Overall Rating: Not Too Bad Highlight: The Beer Lowlight: Burnt cheese Veggie Note: There is no vegetarian designation for the dishes on the menu, but there are some choices available and ingredients are listed pretty well. Came here for the beer, but had a plan to eat dinner while we were here as well. Appalachian Brewing Company is brewery/restaurant that now has several locations around the region (Cameron St in Harrisburg is where we were). There are two floors here, with Belgian beers featured on the second floor along with pool and darts. We ate upstairs in the Abbey Bar. The table service was spotty as it is not their main dining room, but we were fine with walking to the bar if we needed something a little quicker than the bartender/server was able to bring it to us. The menu is pretty full and has changed some since the last time we ate here several years ago. We had the following: Complimentary:

• Nothing complementary served here

Appetizer:

• Appalachian Beer Cheese Dip (Backcountry Buffalo) – if you’re a regular reader you should be able to predict by now that we will almost always pick a cheese related appetizer when it’s available. This blend of beer, cheddar cheese, peppers and spices came out a little darker and chunkier than we expected it too (funny how the server said “it’s dark and chunky looking like it’s supposed to be” as she set it down – that was unsolicited and now looking back it was almost as if she was planting subliminal messages in our brains). It was also very much burnt on the bottom. All that said, it still tasted pretty good, but hey, it was cheese after all… There were two other varieties of cheese dips available as well.

Entrees:

• Springer Mountain Pasta – Somehow I misinterpreted what it was I ordered so when it came out I was a little surprised, but it ended up being pretty good. I think I was totally out of it tonight though. I’m not usually a big fan of sundried tomatoes and this dish was swimming in them, but to be honest I found myself seeking them out by the time I was done. They were very nice sundried tomatoes. The fettuccini was a little too al dente for me. Also, the “Chardonnay Sauce” was very thin and oily. I think I imagined it a little more reduced or at least something a little thicker. It splashed around a lot and I actually noticed a few little oil spots on my shirt when I got home. All of the pasta on the menu is prepared without meat, which is really great. You can add the meat of your choice if you want, or portabella mushrooms, which is what I did.
• Santa Fe Salad – This salad was all around pretty good, the dressing was the most notable (Stout BBQ Ranch) and the black beans made it very tasty. The salads, like the pasta, can be customized with your choice of meat or mushrooms, but some have meat in them already, so watch out for that.
• Pomegranate Blueberry Chicken– I forgot to mention we had a non-veggie friend with us again (it seems we have a bunch of those). Apparently this chicken was awesome; the blueberries were very unique and yummy. The onions, I’m told, could have been more caramelized than they were, but two thumbs up!

Just a few other notes: On Tuesday nights, pool is free! (Also on Sundays) Back in the day, ABC used to have a really nice vegetarian chili on the menu that we loved. When we travelled through this area, we often stopped here and had that. Over time it stopped being very good, so we were disappointed it’s no longer on the menu, but not surprised. The beer made here is super good. We highly recommend a stop here for a pint or four, even if you’re not hungry. It would be interesting to find out about their brewing process. For those of you who are serious vegetarians or vegans, you may or may not already know that a common beer filtering agent is a compound that comes from fish. It is typically left behind in the settling process, but there is no guarantee that it hasn’t made it into your glass of beer and of course, if you are vegan, it is an animal by-product. Final Thoughts: There are no specifically vegetarian dishes on the menu, but it is nice that the pasta and salads can be customized with just mushrooms. For a place that is PA preferred (a Dept of Ag designation) it would have been nice to see a few more local foods “featured” on the menu as well.

Calling all Central PA Twitterers, bloggers, and social media affectionados!  Our next installment of the increasingly-popular blogHarrisburg Tweetup is happening Thursday, September 18th beginning at 7pm.  As always, we’ll be in The Abbey Bar (upstairs at Appalachian Brewing Company).  Come out and share a brew with your fellow Harrisburg bloggers and local Twitter users!

The tweetups are casual and open to any midstate resident who has a blog or a Twitter account.  We meet on the third Thursday of every month — same place, same time.  If the weather is decent (defined as “fall crisp” and not “winter cold”) and ABC hasn’t closed the deck for the season, we’ll be outside on the deck.  If not, there’s plenty of room for everyone inside.  blogHarrisburg.com and floor9.com will carry the final word a few days before the event.

Users of all skill levels are welcome and encouraged to attend!  We’re a friendly and open bunch, and nobody should ever feel unwelcome because they’re not a master of their domain.  No matter if you’ve just signed up for Twitter, or just finished hand-coding a new SQL server in pure machine code, or fall anywhere in-between, we want you to attend!

