Last week I made a trip to Krebs, Oklahoma. You may be asking yourself, "Why might one visit such a seemingly desolate place?" Although Krebs is by no means a tourist destination in itself, there is at least one good reason to go: beer.
Krebs is home to the Choc Brewery, the oldest brewery in the state of Oklahoma. The brewery was founded by Italian immigrant Pietro Piegari, who came to the mining town of Krebs in the early 1900's. After suffering an injury in a mining accident, Pietro was left without work and began brewing beer with a recipe he learned from the local Native American tribe, the Choctaw Indians. His beer became a popular offering for the local miners, and Pietro, who later changed his name to Pete Prichard, opened a restaurant serving Italian food and Choc beer.
Pete's Place is run today by Pete's grandson, Joe Prichard. The restaurant holds seating for 500, with small private dining areas spanning the majority of the restaurant. The food is served family style, with traditional Italian fare. My advice on the lamb fries: eat first then ask later. Don't make the same mistake I did and come early, cause they don't open the kitchen until 4pm unless it's Sunday. Fortunately, I was offered some good beers to hold me over.
Attached to Pete's Place is the Choc Brewery, separated by a connecting glass door. Choc currently offers four quality craft beers available to the public year round: Choc 1919, their original American unfiltered wheat ale; Basement Batch, a traditional pale ale; Waving Wheat, a Belgium style wheat beer brewed with coriander and citrus and Miner Mishap, a German-style black lager. Choc also brews a couple beers exclusively for Pete's Place: Miners Light and a Peach Beer. Plans to add two more beers to their collection are in the works, which will be called Last Laugh and Pietro Piegari.
If you want to take a road trip, the Choc Brewery is about a two hour drive from Tulsa, and it's definitely worth the visit. But you don't have to drive that far for the beer; McNellies offers Waving Wheat and Basement Batch on tap, and the other two Choc beers are available in bottles. Support your local brewery and have a few pints.
6 comments:
Funny you posted this, I visited the brewery a couple of weeks ago.
I was really impressed by how good the brews were at Pete's Place. They seem to suffer a lot in the transition to bottle/keg.
Lets not forget their "Signature Series" #1 which is currently a Biere De Garde. And again, not to nitpick but their "Waving Wheat" is a variation of a traditional Belgian Wit. Instead of coriander and orange peal they use curaco orange peal. Great job by the way on your "Southwest Brewing News" article. Keep up the good work.
-Tim
The food at Pete's is WORTH the drive.
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