Archive for the ‘Beer’ Category
January 4th, 2009
Even though Scott and I have lived pretty much our entire lives in New England, we had never been to the cute ski-resort town of Stowe, VT until this past Christmas-New Year’s holiday. We did all the things one does in Stowe: ski (downhill and cross-country), skate, shop, eat cider donuts and drink lots of local beer, mostly Switchback and Rock Art.
As is the case in most touristy areas of the world, the best (and best-priced) eats and drinks are a bit off the beaten path. In our case, that meant driving to the neighboring town of Waterbury. We arrived at the Alchemist, a brewery-restaurant, on the Sunday after Christmas at around 7 p.m. and were told there’d be an hour-long wait for a table. A good sign, of course, but very bad news for our hungry group. Lo and behold, after our first round of beers, a few seats opened up at the bar.
The Alchemist has a lot of the traits that make Vermont so loveable: a charmingly hippy vibe, local art on the walls, a dedication to using local ingredients, and fresh, well-made beer — some of the best New England beer I’ve had, in fact. The Pappy’s Porter was a nice cross between the English-style brown and robust, roasty versions of this style. The Nightstalker, a Belgian-style dark wit, had a malty complexity on top of the traditional coriander and orange peel flavors, and the Holy Cow IPA was a pleasingly herbal, resin-y hop bomb.
Wandering around looking for lunch on a freakishly warm, rainy day, we stumbled upon another place in Waterbury, the Cider House BBQ & Pub. The establishment, only about a year old, specializes in southern-style cooking and hard cider (on draught and in bottles). Although barbecue aficionados would turn their noses up at the distinctly sweet, New England-type sauce on the ribs and pulled-pork, the food was tasty and, as at the Alchemist, as local as possible. The sides and appetizers — cornbread-and-Andouille-sausage stuffing, Vermont cheddar mac and cheese and, my favorite, fried dill pickle chips — were reason enough to seek the place out. That, and the warm, cozy vibe and sassy waiter, who teasingly anticipated a big tip after hearing that we had splurged on a rental in the heart of Stowe Village.
A really good place to drink beer in Stowe has an unfortunately twee name: Ye Olde England Inne. But the inn’s restaurant, Mr. Pickwick’s, is a warm, welcoming homage to an Old World pub, and the draught beer selection includes hard-to-find specimens like Anchor Christmas (both 2007 and 2008 vintages), Belgian abbey ales and a rotating selection of cask ales. The beer-selector and owner, a Brit named Chris Francis, walks around the place unobtrusively checking in on customers and engaging them with a sly sense of humor.
Finally, a shameless but honest plug for one of the best-known places in Stowe, which happens to be managed by my cousin, Brian Clark: the Cliff House. It’s a grand dame of a restaurant perched on a cliff at Stowe Mountain Ski Resort, and you have to take a gondola to get there. Like the Alchemist and the Cider House BBQ & Pub, the Cliff House is part of the local-ingredient-espousing Vermont Fresh Network. It stocks Otter Creek, Magic Hat and other Vermont beers, and serves cocktails made with local maple liqueur. While it’s as pricey as you’d expect a mountain-top restaurant at a major ski resort to be, the range of options includes affordable items like soups, sandwiches and salads, plus you can always just order a drink at the bar. If you happen to be skiing at Stowe, it’s well worth the splurge. Nothing like lunch with a view.
Tags: Stowe, Vermont bars
Posted in Beer | 3 Comments »
October 23rd, 2008
“Why is craft beer so male-dominated: brewers, retailers, consumers? Do women not get craft beer, do they get the impression that they shouldn’t get craft beer? What’s up?”
Thanks to the cheeky, thoughtful and good-hearted Lew Bryson, chronicler of all malt beverages, for asking me this question and thus providing the basis for my last Ms. Mug column for Ale Street News: Women and Craft Beer: It’s Complicated. Topics of discussion: reasons why craft beer (and beer in general) is male-dominated; women’s perception of beer as fattening; how to introduce women to craft beer; and whether women prefer fruity, “chocolatey” beers.
While we’re on the topic, check out this Boston Menu Pages post, Mad Men, Round Two: The Cocktails (brought to my attention by the photographer Matt Demers, who did the portraits for LUPEC Boston’s Little Black Book of Cocktails). It admires the period cocktails that appear on the show — Peggy Olson’s Brandy Alexanders and Betty Draper’s Tom Collinses, not to mention Don Draper’s Old Fashioneds and Roger Sterling’s Martinis — before pointing the reader to two pages scanned from the 1949 edition of Esquire’s Handbook for Hosts. Titled “Something for the Girls” and “Something for the Boys,” the pages list — you guessed it — gender-specific cocktails to serve at parties.
