For our third installment of the Chef’s Favorite series, we travelled outside of Worcester to find a little taste of Europe.
Stepping into Jack’s Abby Beer Hall and Kitchen located at 100 Clinton St. in Framingham feels a bit like teleporting to Munich. The spaciousness of the 5,000 square foot tasting room and restaurant is a key element to the success of its authenticity as well as its popularity, because they don’t take reservations.
They need all of the seats. Even when I visited on a Tuesday night, the place was packed. It wasn’t just packed with people though. There’s a lot to see at first sight. A gift shop. A bar. Long community-style tables, just like in Munich. And beyond the tables, there are tanks filled Jack’s Abby lagers.
When you walk in you may also see head chef Gregg Bergeron in the exposed kitchen alongside the open flame of the wood stove—a focal point on the menu, which features beer hall classics like bratwurst and mouthwatering wood-fired pizzas.
“My favorite item to prepare on the Beer Hall menu is the wood-fired pizza,” says Gregg. “I enjoy making anything that is cooked over an open fire—be it wood or charcoal or smoke.”
Specifically, Gregg likes the wood-fried pizzas because of the amount of hard work he put into the development of the pizza dough.
“There was a lot of trial and error involved,” Gregg added.
The wood-fired pizza portion of the menu includes crowd favorites like the Wild Mushroom, which comes with leeks, gruyere, garlic cream, tarragon, and truffle oil as well as Prosciutto and Arugula, which comes topped with fresh mozzarella, pecorino, thyme, and red pepper flakes.
The pies range from the Old Reliable, which is made with house tomato sauce, pecorino, and mozzarella, for $10 up to $15.
“The pizza dough is a constantly evolving process that I have been working on for the past year,” Gregg says referring back to the beer hall’s grand opening last September. “We use a levain sour yeast starter and cold fermentation for 48 to 72 hours before we cool the pizzas. This long cold fermentation process is much like the lagering process of our beers.”
Speaking of beers, there are 24 on tap including classics like Hoponious Union in addition to seasonals like the Sunny Ridge pilsner. The sampler size options make it easy to try many of their awarding-winning lagers.
