Craft beer meets creative dining at SF Beer Week

Whew. For even the most avid beer drinker, San Francisco Beer Week can be a humbling, palate-exhausting experience, best consumed in small doses.
In just its second year, San Francisco Beer Week featured more than 200 events, with taps flowing from San Jose to Santa Rosa and from Stockton to Santa Cruz. Virtually all of the brewpubs, gastropubs and breweries in the Bay Area (and many from beyond) were involved in serving unusual beer, pairing food with beer or hosting a guest brewer. You could have beer with breakfast, lunch, brunch, tea, dinner, cocktails, pastry and ice cream, including ice cream made with beer. Venues ranged from casual –Zeitgeist, Toronado, Drakes Brewery parking lot  – to more upscale territory like La Trappe, Bar Crudo, Nombe and Starbelly.
Restaurants and bars would be wise to pay heed to the amount of disposable income spent locally on craft beer. Good beer can elevate a neighborhood restaurant considerably. On the other hand, restaurants that don’t serve craft beer might find themselves ignoring a lucrative source of revenue.

SF Beer Week celebrates not only beer, but beer makers, too. Affable brewers were easy to find and eager to talk about their beer, other people’s beer and anything to do with beer. Meeting brewers like Steve Altimari from Valley Brewing, Steve Wagner from Stone, Denise Jones of Moylans and Brian Hunt from Moonlight can help us understand the art of their beer the way biographical information can put a writer’s work in perspective.
Russian River Brewing got a jump on Beer Week by cleverly timing the release of its seasonal, limited-release Pliny the Younger with the opening of the event. More than a few beer lovers spent the entire week chasing the Younger. Beer Week officially began the evening of Feb. 5 with a gala opening sponsored by the San Francisco Brewers Guild at the Yerba Buena Center for the Performing Arts. Among the many beers on hand were a collaboration Imperial Common Lager, brewed at Speakeasy and several special ales that Magnolia and 21st Amendment collaborated on for Strong Beer Month. North Coast Brewing brought bottles of Old Rasputin 11 and 12, and Gordon Biersch poured a delicious dampfbier, which is a type of common lager (better than the collaboration beer, in my opinion), and a barrel-aged dunkel.

Hops were the order of the day on Feb. 6 at the Bistro, with almost five dozen double IPAs from as far away as Delaware (Dogfish Head) and Maine (Shipyard). Surprising standouts included Mavericks DIPA from Breakwater Brewing in Oceanside, Calif., and Tricerahops from Ninkasi Brewing in Eugene, Ore. But realistically, how much can a palate actually taste after a couple hours of double IPAs? According to the judges, the best DIPA was the excellent Welcome Back Wipeout from Pizza Port in Carlsbad, Calif.
Amid the dozens of dinners and beer events were week-long tributes to the late beer writer Bill Brand, who died just about a year ago. Several of the beers brewed in his honor were featured at the rejuvenated Drakes Brewery in San Leandro. Beer Week finally wound down at the Toronado at the 17th annual Barleywine Festival, with top honors going to Big Woody from Glacier Brewhouse.
Beer weeks are becoming popular across the country and nowhere more so than the Bay Area, one of the pillars of American craft brewing. Hats off to the San Francisco Brewer’s Guild and President Rich Higgins, and Magnolia owner Dave McLean and beer writer Jay Brooks, along with sponsors Gordon Biersch, Speakeasy, Magnolia, 21st Amendment, Beach Chalet, Celebrator and many others who went beyond the call of duty to make SF Beer Week a smooth-running success. Although it’s only a couple of years old, San Francisco Beer Week shows every sign of becoming an institution.

