Archive for the ‘Beer’ Category
January 5th, 2007
Max Toste and Aaron Sanders were still upwrapping stacks of coasters and wiping sawdust off the bar last night when we walked into their brand-new joint, Deep Ellum (477 Cambridge St. in Allston), on opening night. The former management team of Bukowski Tavern in Cambridge, Max and Aaron partnered with Bukowski chef Josh Velasquez to realize the dream of running their own place. I am going to make a bold statement about a bar that’s only been open 24 hours: Deep Ellum is the coolest bar in Allston. Not that there aren’t other good drinking spots in this neighborhood, but these gentlemen made Bukowski one of the Boston area’s best bars, and I fully expect them to do the same with the new place.
Deep Ellum is named after a hip, “urban village” in Dallas, Texas, which is Aaron’s hometown. (We can only hope someone in Deep Ellum opens a bar called Allston.) The place is small — a narrow room with about 10 small tables and about 20 seats at the bar. The wood is dark, the walls are a light, muted green, and the acoustics are favorable (Love played over the nice, new sound system.) “International comfort food” is the theme of the menu: burgers, Hebrew National hotdogs, grubbins (fried cod served between potato pancakes), Moroccan lamb shank, cassoulet. I don’t think there’s anything on here over $18, which is a relief. Not surprisingly to anyone who watched him in action behind the bar at Bukowski, Max has put together a top-notch beer menu. It includes all the finery (Trappist ales) and none of the fluff (Seadog Blueberry Ale) found at Bukowski. The 22 drafts include De Ranke XX Bitter from Belgium, Thomas Hooker’s Liberator Dopplebock (Connecticut), and Mahr’s, a delicious pilsner from Bavaria, Germany that you rarely see in the U.S. Of course, you can get a can of ‘Gansett, too, and there are 100 different bottled beers.
The thing that really makes Deep Ellum a “new style of beer bar,” as Max puts it, is the fact that they’re making classic cocktails in addition to offering great beer. Wow! “I’m making my own grenadine, my own cocktail onions. No bullshit, no Rose’s,” Max says. One of his specialties is the Green Opal — gin, bitters, absinthe and sugar — not to mention a wide selection of good bourbons. Deep Ellum is open seven days a week from 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 a.m. For more information call 617.787.BEER.
Posted in Beer, Boston bars, Cocktails | 1 Comment »
December 27th, 2006
I don’t remember my family having a traditional holiday drink. My parents were never eggnog or punch types. For a few years running we put Bailey’s in our late-morning coffee, but that trend petered out. Over the past several years, though, I have brought a beverage to the table that has pretty much become mandatory: Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. A beer introduced 25 years ago by one of America’s biggest microbreweries may not seem very original to the drinks aficionado, but that’s what I like about the stuff. Like Chex Party Mix, it’s just familiar enough but just special enough to make it onto the books as a holiday foodstuff that pleases a crowd and signifies Special Times. What does this beer have to do with Boston? Not much, other than the fact that every copper-colored strong ale redolent of citrusy West Coast hops — like the Cambridge Brewing Co.’s winter special, Big Man Ale — is a child of Sierra Nevada Celebration.
In the Fog of Christmas, one’s psyche can get pretty tossed around. That’s why I’ve begun a new, post-holiday, ritual: going to No. 9 Park for a Tom and Jerry. This is an old-time winter punch that hardly any bar in America has mixed in decades because it involves separating eggs and boiling milk. (Go here to see “libation goddess” Audrey Sanders’ recipe.) When you order a T&J at No. 9, the bartender will take his time and make it right, so be prepared to wait a good 10 minutes. Trust me, it’s worth it. When the drink is placed in front of you in its traditional gold-lettered mug, bring it up to your lips, then close your eyes and take a sip. I’m not kidding about the close-your-eyes part. Rum, brandy and spices encased in a fluffy batter of hot milk and whipped egg whites will transport you to a peaceful place, bringing joy to the world and good will toward men.
Posted in Beer, Cocktails, Rum | No Comments »
November 8th, 2006
As usual, BeerAdvocate and the Weekly Dig (with the help of the Harpoon Brewery) did a great job setting up the Return of the Belgian Beer Fest, which took place October 27-28 at the Boston Center for the Arts (aka “the Cyclorama”). I went to the Saturday night session and tasted some absolutely delicious, unique brews. I spent about half the evening camped out near the Shelton Brothers‘ table. The brothers, Dan and Will, were serving really incredible, esoteric farmhouse ales from Belgium and France. I also sampled some good stuff from U.S. breweries, including a terrific saison from the Southampton Publick House.
