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Business & Tech

Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant: Phoenixville's Favorite for Eating for a Cause

Good food and friends make Iron Hill "the" location for local fundraisers.

If you’ve lived in Phoenixville for a day or a lifetime, chances are that someone has slipped a piece of paper into your hand, saying “Eat at Iron Hill! Use the coupon and my organization gets 20 percent of your food bill!”

Monday was “Friends of Reservoir Dogs! Park” night, when a full-house’s worth of patrons from Phoenixville’s dog park in Reservoir Park at Fillmore Street and Franklin Avenue dined to raise money to keep the volunteer-run dog park in biobags and trimmed grass.

Of course, you should eat lavishly at a fundraiser, so I gathered four friends to feast on Iron Hill’s selections. Although our dinner lasted two and a half hours, the time sped by because we had so much fun trying each other’s dishes and stopping to talk to the other diners, most of whom we knew from Reservoir Dogs! Park.

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We began with a Small Plate Sampler ($11.95) of salmon spring roll (exceptional!), fried cheesesteak egg roll (good) and tex-mex spring roll (OK) with avocado cream (exceptional), horseradish-chive sauce (perfect with the cheesesteak) and sesame-soy sauce (OK). 

My cousin Ed lobbied for the Hand-cut Sweet Potato Fries ($8.50) which were thicker than we expected and charred a bit more in taste than they should have been. The dipping sauces: bourbon-vanilla cream, smoked paprika aioli and habanero-lime were fabulous. We didn’t expect to like the habanero-lime, but it was a lovely balance of heat and sweet citrus that even the most chili-adverse among us found worth dipping into again and again.

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Alcoholic beverages are excluded from the tally for charity, but since Iron Hill brews their own beer, Sue W. chose the Raspberry Wheat beer ($4.75 for 16 oz.) while Ed and Pat shared a sampler of eight 4-ounce beers. Iron Hill also brews their own root beer, so I ordered a glass ($2.75) which was redolent of wintergreen, sarsaparilla and ginger.

Next were the entrées. Continuing the theme of eating lavishly to raise money for the dog park, I choose the second-most expensive item on the menu: Pan Seared Sea Scallops ($23.50) arranged around a pile of crabmeat, asparagus, leek and tomato fricassee in chardonnay cream sauce. The scallops were tender and flavorful, the crabmeat was sweet, but unfortunately, the asparagus was wooden. 

I felt the best entrées of the night were Sue F.’s  Pan Roasted Duck Breast ($19.95) with a polenta cake, spinach and blackberry-green peppercorn sauce and Pat’s Caribbean Spiced Chicken Breast ($15.50) with black beans and rice, golden pineapple chutney, spinach and mango coulis. 

The duck breast was medium-rare and melted in your mouth. The chicken breast was assertively spiced, but the fruit chutney and coulis dampened the heat so that your mouth watered with flavor, rather than pain. 

My cousin Ed disagreed with my choices and felt that his Meatloaf ($14.95) was perfect, although the potatoes were slightly oversalted. He enjoyed his baby carrots and green beans while the rest of us stole his fried onion rings which were crispy on the outside and buttery-soft onion on the inside. 

Sue W. chose a new menu item, the Garcia Pizza ($11.95), which was plenty of Kennett Square mushrooms on a soft crust drizzled with garlic oil and pleasantly coated with mozzarella, fontina and asiago cheeses.  

We were mostly full, but since the final bill would fund our dogs’ favorite place, we sat back and asked for a dessert menu. Ed chose the Chocolate Bombe ($6.95) with chocolate cake, white chocolate mousse, chocolate ganache, raspberry sauce and crème anglaise which was spectacular. He didn’t get to eat as much of it as he would have liked as the rest of us had our spoons out for more! 

My Limoncello Cake ($6.50) with wild Maine blueberry compote alternated delicate lemon cake with smooth lemon filling. Pat chose the warm Apple Crisp ($6.50) with vanilla ice cream which had a sweet, crunchy topping over hot baked apples.

Service was slightly frantic as the restaurant was packed with dog park “friends” who wanted to eat dinner early so that they could bring doggie bags home to their pooches.

All in all, we had a great time, which is why Iron Hill fundraisers continue to be so popular in Phoenixville. The food hits the mark most of the time, the beers are conversation pieces, the servers are knowledgeable if you’re not sure what to order in either food or drink and the hours are convenient. If your non-profit organization hasn’t had a fundraiser at Iron Hill yet, you should set one up soon. The details are at http://www.ironhillbrewery.com/phoenixville/give20.htm

If You Go:

Location:  130 East Bridge Street, Phoenixville

Cost:  Appetizers:  $8.50 - $11.50  Entrées:  $13.50 - $23.50,  Desserts:  $3.95 - $8.95

Phone:  (610) 983-9333

Website:  http://www.ironhillbrewery.com/phoenixville/

Hours:  Sun. - Mon.:  11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Tues. - Thurs.:  11 a.m. to 12 a.m.
Fri. - Sat.:  11 a.m. to 1 a.m.

Payments accepted:  Credit card, Cash

Parking:  Phoenixville parking lot or on-street parking

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