Rosamunde Sausage stretches out in The Mission

Sausages and beer are tasty individually and even better when paired together. A full-flavored beer that refreshes and rejuvenates the palate is a perfect foil for the salty, savory, fatty flavors of sausage, and the combination is often greater than the sum of the individual flavors. This comes as no surprise to Rosamunde Sausage Grill, which for years has sated the appetites of hungry Toronado beer drinkers on Haight Street. Ordering a wild boar or beer sausage at Rosamunde and bringing it next door to enjoy with a Pliny the Elder or Allagash White is a time-honored ritual.
Rosamunde recently opened a second location in the bustling heart of the Mission, across the street from institutions like La Taqueria and Dianda’s Italian American Pastry. Whereas the tiny Haight Street location is primarily take-out and bare-bones utilitarian, the new space (previously a Jack in the Box) is big, bright and warm and beckons customers to kick back and linger while savoring a tasty sausage and an excellent beer from one of the 22 taps (including two for wine). A glass case attractively displays the sausages and other food. Several picnic tables lend a convivial beer hall atmosphere to the new location, but even for people who don’t drink beer it’s a nice place to go for a bite. Like the nearby Pi Bar on Valencia, Rosamunde on Mission adheres to the philosophy that you really can serve great beer in a family-friendly environment.
The difference between Rosamunde’s two locations speaks volumes about the evolution of craft beer drinking in San Francisco. Until a year or two ago, most people who drank craft beer in the city didn’t care about the surroundings. As long as the taps were clean and the beer was fresh, atmosphere didn’t much matter. Hence, drinking microbrew meant acquiescing to the limited amenities of places like the Toronado, Zeitgeist and Lucky 13 on Market.
The newer neighborhood establishments like Rosamunde and Pi Bar have loftier goals. Not content with attracting only hard-core craft beer drinkers, this new generation of pubs strives to be one with the neighborhood: a place to have a nosh with the kids while you’re out walking the dog, or with a date before or after a show. They also make a point of serving food that matches well with craft beer.
Thanks to its more spacious new digs, the new Rosamunde has a full-size kitchen and in addition to sausages, Rosamunde offers sides like crispy French fries, baked beans and German potato salad. There are also sausage plates, soups and salads, cheese and meat boards, and even a breakfast menu featuring Four Barrel coffee. (No hamburger Tuesdays, however.) Service is friendly and efficient. You place your food and drinks order at the bar and they’ll call you when your food is ready.
Rosamunde has an unfinished look to it, as if someone moved from a studio apartment into a 3,000 square foot house and wasn’t quite sure what to do with all the extra space. It’s something of an open canvas at the moment that will evolve to fit the clientele and the neighborhood. There’s even space for live music or a DJ.
The good news is that even though the surroundings are very different from Haight Street, the sausages are as delicious as ever. Choices include beer sausage, knockwurst, Nuernberger bratwurst, weisswurst, Hungarian, Italian, chicken cherry, chicken habanero, andouille, currywurst, vegan, wild boar, duck and fig, marguez and in homage to the neighborhood, an all beef sausage wrapped in bacon called Mission St. They’re perfectly grilled and served on a French roll with your choice of two toppings: sauerkraut, grilled onions, sweet or hot peppers or chili.
Although the taps aren’t as extensive as Toronado’s (whose are?), there’s still plenty to choose from in styles that should satisfy even the pickiest beer drinkers. The Ommegang Hennepin (a Belgian-style Saison from Cooperstown, N.Y.) was well-matched with a wild boar sausage with sweet peppers and grilled onions, for example. Also on tap was a delicious DuganA double IPA from Avery in Boulder, Colo.
Neighborhood restaurants that serve great beer with good food seem to be on the rise. We might have started out drinking craft beer in divey man caves, but once in a while it’s nice to come up for some sunshine in a bright and friendly new restaurant.

