A weekly look at the draft selection in beer-friendly bars across the country.
Ben Volen, general manager of the Distillery, agrees: Savannah, Ga., is a very traditional city. "For a long time there was nothing on at any of the bars besides Bud draft, Miller draft, Yuengling had just come into town ... Corona in a bottle," Volen reflects. So when the Distillery opened around this time last year, the idea of a craft beer-centric bar was certainly a change of pace.
Volen had attended school in New York when the craft beer trend was gaining momentum. Upon returning south, he brought his love of New York brewers like Brooklyn and Captain Lawrence back to Georgia, looked at the burgeoning beer scene in nearby Atlanta and constructed a plan for his bar.
Savannah reacted appreciatively. "We've been welcomed with open arms," Volen says. "We've completely changed this town and how they look at beer." Since their opening, according to Volen, most restaurants now carry at least a couple of craft brews.
Read more about the Distillery and see yesterday's entire draft list after the jump.
Citing researched compiled by Mindset Media -- a "market researcher specializing in psychographics" -- the article discusses how the beer a person drinks can be a strong indicator of his or her personality. For instance, Bud drinkers are "sensible, grounded and practical," Bud Light drinkers can have "frat boy-like personalities," and Michelob Ultra drinkers "think highly of themselves and can be a little bit conceited."
The concept is interesting, but why spend all that money on "research"? Most people could come up with those same assumptions on their own. In fact, the list can be extrapolated even further... massive research grant hopefully forthcoming.
Pabst Blue Ribbon drinkers consider playing bass in a punk band "gainful employment" and have handlebar mustaches.
Miller Lite drinkers consider the consumption of 20 beers "moderate drinking" and include beer bongs on their list of "proper glassware."
Sam Adams drinkers love wearing the same Red Sox hat for their entire adult life and believe there's nothing wrong with hitting on someone else's girlfriend.
Guinness drinkers think the best football team is Manchester United and consider a fist fight a "night out on the town."
Busch drinkers think the best bar in America is their porch and consider a proper food and beer pairing to be "a pounder and a bag of Hardee's."
And snobby craft beers drinkers tend to be people like beer writers who think they have a right to make fun of others!
What other beers bring to mind distinct personality types? And what does your favorite beer say about you? Let us know in the comments!
A weekly look at the draft selection in beer-friendly bars across the country.
Kentucky might be better known for its whiskey distilleries than its beer prowess, but like most cities with more than a million people in its metropolitan area, Louisville has seen growth in its specialty and craft-beer market over the past few years due to the average American's increased awareness of the variety of beer available.
Louisville's beer scene is "getting better," says James Donald Gunnoe, co-owner of one of the reasons that scene has gotten better: the small beer outpost known as The Nachbar. "There are about five microbreweries in town and I think there's room for more."
About two and a half years ago, Gunnoe and his wife, Heather Burks, opened Nachbar with the intention of creating a "place we'd want to go to ourselves." Working from faith in their own tastes and desires, they focused on stocking the beers they drank and loved, attempting to offer the beer at prices they knew people could afford. Gunnoe puts it best when he states, "We cater to ourselves, and from there we're just really fortunate that people appreciate what we like."
Read more about Nachbar and see this past weekend's draft list after the jump...
America: the land of the free... and the fat. In the nation's more-is-more eating culture, three in five Americans are officially considered overweight -- and kids are no exception, one in three of whom reportedly eats fast food on a daily basis. But waistline-watchdog MSNBC has culled a list of "20 Worst Kids' Foods in America," to shed light upon some particularly fattening kids'-meal culprits.
Categories range from "worst homestyle meal" (Boston Market's Kids' Meat Loaf with Sweet Potato Casserole and Cornbread, which packs a whopping 890 calories into a tiny TV dinner), to "worst beverage" (the super-saccharine SunnyD Smooth Style, which boosts 60 grams of sugar into one measly cup -- triple that of a cup of Tropicana), to the "worst kids' meal in America": Uno Chicago Grill's Kid's Combo with French Fries, a monochromatic carb-fest cramming kids with cheese sticks, chicken nuggets and fries, a monster of a meal weighing in at 1,250 calories and 2,850 milligrams sodium.
It's no wonder that 16 percent of today's youth, aged 6 to 19, is overweight or obese with the gut bombs like those listed in the regular meal rotations, according to the report. Shockingly, "today's children may turn out to be the first generation of Americans whose life expectancy will actually be shorter than that of their parents" because of obesity-related health problems, Michael Pollan writes in "The Omnivore's Dilemma."
What do you think is to blame for the rise of childhood obesity -- is it fair to blame fast-food providers or the parents?
A weekly look at the draft selection in beer-friendly bars across the country.
No need for a double take. Yes, Deep Ellum is the name of a neighborhood in the Dallas area. And yes, this week's What's On Tap features a Boston bar. But don't worry, Deep Ellum co-owner Max Toste has an explanation: "My business partner, Aaron Sanders, was born and raised around the Dallas area, and Deep Ellum was always his favorite place to go."
