Generik's Tap: Beer Destination

Hot Shotz

Mon, 12 May 2008 03:02:56 GMT

Attended the Re-Grand Opening of Hot Shotz on Saturday evening and had a great time. Hopefully some of you made it out as well. I was a little surprised to see such a small overall turnout. While we were there, there was only a handful of other patrons, which is a shame. I had some pretty good beers while there, starting with a Radeberger Pilsner and following that with a Dark Horse IPA. Had one more of the Radeberger and then finished the night off with a Bell's Best Brown.

One of the pitches to get people to the event was the $15 gift card for eating a raw jalapeno. Well I showed up and a couple of friends were already there and both had already eaten a jalapeno and received their gift cards. I told the waitress that I wanted to participate and a few minutes later she brought a plate with a jalapeno on it along with a bowl of a dark brown sauce. I was told that I had to dip the jalapeno into this sauce because it was deemed the peppers were too weak. Then it was mentioned that this sauce was a step above their Blazing sauce. Well I downed the pepper in one and a half bites with an audience from another table taking keen interest in how I fared. When I told them it wasn't that bad, they decided to do it as well. Well much to my surprise, they both received peppers but did not have to dip it into any sauce. So I convinced my wife to eat one at that point and to her dismay, out came the sauce with her pepper. I think they must just not like us. But like a trooper, she ate the pepper while grumbling something about divorce that I couldn't quite catch...

They also had a pretty good band playing, focused mainly on 90's Alternative music. The only complaint I would bring up was they were just a bit too loud for the restaurant as we could barely talk to each other when they got started. It was a fun evening spent with good friends and with some very good beers. Oh yeah, I should mentioned the ribs. While they were a bit pricey, $20 for a full slab, they were among the very best I have ever had. We were told they are smoked on premises and they were served naked with a bowl of sauce on the side. You have to be pretty confident in your ribs to serve them with no sauce slopped all over them. $20 very well spent, and I am told they will be on the menu every weekend along with brats, fish tacos and probably a couple other items that elude my shoddy memory.

Beer Destination: Monk's Cafe in Philadelphia, PA

Thu, 08 May 2008 20:59:39 GMT

Since we were going to be in Philadelphia, and it was my birthday the day we were there, I decided we had to check out the Monk's Cafe. All About Beer magazine has it listed at #9 on the list of 125 places to drink a beer before you die. So much like the visit to McSorley's Ale House, this was a golden opportunity to cross a place of the list.

Well, bad news. After visiting the Monk's Cafe I wouldn't even put it on the list at all. The first problem with the place occurred before we even got there. It is located near downtown Philadelphia in an area that is all narrow one way streets and parking that looks to be crammed to capacity at all times. We were a minute or so behind my dad and got lucky, finding a spot a block up the street on the first pass. My dad literally drove around for 20 minutes trying to find a place to park. At this point in our trip, my wife and I were heading one way and my dad was heading to Toronto, so this was going to be a final beer together to toast the trip to that point and then go our separate ways. For a bit there it looked like my dad was just going to head on due to lack of parking. Strike one.

When we walked in we were greeted by a hostess and we told her we were there to have a beer on our way out of town. She asked us to wait and walked off, and when she came back we were told that since we weren't there to eat, we couldn't sit at a table because that was for dining guests only, and since my son is just going on 4, we can't sit at the bar either. So we got crammed into this tiny little bar hanging off the wall that had room for 2 people comfortably. We had my wife and I as well as our son, and so a 3rd stool was brought over which didn't leave enough room between them to be of use anyway. Then my dad walked in. All of this was right in front of the hostess podium, so everyone that walked in had to squeeze past us to get to the hostess. Now I should mention that the place was dead, with 2 people sitting at the bar and 1 table being used by 4 patrons. Leaving us crammed together staring at around 10 vacant tables. Strike 2.

They have an enormous beer selection available in bottle and a pretty strong selection of Belgians and other high end craft beers on tap. But the real problem lies with the very high prices they charge. My wife ordered a Chimay Blue on draft and I ordered some Belgian beer called Goliath. Both were served in a fairly standard sized Belgian stemmed glass which I would guess held between 12-16oz. Total price before tip was just about $16.50. So with tip, I dropped almost $20 for a single round of beers with no food and nothing for my son even to drink. All in all, adding my dad's beer to the total, we spent over $25 and couldn't sit down comfortably. Strike 3.

Really a huge disappointment as I had been pretty excited after checking out their website previous to our trip. Instead I found it to be overpriced and somewhat pretentious. How it rated #9 on the list is really baffling to me. I can think of many places that offer a much better experience in terms of friendliness, price and atmosphere available locally here in Naptown. The only positive is I got a nice picture of the boy in front of the place.

Beer Destination: McSorley's Old Ale House

Fri, 02 May 2008 03:59:06 GMT

The current issue of All About Beer Magazine has an article detailing the 125 places to drink a beer before you die. McSorley's Ale House in New York City is one of them and last week I got to experience the place first hand. After the visit I have to whole heartedly endorse the inclusion of this establishment to such a vaunted list.

I have mentioned in the past that when I am not enjoying the finer craft or import brews, I tend to gravitate to the retro brands, which for the most part all fall under the Pabst Brewing portfolio these days. One of the brands under that umbrella is McSorley's, which I had seen listed on the Pabst website, but had never personally seen the product. So as we planned our East coast trip, my dad mentioned that he wanted to check out this bar he heard of called McSorley's and finally try this beer himself. Remembering that it was on the list I readily agreed that it was a priority to go. Now I have to admit at this point I really didn't put 2 and 2 together, and assumed a place with Ale House in the name implied it was going to be a big beer bar with 20 or so taps and large bottle selection. I couldn't be further from the truth.

So what is McSorley's Ale House then? A relic of the past. A portal to an era that hasn't existed in over a century.

The interior of the place is as close to walking into an old saloon as I could possibly imagine. All wood floors covered in sawdust, wood burning stove near the middle of the front room. Everything is dim, and honestly kind of grimy in appearance.

As I mentioned, I assumed this was a place that was going to have a huge selection. Well, what they have is 2 types of McSorley's. We were offered either light or dark. Now, when I say "light", this is not meaning a light beer, but instead an ale, while the dark was the McSorley porter. Both my dad and I went with the dark and were promptly poured 2 mugs each. Yeah, you order a beer at McSorley's and you get served 2. Price: $4.50, and the porter was very good. We talked to the bartender a bit and then headed to the back room to sit for a bit and drink our beers.

A few minutes of sitting in the back and I was summoned by the bartender and told to grab my camera. He led me out the front door and then opened up the cellar door and gave me a quick tour of the kegworks of this more then 150 year old bar. On top of that he took off the collar tags from a few of the kegs and handed them to me as impromptu souvenirs. Really a remarkable experience.

I would definitely recommend a stop here to anyone heading to NYC. Good prices, a surprisingly good beer, but more importantly, one of the truly unique watering holes in the world.