Last Saturday Rosemarie Certo of Dock Street brewing company hosted a very special reunion of former employees of the original 18th & Cherry Dock Street Brewery & Restaurant.  The event centered around the homecoming of one of Dock Streets favorite sons Victor Novak.  Victor left his assistant brewer job at Dock Street over a decade ago to be back with his family and loved ones in California.  Although this meant I was one step closer to getting a spot in the brewery, I was sad to see him go.  Fortunately Victor and I have stayed in touch and I see him about once a year at the GABF, Craft Brewer’s Conference or just when he decides to visit us in Philly.  Victor isn’t the only one I’ve stayed in touch with.  Even without the help of Facebook I’ve managed to remain close friends with many of the people I worked with on 18th street.  Some of them I only see once every couple of years.  But despite the time apart it only takes a few minutes and less than half a beer before it feels like we hadn’t been apart for more than a couple of days.  My experience at Dock Street was a special time and place in my life.  It’s where I learned to make beer under my boss and mentor Eric Savage, its where I made a lot of my best friends to this day, and to a large extent its where I developed into the person I am today.  At the reunion one of my good friends and former co-workers mentioned that she still tells  people “Dock Street is where I grew up”.  I have to say my experience was much the same.  Of course I developed during the four years I spent at college just before my Dock Street experience but I can’t say I was the Chris I know today.  College Chris was a good guy, but I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to have a beer with him today.  Dock Street Chris was pretty cool if I say so myself.  Anyone who works in the hospitality industry knows how tight-knit it is .  It’s not only your job but a huge part of your social network if not the majority of it.  Restaurant workers spend alot of time together outside of work.  The time I spent with the people I worked with then taught me a lot about what type of people I wanted to surround myself with and what type of person I wanted to be myself.  I have to thank Rosemarie for giving us all an excuse and opportunity to get back together for a night to look over our old photo albums (remember those?) share some old stories and create some new ones.  I also have to thank Rosemarie for the experience I had in her restaurant more than a decade ago.