The blogHarrisburg tweetups are about 30% business and 70% social gathering.  Most of the shop talk tends take place early in the night, so if you’re interested if comparing CMS engines, discussing advertising strategies, or any other topics related to social media and technology in general, arrive early.  The tweetup officially begins at 7pm, and although it officially ends at 9pm, most people stick around and make a night of it.

One final word — while there is no age requirement (patrons under the age of 21 are permitted in ABC until 10pm), some of the topics we discuss may be boring and/or “too grown-up” for younger children.

Hope to see you there!

Has it really been a month since our last Tweetup? You should know the drill by now- This coming Thursday- August 21- the Harrisburg Bloggers/Twitterers/Social Networking gurus decend on the deck at The Abbey Bar at Appalachian Brewing Company in Harrisburg from 7 til (at least) 9PM and discuss everything from blogging to responsible media to local [...]

This is your friendly neighborhood blogHarrisburg Tweetup reminder for August 2008:   We’re getting together this Thursday, 8/21/08, at our usual digs at The Abbey Bar (upstairs at Applachian Brewing Company in Harrisburg).  We get started around 7pm and wrap up around 9, though ABC is open as late as you care to stay.  As always, these meetups are open to the entire blogHarrisburg crew, as well as anyone from / around Central PA with a Twitter account.  If the weather holds — and it looks like it will — we’ll be outside on the deck for what will probably be the last summer-weather meetup of the year. You don’t have to otherwise know anybody in the group to drop by.  Fresh faces are always welcome — new people show up every month!  In fact, judging by the progressive growth of the past few months, August should be pretty friggin’ huge. This month we’ll be doing some unofficial roundtable chatting about advertising and revenue generation for blogs.  I don’t consider myself an expert on the matter, but since my site pulls in about 3x its hosting costs from AdSense, I figure I’m at least qualified enough to handle the basics.  And anyone with experience to share is welcome to contribute.  I’ll try to have a simple takeaway prepared with enough information to get new bloggers up and running with ads. So mark your calendars, tweet your friends (self-appointed “Tweetup cheerleader” @Kathleen_LD, I’m looking at you here), and drop by for an evening of food, drink, and social merriment!  Feel free to post any questions or feedback in the comments.

 Click here to see the Photos. Thanks to Round Table Presents, The Shackeltons played Appalachian Brewing company as part of Round Table Presents big 08-08-08 party which featured 8 spectacular bands for $8 starting at 08:08.  The shackeltons are an indie band from Chambersburg, PA that play with a lot of passion on stage.  It is apparent that these guys believe in what they are doing.  You sometimes wonder what the lead singer might do next as he theatrically animates the ebbs and tides of the songs sometimes hanging from the rafters upside down or falling to the floor (not from the rafters luckily) while the rest of the band is perfecting their craft of pounding out their fresh and original music filled with frequent rhythm and time changes all while keeping tight with the drums.  I bought their self-titled CD at the show, it was released on Loveless Records in Seattle.  The CD was given 4 out of 5 stars by Spin then was asked to do a list of festivals including the nations largest festival SXSW (South By Southwest).  These guys have what it takes to make it big, if that is what they want. Thanks to Round Table Presents for an awesome night of music and for giving local bands a stage to perform.

 Click here to see the Photos. Thanks to Round Table Presents, Kheris played Appalachian Brewing company as part of Round Table Presents big 08-08-08 party which featured 8 spectacular bands for $8 starting at 08:08.  Kheris is an indie/rock band from Lancaster, PA that I had previously never seen which turned out to be a pleasant surprise.  Previous to the show i noticed their eclectic set of influences including U2, Fugazi, Morphine, Bloc Party, Radiohead, and Hendrix.  Their sample songs on the myspace page have a heavy U2 presence it seemed, but live it was a lot more rock than U2. Their set of rock songs were a lot of fun with a lot of melody.  The lead singer plays the part well with the look and energy of Elvis Costello mixed with Rivers Cuomo (of Weezer) at one point standing up on the bar while singing as well as walking out on to the floor with the spectators.   I will surely be catching these guys again.  Speaking of…. They are having a CD release party at the Chameleon Club in Lancaster, PA 8/23/2008.  The cover charge is only $7 and the price includes their new CD “The Sleeping World”.  Go support live music and your local bands. Thanks to Round Table Presents for an awesome night of music and for giving local bands a stage to perform.

Upcoming Shows page has been updated. Check out the goodness here