Toste describes the Dallas neighborhood as an area teeming with tattoo parlors and rock joints -- the kind of place with "people who don't wear suits to work." "We always thought it would be a cool name for a bar," he recalls. Toste and Sanders found a similar feel in the Boston neighborhood of Allston, so about three years ago, when opening their own bar, the name was a perfect fit.
"I love beer," Toste states proudly. "I wanted to have a bar that was awesome."
What exactly is his idea of awesome? "Our plan was to be very artisanal. Everything we sell and promote is handmade stuff." And that ideology goes beyond just beer into the realm of their cocktail selection and food. Toste's explanation for such strong demands on what Deep Ellum serves is simple: "I don't do anything half-assed."
Read more about Deep Ellum and its complete tap list, as of this Tuesday, after the jump -- and for future draft lists, check out its Web site. Drafts update whenever they're changed.
A weekly look at the draft selection in beer-friendly bars across the country.
Laying claim to land in both Missouri and Kansas, Kansas City might conjure up thoughts of boring grasslands or Midwestern conservatism. But with nearly a half million residents in the Missouri side's city limits alone (making it the Show Me State's largest city), Kansas City is certainly more metropolis than cornfield. And at Grinders, patrons can expect a less-than-conservative draft selection and some not-so-Midwestern fare.
Just under five years ago, Grinders opened with the plan to offer residents of KC a restaurant/bar with an East coast flair. Both owners were from Pennsylvania (one from Philadelphia, one from Pittsburgh) and they planned to serve up cheesesteaks and New York-style pizza.
"We wanted a place that would be friendly to everybody that came in," says owner Anton Kotar. "No class barriers." Even money wasn't an obstacle: "If we could just make it break even, we'd be happy."
Kotar and his partner had never run a restaurant. "He's an artist by trade and I'm a contractor," Kotar admits, retelling the story of their troublesome first few months. But from the brink of going out of business, they turned Grinders into one of Kansas City's most popular destinations.
Read more about Grinders and see the current draft list after the jump...
A weekly look at the draft selection in beer-friendly bars across the country.
Finding two English-speaking cities more different than Dublin and Albuquerque, N.M., would be a pretty tough task. So some four years ago, when Two Fools Tavern opened its doors proclaiming to be "Albuquerque's only authentic Irish Pub," one can assume it was an ambitious undertaking.
"There was a need for it," says Russell Reid, general manager of Two Fools Tavern, explaining why they tried to bring a touch of Emerald Isle to the American Southwest. The gamble (if you can call opening an Irish pub a "gamble") has paid off: "We've been very successful."
Part of that success comes from having a solid beer selection, including nineteen draft lines. "We have Irish and English beers that are staples of what you'd need in a pub and then have a rounded balance."
Included in that balance are a number of American craft products. Via Full Sail, the bar has two exclusive Two Fools selections: a pale ale and a house cider. They're also proud to provide the beers in Sierra Nevada's Imperial series on tap, as well as other unique brews from around the country (particularly Colorado).
Reid knows his customers appreciate the additional selections: "Albuquerque is a great beer market. A lot of people don't realize that. It's much more of a beer town than other spirits." Still, despite continuing to evolve the draft list, Two Fools always keeps the Irish pub standbys. As Reid reminds us, "We're the largest seller of Guinness in the state."
Check out the current draft list at Two Fools Tavern after the jump.
A weekly look at the draft selection in beer-friendly bars across the country.
When is an Irish pub not your typical Irish pub? Well, when the bar has 48 taps featuring some of the best craft beers America has to offer, it certainly sets itself apart.
For the past three years, Doherty's East Avenue in Pawtucket, R.I., has continued to look the part, but don't be fooled by the facade. "When we bought the place, it had a very Irish theme. The building's been here for 60 years," says owner Jack Doherty.
It also had only 12 taps, which was quickly expanded to 48 to accommodate the owner's love of craft beer.
So why keep the Irish angle? "To have a great time on St. Patrick's Day," Doherty happily responds.
Get a glimpse of Doherty's sensational seasonal selection after the jump. ...
A weekly look at the draft selection in beer-friendly bars across the country.
The passing of Labor Day means back-to-school season is officially here. Many college students have already landed on campus. Hopefully, they have a bar like Stub & Herbs to help them lament the end of their summer vacation.
Located at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Stub & Herbs is a campus icon, opened way back in 1939 with the plan to serve great burgers and drinks. Though their cheeseburgers are still a staple, a lot has changed in the drinks department, especially recently.
"Over the last two years, I got creative freedom to pick whatever we wanted," says general manager Jon Landers. "Our taps are now 100 percent all-American craft beer." He pushed college standbys like Coors Light and Bud Light onto the bottles list and began using their 32 taps to focus on independent breweries, especially local and "blossoming" ones. "The Midwest has a reason to be proud," Landers continues. "They're turning out some great stuff."
