Northwest PA

I spent Tuesday, Wednesday, and most of Thursday in Edinboro, PA for training at my company's manufacturing facility. We stayed overnight in Erie (20 minutes away), and we ate out for every single meal. Keep in mind - just a few days ago my stomach was working off of nothing but veggie broth and ginger ale; now I was eating breakfast buffets and pub grub non-stop - what a huge difference! Luckily my stomach adjusted quite well, so here are some of the highlights:

• $2 Yuengling pints at Quaker Steak & Lube. This place was a hop, skip, and jump away from our hotel, and we spent the better part of both nights here. Not exactly my favorite bar, but this deal can't be beat because your other choices at Quaker Steak are Coors Light, Miller Lite, Keystone Light (yuk!) and maybe Sam Adams or Blue Moon. The latter two are probably twice as expensive, and the first three just plain suck. Yuengling carves a niche for people who want a good value but don't believe in drinking shitty beer.
• Good beer at Molly Brannigan's in downtown Erie. We visited this Irish pub/restaurant Wednesday night and enjoyed some good food and some Snake Bites - a half pint of Strongbow cider topped with a half pint of Guinness - mmmm! As far as mixed beers go, stout and cider is my favorite combo. They also had both Boddington's Pub Ale and Smithwick's (one of my favorites) on tap.
• More good beer at Plymouth Tavern, just a few blocks down State Street from our dinner venue. While the selection was fairly respectable, they did not have Young's Double Chocolate Stout (instead, only their Oatmeal Stout). I have been trying to share this beer with my co-workers for awhile now but have had trouble finding it other than at D's Six Pax & Dogs in PGH. It is a really tasty chocolate stout that can be appreciated by both hardcore beer drinkers and non-beer drinkers alike, and *should* be easy to find at a place like Plymouth. Instead, we settled for one of my old standbys: Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout.
  

While my stomach has been working overtime this week, the food (and beer) was good, so I think I could enjoy traveling for work more often...