Now, I can’t say enough good things about the guys who run BeerAdvocate, Todd and Jason Alstrom (they’re on my “Best drink web sites” page). They have done a lot to make Boston a great beer city — with their site, their column in the Weekly Dig, and their beer fests at the BCA. But the cover they chose for the Return of the Belgian Beer Fest guide? A nude model holding aloft a glass of beer? Have they secretly been drinking Coors? This is how they describe the thinking behind the image:
“For those of you familiar with Boston’s Weekly Dig, you might recognize this immediately. Designed by Tak Toyoshima, the Devil Girl has been a mascot of sorts for the Dig since its beginning … Others might recognize the Devil Girl when it was licensed and adapted for use with Dann Paquette’s original Rapscallion beer line … We thought how cool would it be to have an actual model pose in the exact same manner as the Devil Girl for the guide cover? This is what Tak created … Our best cover to-date! Yes, that’s an actual person. The ‘model’ will be at the fest (the Dig’s booth) if anyone wants to get their guide signed.”
Oooh, sign my guide, Devil Girl!
The ‘model’ (I guess she didn’t want her name mentioned on BeerAdvocate.com) was photographed against a red background, but a “Devil Girl?” — she didn’t exactly have a tail or horns. I’m sure the ‘model’ is a nice person and that she and the beer fest organizers thought they were being tasteful in using her image on their guide. “Hey, it’s Belgian! Europeans are cool with nudity.” But how is that different from St. Pauli Girl beer bringing its annual Playmate — oh, sorry, spokesmodel — to beer fests? You would think that an organization that is all about distancing itself from the coarse ways of major breweries might at least be ironic in putting a nude model on its beer fest guide, to show how the craft beer drinker is more intelligent than the Bud Lite drinker. Like, they might have created a guide with a nude Devil Girl on the front cover and a nude Devil Guy on the back cover. That would’ve made me laugh and say, “These guys get it! They understand that their audience isn’t just backward-baseball-cap-wearing guys who want to guzzle flavorless beer.”
There were a lot of women at the beer fest — I’m guessing around 40 percent. I’m sure a lot of them were unfazed by the guide cover. But I’m sure a lot of them, like me, said, “What the hell? Is this some kind of lame beer-guy thing? What am I doing here?”
Posted in Beer, Events | 1 Comment »
October 3rd, 2006
Drinkboston is brimming with pride over a local brewery’s triumph. The Cambridge Brewing Co. (1 Kendall Square, Cambridge) recently won its latest medal — a gold — at the Great American Beer Festival in the Herb and Spice Beer category for its Scottish heather ale, The Wind Cried Mari. This rendition of an ancient ale is brewed with heather — you know, that pretty purple grasslike flower you see growing on the side of the highway sometimes — grown locally, in Westport, MA. The Herb and Spice Beer category was one of the most crowded at the GABF, with 64 entries. The Cambridge Brewing Co. has also won GABF medals for its Charles River Porter, Tripel Threat Belgian-style tripel, Benevolence specialty strong ale, and Blunderbuss Barleywine. It just so happens that drinkboston’s creator once worked as a brewer at the CBC. (Alas, no medals were won during the time I worked as assistant to head brewer Will Meyers.) Clearly, then, this post is biased, you say. Nuh uh. If my own mother was the head brewer there, and she made mediocre beer, I wouldn’t give the place the time of day. Of course, you shouldn’t take my word for it. Go there and taste Will’s beer for yourself. The next CBC Brewer’s Dinner, featuring the heather ale, is November 11.
Posted in Beer, Boston bars | No Comments »
August 29th, 2006
Remember how it was cool in the 1980s to be seen with a bottle of Corona in hand and, a little later, a bottle of Red Stripe? Now that those imports from Mexico and Jamaica, respectively, have gone mainstream with TV advertising, a new brand of tropical swill is poised to accessorize the hand of the bargoing hipster: Prestige lager, the national brew of Haiti.
Other than being unknown, Prestige has several features that lend it cred in the eyes of the beer-drinking vanguard. First, the bottle: like Corona and Red Stripe, the label is painted right onto the glass, which lends a kind of retro cachet. Prestige’s simple, two-color banner and brown, short-necked bottle — similar to Red Stripe’s packaging — also place it high on the retro-meter.
Second, while Corona and Red Stripe evoke images of kicking back in a friendly, quasi-primitive paradise, Prestige only makes you wonder: could I drink this on a beach in Haiti without getting robbed or shot? In other words, while Corona and Red Stripe have slid into the frat-boy, middle-manager demographic, Prestige is for those who live on the edge.
Third, it doesn’t hurt that Prestige is actually a decent light lager whose drinkability doesn’t depend on a wedge of lime. Named Best American Lager in the 2000 World Beer Cup, it is dry and balanced and doesn’t have that adjunct (corn or rice) starchiness found in a lot of macro lagers (though it is brewed with a substantial amount of another adjunct, sugar). Like other beers in this style, it’s good for washing down bold foods. I first tried it with a hot, curried goat stew at Green Street. Next, I brought a six-pack to a feast of takeout barbecue from Soul Fire in Allston. I’ll be the first to admit that a Michelob would’ve done the trick on either of these occasions. But it sure wouldn’t have made me look as cool.
Check out the Brasserie Nationale d’Haiti website for another reason that Prestige has hipster cred: its way politically incorrect advertising image of a healthy-butted woman in a white thong.
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