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Phantom Gourmet: Jack's Abby In Framingham

FRAMINGHAM - Piping hot pizza and ice cold beer. If that sounds good, we found your new favorite place. At Jack's Abby in Framingham, there are two dozen beers on draft, 10 signature pizzas coming out of a wood fired oven, and plenty of hearty comfort food.

From the outside, this place doesn't look much like a typical restaurant, and that's because it's not.

"This is gonna have that German beer hall feel. There are a lot of things we do differently than restaurants," said Jack Hendler, who owns the place along with brothers Sam and Eric. "If you're looking for a comfortable sit down meal where you're gonna get your own personal table, this isn't the place."

If you're looking for great food in a fun and unique setting, this most definitely is the place, because there just aren't too many spots out there like Jack's Abby.

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It all began in 2011, when the Hendler brothers started Jack's Abby brewery, with the goal of crafting some of the country's best lagers. After just a few years, the beer became so popular that they outgrew their original facility, and decided to build a state of the art brewery to handle production.

Alongside the new brewery they built a tasting room and kitchen, where customers can try a pint, eat some food, and grab a seat at one of the 18 foot long communal tables with a full view of the beer making process.

"We have these giant windows where you can see everything we're doing on a daily basis," explained Sam. "It's going to be a really exciting experience for people to come in, they can have a meal; they can see where everything they're drinking is coming from."

As for the food, there's one common theme.

"While there's pizza and there's some German style food, and there's even a little bit of New England fare, the one thing we want in every dish: it goes great with beer," declared Sam.

To make all this beer friendly food, the Hendler brothers brought in Chef Gregg Bergeron, who knew pizza would be the perfect pairing.

"Pizza was just kind of the natural thing, because it goes really well with beer first of all, and the second part is that yeast is a primary ingredient in the beer itself," Gregg explained. "So we wanted to take that to the pizza side of things, where we're using a natural yeast starter and we are actually doing our pizza dough in cold fermentation for 48 hours."

Jack's Abby, Phantom Gourmet
Clam and Bacon Pizza at Jack's Abby (Image: Phantom Gourmet)

That cold fermentation helps the crust cook up crisp and airy, making it a great base for all kinds of creative toppings, like the addictive Clam and Bacon Pizza.

"Fresh mozzarella, we have Romano cheese, crushed red pepper flakes, fresh thyme, fresh chopped clams and crispy bacon. Being in New England, and access to really good fresh clams, it just became kind of a natural," Gregg said.

Another great combination is the Potato and Bacon Pizza, with thin sliced spuds, house made bacon, cheddar, scallions, and garlic cream.

"This one's just cheating. Potato, bacon, cheese, on a pizza. It's fantastic. Who doesn't want to eat that with a nice cold beer?" SAM

The pizza at Jack's Abby all come out of a custom built, copper-clad oven, and as far as pizza ovens located inside beer halls go, this one looks right at home.

"We really fell in love with it because it actually looks like a brewing vessel. A lot of traditional brewing vessels would have that copper cladding," Sam explained.

The wood fired beauty burns at about 750 degrees, making it the real workhorse of the kitchen. It cooks up everything from Roasted Chicken with Sausage Stuffing, to Four Cheese Mac and Cheese that's great on its own, and even better with braised pork.

Jack's Abby, Phantom Gourmet
4 Cheese Mac and Cheese with Braised Pork at Jack's Abby (Image: Phantom Gourmet)

"I mean nice, warm mac and cheese on a cold day, with a beer, just you know, it will turn around the day for you. I don't know, it does for me anyway," Sam said. "It makes me happy."

There are classic German dishes too, like House Bratwurst with Spaetzle and Sauerkraut, and an enormous Bone-In Braised Pork Shank.

"Every time I go to Germany, I make sure I get a pork shank at the beer hall," said Jack. "It's always awesome. The meat just falls off the bone. You got the crispy skin on the outside. It's hard to finish the whole thing; it's enormous."

Jack's Abby, Phantom Gourmet
Pork Shank at Jack's Abby (Image: Phantom Gourmet)

Not only does all the food go well with beer, some of it is also made with beer, like their big bowl of Steamed Mussels.

"We're using our Leisure Time Lager; sautéing chopped garlic; we're putting in fresh herbs, a little bit of red peppers flakes to give it a little bit of heat, and then Leisure Time Lager and lots and lots of butter to give you a real nice smooth taste," Gregg described, "and then some toasted bread to dip into the sauce after you're done eating the mussels."

Jack's Abby, Phantom Gourmet
Mussels in beer at Jack's Abby (Image: Phantom Gourmet)

Whether it's in the food, or straight from the tap, at Jack's Abby, it's all comes back to the beer.

"My favorite thing about this place is the beer. I mean that's where we came from, that's what we've been doing for over four years now. And it's great to share what we do with everybody who's coming in the door," Sam said.

"It's interaction. It's sharing plates. It's meeting new people," said Gregg. "Sharing an experience with beer and food that is really not like anything else around here."

You can find Jack's Abby at 100 Clinton Street in Framingham, and online at jacksabby.com.

Watch Phantom Gourmet on Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30 and 11 a.m. on myTV38.

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