Rosamunde Sausage Grill
2832 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
http://www.rosamundesausagegrill.com/

Hours:
Monday-Friday 7am-11pm
Saturday and Sunday 8am-11pm

Sustainable food and distinctive drinks at Nopa

NoPa the district is a term invented by Realtors to refer to the area north of the Panhandle in San Francisco. Before the Realtors renamed it, NoPa was simply known as the Western Addition, an area associated with a bit of a crime problem for the past few decades.
But NoPa really didn’t become a destination until 560 Divisadero (near Hayes), previously the site of a 1920s-era bank, was transformed in April 2006 into a fine dining restaurant. Named after the neighborhood, Nopa restaurant features imaginative, delicious, sustainable comfort food meticulously sourced from local providers. Instead of hordes of cash, the former bank vault now holds Nopa restaurant’s well-chosen wines. Nopa really has become “a San Francisco gathering place.”
The restaurant was a success as soon as it opened. “It's barely 3 months old, but is catching on quickly,” Chronicle food critic Michael Bauer wrote in June 2006. “Like Zuni, it's a place that not only defines the neighborhood, but also becomes a salon for its customers.”
Happily the qualities that made Nopa so popular nearly four years ago remain undiminished. The food is simple, earthy and thoroughly satisfying; the emphasis is on fresh ingredients. Chef and co-owner Laurence Jossel, formerly of Chow, describes his food as “urban rustic.” Nopa’s small, seasonal menu veers toward the Mediterranean, with a local Northern California twist.
The beverages emphasis is clearly on signature cocktails, like Death at Dusk or a Manhattan with a choice of artisinal bitters, and wine, with several nice sherries and European and California wines available by the glass. There were only a couple of beers on tap, but they’re local and well-chosen: Moonlight Brewing’s Lunatic Lager from Santa Rosa, and from just down the street, Magnolia Brewing’s Dark Star Mild. The 10 bottles include Pliny the Elder from Russian River Brewing, Dupont Saison and St. Peter’s Sorgham Ale.
Moonlight’s Web site describes Lunatic Lager as “a crisp, European-style lager,” but any similarity between this beer and American lagers is in name only. It pours golden and clear, with a foamy white head and endless tiny bubbles and it looks almost as good as it tastes. “The Lunatic (which was then called Moonlight Pale Lager) was the first lager I made,” said Moonlight Brewing owner Brian Hunt. “I describe it (ignorantly but creatively) as something like was brewed here 100 years ago. I wanted enough snap to match the malt richness, and enough malt richness to hold your attention during the sip, and keep your interest piqued...repeatedly.” Lunatic Lager was delicious paired with Nopa’s Monterey sardines appetizer with grilled bread, hummus and an olive tapenade.
As much as I love beer, there are some foods that just match better with wine, like Nopa’s baked pasta with braised goat, lamb, pinquito beans and escarole. The rich flavors of the tomato-based sauce mingled perfectly with the slow cooked meat, penne pasta and hearty beans. The glass of Dolcetto “Dei Grassi” Alba that our server suggested accented the subtle sweetness of the sauce. Be sure to ask for some of the delicious Acme bread to soak it up.
Nopa’s grass fed hamburger with pickled onions and French fries has become legendary among Bay Area diners, and for good reason. It’s perfectly seasoned, and delicious topped with Gruyere cheese. It seemed as if just about every other order was a burger. The balsamic braised lamb shank with polenta and mustard greens was another hit: perfect comfort food for a winter night.
Although we generally avoid dessert, we couldn’t resist sharing the orange custard ice cream parfait with candied kumquats, a perfect conclusion to a wonderful dinner.
Considering the quality of the food and the unobtrusive attentiveness of the staff, prices are remarkably reasonable at Nopa. About the only downside is that the two-story, high-ceilinged restaurant can get pretty noisy at peak dining times. But that’s just a testimony to Nopa’s continuing popularity and a minor quibble in an overall excellent restaurant.

Nopa
560 Divisadero Street
San Francisco, CA 94117-2213
(415) 864-8643
http://www.nopasf.com/

Open Monday-Sunday
6 p.m.-1 a.m.
(bar opens at 5 p.m.)

Eclectic, delicious food and microbrews now playing at Broken Record

Broken Record, a relatively new restaurant in the Excelsior District in San Francisco, shows just how much a small restaurant can achieve with talented, imaginative chefs, an urban chic ambience and a handful of well-selected taps.
Formerly a Mexican restaurant called Mom is Cooking, the 7-month-old Broken Record seems out of place on Geneva Ave.; it feels as if it belongs in the Haight or amid the gastropubs on 16th Street in the Mission.
Broken Record is happily devoid of the pretensions and attitude that can plague pseudo-hip restaurants and pubs in the “cooler” neighborhoods, however, and it makes up in personality, charm and flavor what it lacks in amenities. Instead of menus, the few food choices are listed in the backroom restaurant. Service is rudimentary but friendly and courteous: You order drinks in the front of the restaurant at the bar and place your food order in the back. There’s a pool table and juke box in the bar section, but the music is more muted in the restaurant, where a large flat-screen TV (which was playing a kung-fu movie with the sound off) looms over a few booths and tables.
The kitchen is opposite the screen and is arguably more entertaining than the movie. The sparse, eclectic menu is a far cry from typical pub grub fare. Appetizers included crispy broccoli with chili flakes and parmesan and mac ‘n cheese made with bowtie rather than elbow noodles and topped with crispy corn bread (with or without bacon). They were both well-matched with a delicious pint of Green Flash IPA from San Diego
According to our friendly server, who also manned the kitchen and took our order, Broken Record’s extraordinary burger is made using brisket, aged cheese and bacon from Zoe in Petaluma (the optional avocado is highly recommended). Each bite of the perfectly cooked burger in a toasted bun was like a symphony of flavors that were further enhanced by a pint of Pranqster, a Belgian-style strong ale from North Coast Brewing in Ukiah. Pranqster was also refreshing complementing the Crispy Tiger Shrimp sandwich, served with crab mayo and avocado on a fresh baguette.  
Other options included pulled pork with cole slaw and spicy mayo; roasted Portobello mushroom with mozzarella, roasted red peppers, balsamic aioli and fresh basil; bacon French fries; duck confit potato skins; buttermilk biscuit; and chicken wings. The menu seems to rotate frequently.
We could not resist the dessert waffle: a crispy Belgian waffle served with a scoop of home-made roasted banana ice cream, drizzled with Nutella and sprinkled with powder sugar. Bliss.

The menu isn’t extensive and neither are the taps, but they don’t have to be when they’re as intelligently thought out and as well executed as they are at Broken Record. The two cooks and bartender who staffed Broken Record also belie the notion that you have to be aloof to be cool. They all seemed genuinely concerned that patrons have a good experience and sincerely grateful for their business and their compliments, of which there were many.



Broken Record
1166 Geneva Ave
(between Edinburgh St & Naples St)
San Francisco, CA 94112
(415) 963-171
CASH ONLY

Restaurant hours:
Sunday 6pm - 10pm
Monday-Saturday 6pm - 11pm
Bar hours:
Mon-Thu. 5pm - 12am
Fri-Sat. 5pm - 2am
Sun. 5pm - 12am
www.brokenrecordsf.com

Reliable Chow, good craft beer

Chow has been serving hearty local food at reasonable prices since 1997, when it opened on Church Street near Market. In addition to its sister location on Ninth Avenue near Golden Gate Park, Chow has also expanded to Danville and Lafayette, with the latter location also offering a food market. All of the Chows have six well-thought-out taps that match their rustic comfort food.
The tap lists vary by location, and the restaurant seems to touch all the bases, more or less, with beers mostly from Bay Area breweries. At a recent visit to Chow on Church, the choices included Trumer Pils, Marin Brewing’s Tiburon Blonde Ale, Speakeasy’s Big Daddy IPA, Deschutes Green Lakes organic amber ale and the Sless Stimulating stout from Iron Springs. Each location also features a rotating tap (Anchor’s excellent Our Special Christmas Ale in this case), as well as nine bottled beers.
Deschutes, from Bend, Ore., makes consistently good beer and the Green Lakes amber was no exception. It was very tasty matched with a pinto bean and pancetta soup. Hearty soups like this are a natural with flavorful beer.

