By John Rosnow
October 27, 2008

This trip was in the 29 March 2008. After spending the day Longwood Gardens, http://www.longwoodgardens.org/, we were meeting some of Terri's friends for dinner. We went to the Half Moon Restaurant and Saloon in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. http://www.halfmoonrestaurant.com/

They have both and upstairs and a downstairs. They are known for their Belgian Beer selection and their wild game. We did see a special on the Travel Channel on this place after we visited and it will be featured through the end of the year- http://www.travelchannel.com/Travel_Ideas/Food_and_Wine/Hamburger_Paradise. The upstairs was on a rooftop and had open air dining. The view was better, but the beer selection was better downstairs. We started upstairs as we got their early enough to beat the rush and get a good seat.

I started with a Hibernator from the Long Trail Brewery in Bridgewater Corners, Vermont - http://www.longtrail.com/. This was a Scottish Ale that was very true to style. We had the Crab Nachos for an appetizer. After the appetizer and the appetizer beer, I moved on to Southern Tier Raspberry Porter from the Southern Tier Brewery in Lakewood, New York - http://www.southerntierbrewing.com. It had a raspberry nose, but light. There was a hint of chocolate malt after it warmed.

For dinner, I decided to go with something that I have never seen on a menu before, Kangaroo Loin with white whipped potatoes, brandy soaked cherries, cabernet demi-glace. It is a very lean meat and needs to be cooked more on the rare side so it does not dry out. It was actually very good. Everyone else went for the Mercury 5oz filet of beef, exotic mushrooms, chipotle hollandaise, demi-glace, sour cream chive mashers which was also good.

After dinner we headed downstairs for to try one of other beers before we left. I had the Troegs Nugget Nectar from Troegs Brewery in Harrisburg, PA - http://www.troegs.com/. It was amber in color and had a very hoppy nose. There was a good balance with sweet malt and flowery hop taste. It contained Nugget, Warrior, and Tomahawk, Simcoe, and Palisade Hops.

I also came across a neat website while looking the breweries for this article. http://www.ratebeer.com/default.asp. It has many beer reviews, and you can review beers yourself.