The popular Honesdale brewpub has food and drink specials to celebrate local heroes…
There are two ways breweries handle these themed promotional weeks.
The first is corporate theater. Somebody in marketing slaps together a cocktail with a pun in the name, prints a chalkboard sign, fires up Facebook, and calls it “community engagement.”
Then there’s the other kind. The neighborhood kind.
Runaway Train Brewery in Honesdale falls squarely into that second category.
For National Nurses Week, the Wayne County brewpub has unveiled a limited-time menu of cocktails and comfort-food specials that feels less like a manufactured campaign and more like something from a place that’s in the same town as Wayne Memorial Hospital.
The centerpiece is the “Nightshift” espresso martini, an $8 vodka-and-caffeine combination named with enough self-awareness to earn a tired laugh from anybody who’s survived a brutal overnight shift. Alongside it sits the “Painkiller,” the classic tropical cocktail built with rum, pineapple juice, orange juice, and coconut cream. No smoke bubbles. No overworked craft cocktail theatrics. Just drinks designed to help somebody unclench for an hour.
The food side keeps things equally straightforward.
There’s a Slider Flight featuring three mini burgers and a basket of fried Wisconsin cheese curds served with dipping sauce, exactly the kind of beer-friendly comfort food that most of the nurses I know look for after throwing a few adult beverages back.
And honestly, the whole menu makes perfect sense once you understand what Runaway Train Brewery actually is.
This is not one of those breweries chasing internet hype with triple dry-hopped pastry stouts and burgers stacked like unstable architecture projects. Runaway Train operates more like the kind of local tavern people still genuinely rely on, a place where the beer matters, sure, but where familiarity matters more.
The regular menu reads like a greatest-hits collection of unapologetic pub food: smash burgers, pulled pork sandwiches, Bavarian soft pretzels, buffalo chicken sandwiches, beer-battered onion rings, fish and chips, loaded brewery fries, wings, and cheese curds. It’s food built for pints, hockey games, bad weather, and second rounds.
That approach fits naturally in Honesdale, a town that still carries traces of its railroad identity while increasingly functioning as a destination for visitors drifting in from the Catskills and Poconos.
Runaway Train was deliberately built around that local history. The brewery occupies the former Irving Cliff Brewery location and operates under D&H Brewing Company, founded by Vince Benedetto, Justin Genzlinger, Joe Napoli, and Greg Pollock. The concept itself leans heavily into Honesdale’s deep railroad roots, from the Delaware & Hudson Railroad references to the town’s connection to the historic Stourbridge Lion.
And the brewery doesn’t try to hide behind polished craft-beer branding or faux-industrial minimalism. The menu is bright yellow. The train imagery is loud. The atmosphere feels more neighborhood tavern than curated lifestyle brand.
Because while parts of the craft beer world continue disappearing into an exhausting arms race of influencer aesthetics, gimmick-heavy releases, and burgers requiring structural engineering permits, places like Runaway Train still understand the basic appeal of sitting down with a cold beer and fried food after a rough day.
The brewery’s beer program reflects that mentality, too. According to Untappd reviews and the brewery’s own tap listings, Runaway Train rotates through approachable lagers, IPAs, darker beers, and seasonal offerings without losing sight of its local audience. Even when the brewery experiments, including the special edition “Declaration” lager that celebrates America’s 250th birthday, the operation still feels grounded in regular customers rather than hype-chasing beer tourism.
That community-first mentality has also extended beyond the taproom. Runaway Train has participated in local charitable efforts tied to Wayne County food insecurity initiatives, reinforcing the sense that this is a brewery invested in the town itself rather than simply operating inside it.
Which is probably why this Nurses Week menu lands better than most themed promotions, and why I decided to write about it.
It doesn’t feel cynical.
It feels like exactly what somebody coming off a hospital shift might actually want: a stiff espresso martini, a basket of sliders, aggressively fried cheese curds, and a booth somewhere far away from fluorescent lights and endlessly beeping machines.
No performance. No wellness slogans.
Just a brewery in Honesdale saying: “You’ve had a hell of a week. We appreciate you. Here’s a drink.”
