Rosemarie Certo of Dock Street Brewery

story by Jennifer Green
photos by Ed Zawadzki

What are the origins of Dock Street?
We started Dock Street Brewing Co. in 1985 as an answer to a demand we thought existed. There were no good American beers; if people wanted good beer they had to buy imported. We were part of the whole microbrewery movement which started in the ’80s, mostly on the West Coast. We had no idea what we were doing. We were home-brewing – my husband was a chef, I’m a gourmet cook, and we just thought, why not? We had no idea of the business aspect, and if we did, we might not have done it. That’s the beauty of being young and having no bar­riers. So we started, and it developed into where we are today. We were one of the pioneers.

Do you make everything from scratch that you serve in this restaurant?
Absolutely. My family in Sicily (where I was born) are all winemakers, and they make olive oil. I grew up with making things from scratch. The concept behind Dock Street here in West Philly is a real hybrid. It has really fresh pizza, a wood-burning oven. Everything is the old-fash­ioned way and has a lot of integrity. It’s not expensive. But you have the basics and really fresh beer, as fresh as it gets.

How do you cater to such a diverse crowd with your short menu?
I think that this is such a sophisticated neighborhood, from the students to the artists to the people who were born and grew up here. They have one thing in common: they’re culturally intelligent, socially conscious, and politically conscious. If you sit down any given night, you’ll find any culture, race, and presence represented. That to me is very impor­tant, because I would never want a brewery or restaurant that just had college kids or older people or businesspeople or white people or black people. That’s not what the U.S. is; that’s not who I am.

Do you have many regular customers?
There’s a whole base of neighborhood people who are here all the time. When I come in, I don’t know who to say hello to first. The restaurant part of the business is like showbiz. You open the doors, people come in, and you’re entertaining by feeding them good food. Behind all of this is the quality of the beer, the quality of the food. My real love is in the beer-making process and this is a showcase so that people can really taste all of the beer.

What is the beer-making process exactly?
It all depends. There are two major categories of beer: ales and lagers. An ale yeast ferments at warmer temperatures, a lager at cooler tem­peratures, taking longer to process from beginning to end – maybe two months, whereas an ale might take one. It’s all about balance and tex­ture: the yeast gives it quality, the hops give character, the malts and barley give body. The thing with making any lager is that they’re usu­ally very clear – they’re basically malts and hops. You can’t mess around with them. A lot of people think that a darker beer is stronger and more full-bodied, whereas the color just forms from roasting the barley. Making that clean Pilsner, which is very light and bright and com­plex, is usually more difficult to make than any stout.

What are the most popular items on your menu? Which pair well?
We have four standard beers: our Rye IPA is our number one seller; we also have the Bohemian Pale Ale, the Goldstock, and the Man Full of Trouble Porter. The darker stouts (like MFTP) go with strong desserts or rich meat, maybe a filet mignon. The IPAs go well with poultry (like our barbecue chicken) and spicy food, because they are bold enough to take on anything. The Bohemian Pilsner is great with our beer-battered fish and chips. We also have a hummus plate that the MFTP pairs well with. It’s just a really nice session beer – you don’t need something strong to stand up to hummus.

What distinguishes an American craft-brew from a European beer?
We’re a bigger beer: bigger in alcohol, bigger in flavor, bigger in body. America has such an amazing beer-drinking culture that now for­eign countries like Belgium are making American-style craft beers. The difference with Americans is that they don’t have tradition. All the great beer countries are so steeped in tradition—that tradition has allowed them to develop their craft—but they are very technical. They don’t have the mentality that Americans do. We don’t have any boundaries. We’ve got the whole world in front of us.