While the Great Recession in 2008 proved to be a death knell for many restaurants in our region, it also brought the gastropub movement to the fore. No matter how bleak those times were for so many of us, there was usually a welcoming beer sign lighting the way through that dark economic tunnel.
Limerick’s Craft Ale House, which debuted in December 2008, is one of those venues with good fortune.
Its owners, Melissa and Gary Fry, have the food and beer biz in their blood. Collectively, the couple spent over 20 years working at various operations; their separate professional pasts made way for their fortuitous future together. And it’s no small coincidence, either, that the two met at a beer tasting back in 2000.
“Good food and beer were our connection,” Melissa recounts. “Seventeen years ago, craft beer wasn’t prominent, so we’d try finding places within a 40-minute drive of here. Finally, we said, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we could make a place of our own?’”
One day, while driving by the old Limerick Country Deli, they spotted a For Lease sign out front, and “it had a beer license!”
Further inspired by how well one of their favorite watering holes was doing (The Whip Tavern in West Marlborough), the Frys signed that lease. Their Craft Ale House has been a huge hit ever since.
Ale by the Trail
All roads seem to lead to Craft Ale House—it’s located on bustling Ridge Pike, only a couple miles from busy Route 422. By contrast, the Frys’ second restaurant, Fork & Ale, which they opened in 2016, resides along a quiet two-lane section of Route 724. The building, on the countrified western edge of Douglassville, was once a shot-and-beer joint called Tim’s Ugly Mug.
Business-wise, the Douglassville area’s real estate pocket is beginning to burgeon. It’s also a very recreationally active locale: French Creek State Park is minutes away, climbers rappel at nearby Birdsboro Rock Quarry, kayakers love paddling the Schuylkill River and area streams and the Schuylkill River Trail runs right through the bar’s backyard, bringing cyclists, joggers and day hikers in droves.
The Scene
No longer an ugly mug like its former occupant, Fork & Ale is striking, possessing stylish touches. Its restoration was a labor of love, one that Melissa and Gary personally tackled.
“It was like layers of an onion,” Melissa recalls. “The subfloor needed to be replaced, as did the drywall and popcorn ceilings.”
The couple ended up building a separate addition to the kitchen and a basement, and even laid the veneers and whitewashed the brick wall along the rear of the restaurant. “It was a lot of DIY, but we knew the details really mattered,” she says.
Fork & Ale has a definite theme befitting its rurality: birch tree logs are used as room dividers; a black granite bar runs through the welcoming lounge, lighting fixtures glow from Edison bulbs and there’s a metallic shimmer from the bevy of brushed galvanized steel chairs and bar stools throughout its spaces.
The Fork
Chef Steven Howells, who was also the opening chef for Craft Ale House, creates fare billed as “local farm-fresh seasonal cuisine,” and his menu is broken down into four segments: shareables and starters, snacks, garden-inspired and mains.
“We make almost everything here, right down to mayo,” Melissa mentions about her chef’s offerings, “and we use multiple local vendors, including Valley Milkhouse cheeses, Broad Wing Farm produce, and Primordia Farms mushrooms from Oley.”
The menu’s first category, sharables and starters, includes fun dishes like housemade beer-infused soft pretzels, accompanied by a mustard cheese sauce. Others include buffalo wings with homemade ranch dressing and grilled shrimp with cheesy grits. Chef Howells also capitalizes on two trending comfort foods. One is poutine; the blanched and baked fries are a-swim in Italian sausage gravy and dotted with gooey Calkins Creamery mozzarella curds.
And the other is scrapple.
No, this isn’t your gray slab, supermarket section scrapple. Howells makes his in-house with delectably seasoned pork shoulder and corn meal. Pretzel buns topped with rounds of scrapple create mini sliders, with pickled cabbage for crunch and Shirey Brothers Orchards’ apple butter to add a touch of sweetness.
Snacks, like bacon-flecked deviled eggs, fried pork rinds and maple-bourbon glazed candied bacon on a stick, are tasty, too. Meanwhile, veg-friendly garden selections are inspired by the seasons. In autumn, you’ll find root and gourd veggies like the spinach and pumpkin salad, and roasted beets with orange, fennel, bacon and arugula.
Mains include steady staple dishes, including a Cajun fried chicken sandwich, grass-fed Fork & Ale burger and creamy, puff-pastry-encrusted chicken pot pie. There are also specials rotated onto the menu every six weeks or so. A few recent examples are slow-cooked Duroc pork tenderloin with house-milled barley, baby carrots and rainbow chard; hearty hand-cut steak frites in a vivid pool of red wine beef jus; and pan-roasted, line-caught Atlantic cod bedded in soft potato gnocchi and delicate ribbons of zucchini and squash.
Desserts, like bananas foster bread pudding and campfire s’mores served in a mini cast iron crock, are far from afterthoughts.
The Ale (Wine & Spirits, Too)
Fork & Ale’s happy hour runs from 4–6 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, and features select $2 beer, as well as wine and cocktail specials.
Sixteen style-specific drafts—several from local breweries—along with a selection of 100 bottles of beer to choose from further prove the Frys’ mission to bring the best beers to this region.
It has a wine-on-tap system dispensing pours from local producers such as Setter Ridge Vineyards, Pinnacle Ridge Winery (both located in Kutztown), Maple Springs Vineyard in Bechtelsville and Manatawny Creek Winery, which is just down the way from Fork & Ale.
There’s also a well-edited selection of craft cocktails utilizing local spirits like Stateside Urbancraft Vodka, Bluecoat Gin and the easy-drinking liquors of Faber Distilling Company from nearby Bucks County. An array of fresh fruits, herbs and housemade simple syrups make for fresh, creative concoctions.
The Takeaway
As they’ve done for almost nine years at their original ale house location in Limerick, Melissa and Gary Fry continue to support local vendors while providing a dedicated focus on regional beer, wine and artisan spirits. The comfort foods they offer are quickly garnering a fan base throughout Berks County, and down into Chester County as well.
Look for an outdoor cabana bar to open there this coming spring, and lunch service added in the not-too-distant future.
Although Craft Ale House was born during those recessionary days almost a decade ago, it’s been a successful run thus far—strong enough to spawn Fork & Ale. Melissa and Gary remain confident (while keeping their fingers crossed) for the good times to continue to roll here in Douglassville.
Fork & Ale is open Tuesday through Thursday from 4–11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday from 4 p.m.–midnight and Sunday from 4–10 p.m.
Find Fork & Ale at 1281 East Main St. (Route 724) in Douglassville; phone: (610) 953-3675 .
- Feature and interior photos: Fork & Ale
- Food & drink photos: Ken Alan
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