Forest & Main Opens This Week in Fishtown

It’s been more than a year since the space at 1416 Frankford Avenue (the former home of Cheu Noodle Bar’s Fishtown location) went quiet. May of 2024 was lights-out for the last location of Shawn Darragh and Ben Puchowitz’s era-defining experiment in deliberately unserious anti-fusion, and the address has been dark ever since .

But that all changes at the end of this week because that space — set right where Frankford Avenue bends, halfway between Pizzeria Beddia and Suraya — will become Forest & Main Brewing Co.’s new Fishtown taproom.

This is a big deal for a few different reasons. To start, it’s a great (small) space in a great (big) neighborhood, and having a serious operator in there is nothing but good news. Also, Forest & Main has been making some killer beers from the jump (way back in 2011 when partners Daniel Endicott, Gerard Olson, and Brian DeAngelo were working out of a partially converted Victorian in Ambler) and this move is a sign that they’re still growing. Not only that, but they’ve signed up one of the most interesting chefs in the region, Dane DeMarco, to handle the kitchen with a “Snack Shack” menu that’s 100 percent in keeping with their Nintendo-in-mom’s-basement culinary vibe that I can’t wait to check it out myself.

First, the ex-Cheu space is perfect for exactly this kind of taproom expansion because it’s not some big, hulking, difficult-to-manage behemoth with more room than a small brewery can reasonably fill, but neither is it so small that it feels insignificant or forgettable. The new Forest & Main taproom will have a 10-seat bar and seating inside for 35, plus another 20 on the patio. They’re not trying to do lunches, but will be open six nights a week, Wednesday to Monday, from 4 p.m. to midnight, for beers and snacks.