The Great American Ale Trail - Christian DeBenedetti [49]
What is needed is time, and a sunny day: with the big garage-style doors open and breezes blowing in, you’ve got the ideal atmosphere for tasting some meticulously thought-out food and a slew of fresh, well-kept beers from five taps, a cask or two, and about thirty bottles, all of them excellent. You can get four 5-ounce pours of anything on draft for $14, a great way to find your keeper.
PHILOSOPHY
Idealistic. In addition to all the food-sourcing policies, the bar made headlines in 2008 when the New York Times addressed its no-tipping policy (although 18 percent is added to every check and distributed evenly among staff ), which is meant to encourage better overall service and less distracting competition among servers.
KEY BEER
There are a lot of good beers on the list, and a fast rotating draft selection of mostly locals. But it’s not everyday you find Russian River Consecration, a dark Belgian-style ale fermented with wild yeasts and aged with currants in cabernet barrels (10% ABV). Don’t miss the chance to try it.
THE BLIND LADY ALEHOUSE/ AUTOMATIC BREWING CO.
3416 Adams Ave. • San Diego, CA 92116 • (619) 555–1234
blindladyalehouse.com • Established: 2009
SCENE & STORY
Trained master brewer Lee Chase helped launch Stone Brewing Company into orbit before freeing himself up to consult and help create San Diego’s cavernous Blind Lady, a gourmet pizzeria and beer bar with communal seating, its own little nanobrewery setup, and reruns of Michael Jackson’s much-loved television series, The Beer Hunter. Just like at the Linkery, they go to great lengths to use local, certified-organic everything, whether it’s peaches from San Diego’s Adams Avenue Farmer’s Market or sausage and charcuterie from San Diego Meat Company (cheese, with the exception of the mozzarella, comes from Italy). The thin crust pizzas are the main attraction but mussels and fries with seasonal dipping sauces (like a recent trio: Meyer lemon-horseradish aioli; tuna aioli; curry ketchup) get high marks for inventiveness and taste.
PHILOSOPHY
Fair and square. As for the beer, you can be certain that what you order is in good shape, thanks to Chase’s attention to proper beer service, a borderline obsession one wishes would catch on far more widely. What it means: kegs are underneath the clean, carefully maintained taps, without long lines to a cellar in which beer would sit for days. Then the servers use clean, rinsed, never-chilled glassware every time (rinsed to rid the glass of Health Department-mandated sanitizer in solution, which inevitably has dried in the glass; never chilled because a freezing pint kills head and aroma). Last key factor: the fair pour. You’ll always get one here, and with a head on the beer when appropriate. Sad fact: Carry around a measuring cup and you’d likely find a troubling number of bars using “cheater pints” with thick glass bottoms or merely smaller volumes.
KEY BEER
Chase has brewed up four beers on his system so far: Automatic (a coriander-spiked, 5.6% ABV Belgian pale ale), Chocolate Rain Oatmeal Stout, Sex Panther Strong Pale Ale, and Imperial Coffee Brown. Why not try them all?
TORONADO
4026 30th St. • San Diego, CA 92104 • (619) 282-0456 toronadosd.com • Established: 2008
SCENE & STORY
Cleaner and less cluttered than its parent bar in San Francisco, Toronado San Diego is about one thing, and one thing only: craft beer. A small, narrowish bar in North Park, it has a world-class selection of taps emanating from a metal-plated wall in the corner. The beer list skews toward SoCal brewers like AleSmith, Lost Abbey, Pizza Port, Alpine, and Green Flash, with some Belgian left fielders like De Landtsheer for good measure. The goods are routinely fresh and served in the right glass by someone who knows what they’re talking about, and there’s a nice little patio out back should crowds get to be a bit much for the stools and small high tables. No matter what, it