Chow is the kind of place you can pop into on a whim for a quick bite and beer. Or while strolling the neighborhood, you can have a beer and some grub while the kids have a milkshake and a burger or a pizza from the wood-fired oven. Service is friendly and the restaurant has a nice warm feeling. When well-run, family-style, neighborhood restaurants like Chow offer several good taps, you know that craft beer has become mainstream.
Chow somehow manages to have something for just about everybody while remaining true to its mission of locally sourced products. The beer and food might not be the most eclectic or challenging, but that’s really not the point. You come away from Chow feeling satisfied without leaving a gaping hole in your wallet.

If you haven’t entirely slaked your beer thirst at Chow, you can pop in next door at the Pilsner Inn, which features a cozy enclosed patio at the back of the bar. Pilsners have gotten a bad name as a result of American macro brewers, sometimes literally. Available on tap at the Pilsner Inn is a pilsner called “Czechvar,” which is actually a Czech pilsner named Budvar from Ceske Budejovice of the Czech Republic. As a result of nearly a century of litigation with Anheuser-Busch/Budweiser, Budvar is distributed in the U.S., ironically by Anheuser Busch, under the Czechvar name.
The name is just about the only similarity between America’s Bud and Czechvar/Budvar, however. Whereas Bud has been methodically and painstakingly stripped of it natural malt and hops flavor to appeal to American tastes, Czechvar/Budvar remains refreshingly flavorful, even with restrained noble hops (though Pilsner Inn serves it a little too cold for my taste, even for a pils). There’s really no comparison, and anyone who thinks that Bud is a “true” pilsner should give Budvar/Czechvar a try.

Chow Church
215 Church Street
San Francisco, CA 94114
(415) 552-2469
http://chowfoodbar.com/

Park Chow
1240 9th Ave
San Francisco, CA 94122
(415) 665-9912

Chow Lafayette
53 Lafayette Circle
Lafayette, CA 94549
(925) 962-2469

Chow Danville
445 Railroad Ave
Danville, CA 94526
(925) 838-4510

Pilsner Inn
225 Church Street
San Francisco, CA 94114-1310
(415) 621-7058
http://www.pilsnerinn.com/

Zeitgeist: great craft beer in The Mission, attitude optional

Having a bar named “Zeitgeist” carries with it a certain responsibility and attitude – even more so when it’s located in San Francisco’s Mission District, not far from the seedier side of Market Street. Zeitgeist, the German noun, means the spirit of the time, the general trend of thought or feeling characteristic of a particular period . Culturally, zeitgeist suggests “the general moral, intellectual and cultural climate of an era,” like the Victorians' faith in industrial progress and American settlers' belief in manifest destiny. The zeitgeist of the Zeitgeist Bar and Guesthouse has a rebellious urban edge, as befits a divey tavern, under the shadow of a freeway overpass, whose clientele mostly gets around on two wheels.

Several vehicles adorn one of the walls in the spacious beer garden (“Do not leave your bike here. It will be removed”). The tavern almost revels in being edgy, with kitschy bric a brac and copious signage, including notices about prohibiting videos or pictures next to a mural of pink elephants balancing on a motorcycle.

A certain amount of the attitude is cosmetic – the bartenders are no worse than, say, Toronado’s and the food server pandering for tips is more amusing than menacing. Part is real, though, manifested in a disdain for the proliferation of young “hipsters” who seem to have descended in great numbers upon the Mission and Zeitgeist in particular. (Several of the hipsters apparently are not very hip to craft beer, since there seemed to be as many people sipping PBR, Tecate and Pacifico as there were drinking microbrews.) It's as if the zeitgeist of gritty urban defiance is being undermined and threatened by the indifference of the Blackberry-wielding newcomers.
Some patrons have voiced their umbrage in response to rude treatment. One Yelp critic complained, “The bartenders are all despondent apathetic slugs that think their sh*t is ice cream,” yet concluded, “Just because I give this place one star does not mean you'll have great time, you will, in spite of the bar.” Last year, Esquire voted Zeitgeist one of the best bars in the U.S. This is because Zeitgeist offers excellent beer among its two dozen or so taps; pours a good, clean pint for a decent price; and has a nice, spacious patio where you can enjoy your brew with a good cheeseburger ($5, but don’t forget to tip) or a tamale from the Tamale Lady. They also make a mean Bloody Mary.