Have a great beer bar at your school or alma mater? Fill us in in the comments! And see Stub & Herbs' complete draft list, as of Tuesday, after the jump. ...
A weekly look at the draft selection in beer-friendly bars across the country.
Central Virginia may not sound like the place to find a great beer bar. And as home of the University of Virginia, where thrifty college students are more apt to ask for inexpensive macrobrews, Charlottesville, Va., would seem to have two strikes against it for beer connoisseurs. Maybe that explains why Beer Run has stood out, earning national praise during the less than 2 years it's been open.
"The concept was originally just doing a bottle shop," says co-owner John Woodriff. But financial concerns led them to selling draft beer, which "opened a can of worms."
State laws required Beer Run to add food service and things quickly snowballed. "We were up early in the morning to make fresh bread for our sandwiches, so we morphed into an espresso bar and coffee shop," explains Woodriff. "Things got kinda wild."
Take a peek at the 14 beers Beer Run currently has on draft after the jump.
A weekly look at the draft selections in beer-friendly establishments across the country.
This week's column could be more accurately called "What's on Cask." Why? Well, there are three types of beer drinkers in the world: people who love cask ale, people who hate cask ale, and people who have never tried cask ale. In America, the third group is by far the largest. One reason is that cask-conditioned beer can be nearly impossible to find here in the States.
In England, any good pub has at least a couple beer engines serving ales the way nature intended: unfiltered, with natural carbonation, and at cellar temperature (instead of being cooled by refrigeration). Though many Yanks' distaste for the cask comes from the stereotype that Brits enjoy warm beer, these cask brews actually allow for an entirely different drinking experience, bringing out nuanced flavors that are otherwise concealed at lower temperatures and with additional gas.
Our counterparts over at AOL U.K. recently ran an article entitled "Comedy Booze" lamenting the unfortunate habit some guests have of using parties to re-gift hard alcohol they found unfit to stomach back when they received it. From Greek ouzo to French pastis, it's a multi-culti takedown.
Of course, sometimes that famous Brit wit doesn't cross the pond. We know some folks who adore pastis, and others for whom a bottle of Jagermeister might be considered quite a smashing (or quite funny) addition to a party.
That said, we can certainly sympathize with the sentiment. After the jump, three things we think you should never bring to a party. Tell us what we missed!
Bon Appétit's September issue has hit newsstands with its annual list of the nation's Top 10 Best New Restaurants. Featuring mouthwatering top dishes from Cleveland to Decatur, Ga., there are some interesting picks in the mix.
If you're located in -- or traveling to -- any of the cities mentioned, keep in mind that in this era of seasonally shifting cuisine, the dishes Bon App editors loved back when the issue was being put together might not be available right now.
We called Tyler Kord, chef and co-owner of No. 7, in Brooklyn, N.Y., to inquire about his pumpkin-seed-encrusted tofu, which editors sampled last winter and adored. A different rendition of tofu is on his current menu, but the pumpkin-seed version is gone. "I've never repeated anything," Kord says. Will he consider putting it back on? "Maybe."
Was Kord -- a fellow whose menu has featured luxe choices like bavette steak and grilled arctic char -- surprised by the editors' choice? "Yeah, definitely. I mean, they picked tofu. It's a delicious dish, but it was a little surprising."
The top 10 new eateries and dishes are after the jump.
A weekly look at the draft selections in beer-friendly establishments across the country.
The Flying Saucer Draught Emporium has one aim: to be the place to go for great draft beer, especially in Texas, which boasts a neat half-dozen outposts of the watering hole. Residents of Arkansas, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee also sip suds at Flying Saucers. The newest landed in the suburbs outside Dallas.
Just over three weeks ago, the new Saucer on the Lake opened in a scenic spot overlooking Lake Ray Hubbard in Garland, Texas. "There's all these little communities out there," says Diane Willingham, director of sales and special events. "People working in Dallas drive 30 minutes to an hour to get home ... They want to go to the lake and hang out on a patio." Workers also want to drink beer, and Saucer on the Lake delivers, with more than 80 on draft and a diverse selection focused almost entirely on craft brews and imports.
But as the Saucer continues to expand, couldn't the company risk losing that independent spirit craft drinkers relish? Willingham doesn't think so: "We expand very slowly and don't franchise. Owner Shannon Wynne researches each location himself."
To the seriously food-obsessed, anything can seem like a snack. For example, yellow sponges can evoke thoughts of Swiss cheese, and tennis balls can inspire dreams of green apples.
But there are some inedible objects that really are meant to resemble food, including these buildings that our buddies at Urlesque rounded up. Why? Well, uh, who wouldn't want to enter a building that looks like it was made of a wall of bacon? See more food-inspired architecture at Urlesque.
What Can I Get You Folks? - Server Revenge
Reality-Show Celebrities Serve Up Chef Curtis Stone's 'Hundred-Dollar Burger'
Foods Celebrity Chefs Hate
