Pennsylvania’s history gives restaurant owners access to some extraordinary spaces. As with the unusual destinations among Florida’s weirdest restaurants, the state’s strangest places to eat frequently begin with a setting that no ordinary restaurant designer could reproduce.
Customers can dine underground, eat inside an antique railroad car or drink beer beneath the stained-glass windows of a former church.
The Church Brew Works in Pittsburgh
The Church Brew Works operates inside a former Roman Catholic church, complete with soaring ceilings, arches and stained-glass windows.
Brewing equipment occupies the former altar area, creating the memorable sight of gleaming tanks framed by religious architecture. Tables fill the old sanctuary where pews once faced the front of the church — and the bar itself was built from salvaged pew wood.
The building at 3525 Liberty Avenue in Lawrenceville originally housed St. John the Baptist Church, which was built in 1902 and closed in 1993. It reopened as The Church Brew Works on August 1, 1996 — the first brewpub in the country located in a historic church — and the owners preserved many architectural details rather than disguising the property’s original purpose.
The result is both beautiful and slightly surreal — a place where customers can admire historic stained glass while deciding which house-brewed beer best accompanies dinner.
The Catacombs at Bube’s Brewery in Mount Joy
The Catacombs serves dinner 43 feet underground in the stone-lined cellars of a 19th-century brewery.
Guests descend below Bube’s Brewery — a Victorian-era brewery complex that has been remarkably well preserved — and receive a tour on the way to the dining room. The old lagering cellars, once used to age beer at a naturally cool temperature, create an atmosphere that feels part historic site, part dungeon and part secret banquet hall.
The underground restaurant is only one element of the larger Bube’s complex, which also hosts murder-mystery dinners, Victorian feasts, themed events and other dining experiences.
Plenty of restaurants advertise a cozy basement. The Catacombs requires customers to travel several stories beneath the earth before sitting down to eat.
The Victor Cafe in Philadelphia
At the Victor Cafe, opera is not background music. It is part of the staff’s job.
The South Philadelphia restaurant, which opened in 1933 and was originally a music store specializing in Victor Talking Machine records, employs classically trained singers who step away from serving tables to perform live arias throughout the evening. Performances generally occur about every 20 minutes, transforming an old-school Italian dinner into an informal opera program.
The singers may be students, working performers or artists pursuing professional careers. Customers sometimes discover that the person refilling a water glass possesses a voice powerful enough to fill the entire room without amplification. (Film fans may recognize the space: it served as the setting for Rocky Balboa’s restaurant in “Rocky Balboa.”)
The tradition makes the Victor Cafe theatrical without requiring a stage. The whole restaurant becomes the performance space.
Casey Jones’ Restaurant in Ronks
Casey Jones’ Restaurant serves meals inside authentic railroad cars.
The dining cars sit at a themed station in Ronks, in the heart of Lancaster County’s Amish country, and diners eat beside windows overlooking active railroad tracks. The restaurant is built around restored rail equipment, giving it a setting that feels more authentic than a conventional railroad-themed restaurant because the dining room is not merely decorated like a train — it is one.
Passing trains deepen the experience, particularly for children and serious rail enthusiasts, and a caboose and other rail cars round out the property.
The restaurant allows customers to enjoy the romance of rail travel without worrying about schedules, luggage or accidentally missing their stop.
Tattooed Mom in Philadelphia
Tattooed Mom looks as though generations of artists, skaters and neighborhood characters were invited to decorate the building — and nobody was ever asked to stop.
Walls, ceilings and furniture in the South Street bar and restaurant, open since 1997, are covered with stickers, graffiti, drawings and changing displays of local art. Repurposed bumper cars serve as seating, giving customers the opportunity to eat and drink inside amusement-park vehicles that no longer move.
The bar hosts community events while serving casual food, including a large vegan and vegetarian menu. Its constantly evolving interior resists the polished sameness found in many themed businesses.
Tattooed Mom is not weird because a corporate designer ordered a package of eccentric decorations. It is weird because years of creative accumulation have become part of the building itself.
Pennsylvania turns old spaces into new experiences
Three of these restaurants owe much of their strangeness to structures built for entirely different purposes.
A church became a brewery. Underground beer cellars became a dining room. Railroad cars became a stationary restaurant.
The Victor Cafe and Tattooed Mom create their weirdness through performance and creative expression instead. Together, the five prove that Pennsylvania’s history does not have to remain behind museum ropes — it can also provide a memorable place to eat.
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