The Great American Ale Trail - Christian DeBenedetti [27]
LATE NIGHT SHACK:
PEL’MINI
2 Marine Wy. • Juneau, AK 99801 • (907) 463-2630 • No website
Who needs a menu? At Pel’meni, a hole-in-the-wall Russian café in the classic old blue Merchants Wharf building down by the water, there are really only two choices—beef or potato (you want both). When you walk in, it’s just five little tables, a small counter, and a wall of vinyl records with an old record player spinning tunes (recent cut: Sérgio Mendes and Brasil ’66’s “Agua de Beber”). What you get for a few dollars is a Styrofoam box of piping hot, tortelloni-like Russian dumplings called pelmeni. Once steamed, they’re zipped around in a hot pan with butter and served with a dash of vinegar, cumin powder, fresh cilantro, a dollop of sour cream, and Sriracha sauce. There may never be a better late-night snack. And thankfully, it’s open after the bars close. (A word to the Juneau authorities: never, ever tear down the Wharf building or close this effortlessly perfect place.)
THE HANGAR ON THE WHARF
2 Marine Wy., No. 106 • Juneau, AK 99801 • (907) 586-5018 hangaronthewharf.com • Established: 1996
SCENE & STORY
With its location convenient to everything in the Merchants Wharf building, the bright, clean, and crisply run Hangar is a beloved local watering hole and tourist favorite during the season. It’s got an airplane and seaplane theme thanks to the building’s 1940s tenant, Alaska Coastal Airlines, but isn’t kitschy or overdone. Overlooking the channel with huge glass windows and outdoor seating, it makes an ideal spot for an afternoon beer and a bite as the seaplanes buzz in and out and the big ships dock (it’s just as convivial in the quiet winter, as well). There are some twenty taps and seventy bottled beers, with a surprisingly deep collection, and a solid menu of sandwiches, wraps, and fresh local seafood dishes like King crab legs, oysters, prawns, and salmon. Try the Cajun Caesar wrap with blackened salmon.
PHILOSOPHY
Cheery waterside seafood palace meets craft beer bar.
KEY BEER
Much of the lineup of Alaskan’s beers are available, including whatever’s freshest and the Rough Draft releases, and there are a number of good Pacific Northwest craft brews as well.
THE ISLAND PUB
1102 2nd St. • Douglas, AK 88824 • (907) 364-1595 theislandpub.com • Established: 2005
SCENE & STORY
Across the Gastineau Channel from Juneau lies Douglas Island, a 77-square-mile tidal isle with a sandy beach made of mine tailings. It’s the home of the long disused Treadwell mine, largest in the world in its day, and the vastly underrated Eaglecrest ski area, which has 1,400 feet of vertical (40 percent of it expert) served by four double chairs. But perhaps best of all, it’s home to the Island Pub, the ultimate après-ski pizzeria. With open seating, large picture windows, and a sleek square center bar area, it’s surprisingly contemporary, but entirely inviting. Built in what was once “Mike’s Place,” a quaint former dance hall dating to the 1930s, it’s updated now, but make sure to stroll around and look at the historic photos of patrons sashaying over the wood floors.
PHILOSOPHY
Quintessentially local. Six of the pizzas on the menu are the handiwork of area residents who competed for the honor of having their own pizzas on the menu for an entire year.
KEY BEER
There are nine taps and twenty-five bottled selections, including the local treats, of course: the Sitka spruce-tip-spiced, 6.4% ABV Winter Ale from Alaskan, in season, makes a great match for meaty, zesty pizza.
HAINES BREWING CO.
Southeast Alaska State Fairgrounds P.O. Box 911 • Haines, AK 99827 • (907) 766-3823 hainesbrewing.com • Established: 1999
SCENE & STORY
Fans of Paul Wheeler’s beer used to traipse through tidal bogs and dense forest to try his beers at his house. Since 1999, the bright-eyed brewer—who sports a beard that would have made Walt Whitman jealous—has been operating a little 3.5 bbl brewery in another out-of-the-way location—inside a quaint Old West general store building on the “Dalton City” set for the movie White Fang. It’s a short