father.’ People have been so good. I feel cocooned, wrapped in so much love.”

Jimmy Meehan understands: “It’s the Irish Community. With this community, you can’t lose. We’ve been a very active and close-knit family for years. It’s how you were raised. You take care of family and neighbors and anybody close to you. If a time arises when someone needs help, we’ll take care of each other.”

And Leslie Alcock understands why so many people want to help the Meehan-Guilin family: “Everyone knows how much Jimmy has done for the community over the years. He always looks out for his friends, he’s always so kind, the first to volunteer and do anything to help out; he’s never just sitting back.You ask him to do something and he always says yes.”

The community isn’t finished helping yet. As Kathy begins her radiation treatment, a “Take Them a Meal” program has been set up. The schedule can be accessed by going to the website:  TakeThemAMeal.com and typing in the name “Meehan-Guilin” and password “4829.”

As Leslie summed it up, ” All the work that went into this, all the time and energy, it warms your heart. There’s so much good in the world.”

For more information, visit the Meehan-Guilin Family Benefit FB page

Some photos from the day: