Pizza and beer. The OG of beer and food pairings? Perhaps. But certainly nothing like what can be found in Cumberland County. A short drive across the Susquehanna River from Harrisburg will take you to the rather nondescript industrial-looking exterior of Al’s of Hampden. The interior, however, is anything but nondescript as the food menu of Al’s is paired with the extensive house beer list brewed under the Pizza Boy Brewing Company name.
The original location was opened in 2002 and was quickly crammed full of pizza-making operations, staff and a growing beer selection for which Al’s quickly became known. Terry Hawbaker joined as head brewer in 2012 and helped owner Al Kominski move the Pizza Boy brewery in 2013 from the much smaller location less than a mile away. Kominski had this brand-new mecca built for pizza and beer from the ground up to give some long-needed breathing room to both patrons and employees.
The new kid-friendly location on Millennium Way can seat just over a hundred customers both indoors and on the outdoor patio combined with roll-up garage-style windows to give an alfresco feel. Plenty of TVs for game-watching are hung around the restaurant, and the brewery is on full display for all to see.
On the food side of the house, it can be a challenge to get away from the pizza and the wings. The meaty buffalo-style wings are served a number of tantalizing ways including with “Al’s Bourbon Sauce,” Hot Garlic, Cajun, and “Death.”
Ordering a traditional cheese pizza is a good place to start on the pizza side of the menu to discover the quality dough and sauce/cheese combination. Where the pizza oven really shines is with the specialty pies such as Hot, Hot, Hot (with jalapeno peppers); the Porky (for meat lovers, of course, with sausage, ham, bacon and pepperoni); and the Bacon Cheeseburger (with cheddar). The Buffalo Chicken Stromboli and the White Veggie Pizza get extra points for delicious creativity.
Apart from pizza, it’s hard to go wrong with a fried mushrooms, shrimp jammers or eggplant parmesan from the full kitchen menu of fried appetizers, sandwiches, soups, salads and pasta-based dinner platters.
As for the beer—ah yes, the beer, the likely reason many make a pilgrimage to Al’s—it’s an order-by-number system. With 102 draft beers, including three handpumps, it really is the most efficient system. The information-filled video boards make it even easier.
Expect to see 25–40 fresh selections of Pizza Boy beer in addition to regional favorites from established breweries such as DuClaw, East End, Stoudts, Tröegs, Victory, Weyerbacher and Yards and newer guys like Draai Laag, Free Will, Liquid Hero, Molly Pitcher, Spring House, The Brewery at Hershey and Tired Hands.
But don’t expect to see many identical repeats from Pizza Boy on the draft list, though Citra Pils, Sunny Side Up Coffee Stout and West Shore IPA seem to come around with more regularity than others and come highly recommended. At a recent visit last month, Crucial BBQ Lemon Pepper Farmhouse Ale and Afternoon Delight Hoppy Sour Ale were two excellent standout beers. Sours and other adventurous beers helped put Hawbaker on the map when he brewed at Bullfrog Brewery in Williamsport.
Expect to always find a diversity in styles that includes everything from Pilsners, Hefeweizens, Wits, Berliner Weisses and Grisettes to Double IPAs, Black Sours and American Strong Ales. Growlers and crowlers of beer, plus bottled selections from a wall full of coolers, are available to go to enjoy with whatever leftovers you might take home.
A rather new twist to the Al’s/Pizza Boy family is Intangible Ales. A new brand introduced by Hawbaker in 2014, the line of (mostly) sour beers features plenty of ingredients and flavors to help bend the brain on what beer is and what beer can be—ingredients such as apricots, beet juice, Himalayan pink salt, turmeric and guajillo peppers.
All of the beers, both Pizza Boy’s and Intangible Ales’, have made their way into the market with limited distribution around eastern Pennsylvania and as far as New York City and Washington, DC.
If you’re building out a beer traveling list in the southcentral Pennsylvania area, for great beer made on-premises, a wide selection of beer to go and a hearty menu of well done pizza, Al’s/Pizza Boy should be on the list.
Find Al’s of Hampden and Pizza Boy at 2240 Millennium Way in Enola; phone: (717) 728-3840.
- Photos: Bryan Kolesar