Among the brews on tap on a recent visit were a couple of dark beers from Moonlight Brewing Company in Santa Rosa. Although Moonlight’s Death and Taxes California black lager was listed, it wasn’t available. Instead, the bar was pouring Moonlight’s excellent dark lager called Toast and a dark ale that Zeitgeist had dubbed “xxxmas,” a beer I wasn’t familiar with. To clear up the details on the mystery beer, I contacted Moonlight owner and brewer (and just about everything else at the brewery) Brian Hunt, who explained: “Zeitgeist sometimes uses some creative license in naming beers, and last year or before they began calling the Tipple ‘Rated Xmas.’ I think they shortened the name this year and made it more ‘hard core!’"
Hunt described the dark ale (top, with a grilled cheese) as “porterish without going quite that dark. It is aged on wet/dry hops. These are the same hops that were picked at the brewery and put in the aging tanks and filled with Homegrown. The timing works just right so that when the Homegrown is all sold, I refill the tanks with Tipple. There is a resulting freshhop character that makes the dark ale more almost fruity, as opposed to hoppy. It is as if the dark malt flavor masks some of the grassier freshhop notes, and the richer notes are able to surface up with the malt flavors. It was at least three weeks old when first released, likely about five or six weeks old when the last keg went out the week before Christmas.”
He described Toast as a slightly burned strong lager, “an exercise in toasty flavor. I just used all the malts that I felt would make a beer that tasted like Toast. Hops were just minimal enough to round off the dry edges. This beer, however, was a year old. Last year I released two versions: a small amount 3 years old, and the bulk that was 4 weeks old. My intention from now on is to only release it at one year, except for a few extra-old kegs. All aging is in stainless. Both are 6.0% (abv).”
Needless to say, both were delicious and especially excellent sipping in the outdoor patio on a partially gray San Francisco afternoon.
My advice: ignore the attitude, bring a hoodie, buy a burger or tamale and enjoy some great beer.

Zeitgeist
199 Valencia at Duboce
(415) 255-7505

Nix the champagne and ring in a hoppy new year with beer

National Public Radio recently reported that Americans aren’t buying French bubbly the way they used to, and some of it is even being sent back to France. That’s not too surprising. Given the state of the economy and the number of people who are out of work, paying more than $50 for a classy French champagne borders on extravagance.
For that kind of money, New Year’s revelers can quaff some excellent beer. According to beeradvocate.com, “One of the newest and most interesting styles of beer, the Bière de Champagne has much potential within the beer industry as a top-shelf crossover beer.” Primarily brewed in Belgium, biere de champagne is ale that goes through a lengthy maturation process and is sometimes aged in caves in France’s Champagne region before being put through the “methode de champenoise” process of remuage and degorgement to remove yeast from the bottle. These ales look like champagne, pop and fizz like champagne, and like French bubbly are best served chilled in flute glasses.
Whole Foods in San Francisco sells DeuS made by Brouwerij Bosteels of Belgium for $32.99. Other biere de champagne to consider are Malheur Bière Brut (Brut Reserve) from Brouwerij De Landtsheer NV and Bush Prestige from Brasserie Dubuisson Frères sprl.
Another option could be to get hoppy with some of the fine India pale ales and double IPAs that are available in California. A few to consider are: Blind Pig and Pliny the Elder from Russian River Brewing, Racer 5 and Red Rocket from Bear Republic, Valley Brewing’s IPA and Uberhoppy, Stone IPA and Ruination, Drake’s IPA, AleSmith IPA and YuleSmith, and many others. All would ring in a very hoppy new year at a fraction of the price of good champagne.
Or you could enjoy a seasonal winter warmer, like a beautiful magnum of Anchor’s excellent Our Special Ale ($14.99 at BevMo), welcome the new year with Samuel Smith’s subtle yet enticing Winter Welcome Ale, or quaff one of my seasonal favorites, Deschutes Jubelale.