General Manager, Two Rivers Brewing Company
For Jeremy Bialker Lehigh Valley offers everything he needs: love, food and family.
After all, it was in Lehigh Valley that he met his wife, a Bethlehem native. It was in Lehigh Valley that he found his creative outlet in cooking and serving as General Manager at Two Rivers Brewing in Easton. Lastly, it’s in Lehigh Valley that he is raising his two boys- aged six and nine.
Jeremy didn’t always live in Lehigh Valley, however. Although he graduated from Easton High School, Jeremy went to Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and lived in the city for about seven years.
He was attracted back to the Lehigh Valley after seeing the rebirth of his hometown of Easton.
“Easton had kind of just started its sort of Renaissance, especially the art scene and the culinary scene was starting to come around, as well,” he said. “Every town has it’s good parts and its bad parts, but I like this town. There’s a lot of diversity and a lot of culture.”
Upon his return to Lehigh Valley, Jeremy took the first steps of a journey that would lead him to his current career. He took a job as a server at the Starfish Brewery in Bethlehem, which is now the Twisted Olive. There he met his wife, Sarah, who is a Lehigh Valley native.
From Starfish, Jeremy moved to Porter’s Pub in Easton and later accepted the role as head chef there.
“That’s kid of what sparked my chef career,” he said.
At Porters, he was noticed by owners of Two Rivers Brewing and they provided the opportunity to not only use his honed cooking skills, but they also asked him to contribute to their new facility in a creative way — harkening back to this art school training.
“They kind of recruited me to design the kitchen, design the menu, almost as like a … consultant,” Jeremy explained.
The young chef’s success is indicative of Lehigh Valley’s current culinary climate.
“I love the town, too, and I love this community and this area just for simple things like this, like the fact that there’s people that are interested in how people contribute to the community,” Jeremy explained.
He also loves the school district where they live. “We live in Wilson, which has a really, really good school district. Yeah, and my boys actually just love, love going to school,”
When he isn’t working, Jeremy enjoys spending time with family and exploring Lehigh Valley’s rivers and trails.
“We usually do a lot of outdoors type stuff, throw the bikes on the car and go find a rail trail somewhere, and go for a bike ride. We usually try and get in one or two hikes a month around here. Yeah, we just try and get in as much outdoor time as we can,” he said.
Live like a local
Place to grab a bite (other than here): Porters Pub in Easton
Favorite Trail: Jim Thorpe trail
Favorite Festival: BaconFest in Easton