I'm headed up to northern Delaware next month for a week (M-F) for work. I was wondering whether Newark or Wilmington was a better place to stay for both beer and generally (or other locations). I guess traffic is also a potential concern, as I'll be traveling south each day to work. Also, what are the best restaurants/stores to go in the area? There seems to be extremely limited info on Beerfly for Delaware in general, so any info aside from what's available there would be greatly appreciated. And, yes, I do plan to do at least one Philly/Tired Hands trip, but I'll reference the many Philly threads for that. Thanks in advance!
Wilmington is probably a better stay w/r/t proximity to interesting things. The Wilmington Iron Hill is the better one in the state, and you can hit the Newark one on your way to State Line Liquors. There's a Two Stones pub in both towns, but I haven't been to the Wilmington. There's a brewpub/pizza place called Argilla in Newark, but I wouldn't recommend it. You'd also be close to the Glen Mills McKenzie Brewhouse, which isn't a bad place to visit.
I travel to Newark frequently for work and stay at the intersection of 273 and I95...I'll just list the places I've driven to, roughly in order of proximity from there... Stewart's Brewing Two Stones Pub Iron Hill Newark Argilla (skip) Iron Hill Wilmington (20 minutes) Tired Hands (45 minutes) Victory (1 hour) food preference in order would be something like Two Stones, Iron Hill, Victory, Stewart's, Argilla...TH has quality food but it's limited to a panini or two, a couple salads, and cheese/meat/bread plates and the like and of course State Line for bottles, as already mentioned...though I did wander into Premier Wine & Spirits once and found it to be a decent spot
The food at two stones is top notch. I had a BBQ platter on special there and it was nothing short of amazing.
Wilmington is somewhat underpopulated at night and fairly dangerous. Stick to either the Trolley Square area or Market St. near Delaware Ave. Nomad is a really cool BYOF jazz bar near that latter area with a small but good draft/bottle list. I'm only certain they're open Thurs-Sat; not sure about other times. Washington St. Ale House has a decent tap list as well and if you want something fancy, Domaine Hudson a half block down has fantastic food and a great bottle list (they had Consecration last time I was there). Wilmington Two Stones is less crowded but they're otherwise equivalent. They are expensive but I think their happy hour is pretty good. Ulysses Gastropub is also awesome and just a little north of Wilmington.
Awesome, thanks everyone! I went from being worried there wouldn't be enough to do to now being worried I won't be able to do enough! One other question: my dad is somewhat familiar with the area and said 95 can be an issue with traffic. How bad is it? The most I'd have to use 95 for is to travel to Middletown and back for 2 days and then up to Philly and back one night. I'd think most would be headed into Philly in the morning and out at night, so I'd be fine.
95 doesn't go to Middletown, did he mean State Route 1? That goes down south towards the beaches and has bad traffic on any beach-bound days. I imagine you'd be fine Mon-Thurs on it. 95 had really bad traffic at the MD/DE line when they were doing construction on the toll booth, but that's done and it's fine now, and skip it anyway if you go to State Line Liquors. Going to Philly there might be traffic during rush hour, otherwise you'll be fine.
I think he was mostly talking about the limited stretch from Wilmington down to state route 1. But I guess it looks like it's only like 6 miles on 95 at most
Total Wine on Namans Rd is a decent place to try for bottles. I second Ulysses gastro pub for sure. Food at 2 stones is great but the beer prices bug the piss out of me. Iron Hill Wilmington is my go to spot when I stay in town. Not much love for Argilla here-have not been but may not need to now. Cheers!