There is plenty of fodder for discussion here, but the thing about this post that really got me was this conclusion: “If you are feeling ambitious, replicating some of these seems like a very fun activity. Otherwise, be glad that we have bars like Temple Bar to carry out your vintage cocktail sipping.”
Um … Temple Bar? Other than a Vesper and a Death in the Afternoon, TB’s cocktail menu runs more along the lines of the Lemontini and the Cherry Breeze (otherwise known as “something for the girls”). And to think there was a time when girly drinks included Bronxes and Clover Clubs!
Tags: girly drinks, Mad Men, women and beer
Posted in Beer | 5 Comments »
September 26th, 2008
So, I announce some interesting event at a bar, like a Boston-New York bartender exchange or a tasting of Old Tom gin, tell everyone to check it out, and then just skip to the next post without recollecting the pleasant times that have given me, as Diana Ross would say, the sweetest hangover. My bad. Here’s a little follow-up on recent events.
That bartender exchange between Eastern Standard and PDT? Well done. I don’t have any intel yet on how ES’s Kevin Martin fared in New York, but it was a pleasure to be PDT bartender Daniel Eun’s patron during his guest stint in Boston. The highlight for me was Daniel’s beer cocktail. It involved a vigorously shaken mixture of Aventinus (a delicious weizenbock from the German brewery G. Schneider & Son), Sailor Jerry Rum, a whole egg and a bit of nutmeg grated over the drink’s frothy crown. As I told a friend, that drink was so good I wanted to marry it. Or at least shack up with it for the winter.
The B-Side Group Hug was a lot of fun, with a roomful of regulars, industry people and cocktailians paying their boozy respects. Would some bartender out there please keep the B-Side’s Tommy Noble cocktail alive? I love this combo of gin, Pimm’s, simple syrup and lemon juice. It’s a great drink to start the evening with, and it’s perfect for brunch, too. Oh, and FYI: B-Side barmen Al and Russ are both doing stints at the old Downtown Crossing haunt Cafe Marliave, which has recently been re-vamped.
Last night at Deep Ellum, a dozen or so people — many of them industry — gathered on the back porch to taste Hayman’s Old Tom Gin and Dolin Vermouth with Eric Seed of the Minnesota-based import company Haus Alpenz. There were people from Rialto, Dante, Eastern Standard, the Wine Bottega and Reservoir Wine & Spirits. Luckily for my lazy ass, Fred and Andrea from the Cocktail Virgin Slut blog were there taking notes, so if you want details on these spirits (and on the Trilby cocktail that bartender Max Toste mixed with them), check out this post. Max also showcased the Old Tom in a Tom Collins and a Ramos Gin Fizz, among other delights.
Thanks again to all of you who make going out to bars in Boston more interesting and fun than ever.
Posted in Beer, Boston bars, Cocktails, Events, Gin, Vermouth | 4 Comments »
September 21st, 2008
Did you ever “break up” with a brand of beer or any other type of alcoholic beverage? I did. I chronicle my history of beer breakups in my latest Ms. Mug column for Ale Street News. Later, maybe I’ll recollect my past affairs with Kahlua and Bailey’s Irish Cream. Or not.
Posted in Beer | 8 Comments »
September 5th, 2008
I love local shellfish so much that I’d have a blog about it if I didn’t already have a blog about bars and drinks. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever met a lover of oysters, littlenecks, steamers, etc. who didn’t also like to drink. Booze and bivalves just go together.
If you subscribe to that belief, you may want to head over to the Boston Beer Co. (brewer of Sam Adams) in Jamaica Plain on Sunday, September 14 between noon and 5:00 p.m. for the first-ever Bay State Farmed Shellfish Shindig.
I usually herald the prime season for shellfish (fall and winter) at the Wellfleet Oyster Fest, but that event, while still great, has become popular to the point of overcrowding. So this year, I’m opting for the smaller-scale fest right here in Boston.
The $10 admission fee includes tastings of two Sam Adams beers ($25 gets you six) and the opportunity to chat with a brewer or two about shellfish and beer pairings. Meanwhile, growers along Massachusetts’ coastline — from Buzzards Bay to Cuttyhunk Island to Katama Bay on Martha’s Vineyard to, yes, Wellfleet — will sell several varieties of raw and cooked shellfish a la carte while talking up the importance of sustainable aquaculture practices.
Rowan Jacobsen will be on hand to discuss and sign copies of his book A Geography of Oysters, whose premise is that these creatures owe much of their flavor to terroir. And for those who max out on seafood, chef Will Gilson from Garden at the Cellar will be there with his grass-fed mini-burgers.
Co-hosting the Shindig with Boston Beer is the Massachusetts Aquaculture Association, on whose website you can buy advance tix. See you there.
Tags: boston events, sam adams beer, shellfish
Posted in Beer, Events | No Comments »
