SWIRL, sniff, sip . . . belch?
The refined air of Restaurant Daniel may be punctuated by the occasional hiccup tonight. That’s because the beverage selections won’t hail from the restaurant’s formidable wine cellar. Rather, this evening’s special four-course meal will explore the wide world of beer – trading glasses of champagne for, well, the other bubbly. Would you care to sniff the bottle cap, sir?
Once the domain of frat boys and middle-age men with protruding bellies, beer is undergoing an image overhaul. It’s getting showcased on pricey prix-fixe menus, aged in whiskey casks and mixed into cocktails. And in its biggest slob-to-snob move yet, it’s getting star treatment by one of this town’s most celebrated chefs, Daniel Boulud.
“I’ve always loved beer,” admits Boulud.
But his flagship restaurant hasn’t totally flipped from grand cru to brew. The $135 beer dinners, which wrap up tonight, are actually a preview of his upcoming restaurant, tentatively titled DBGB Kitchen & Bar. Billed as a “French brasserie meets American diner,” it opens on the Bowery this spring.
“Beer is a culture. It’s casual, it’s affordable, it’s interesting, it’s complex but it’s not really defined with dining. You don’t dine with beer, you eat,” says Boulud. Still, DBGB will be serving anything but standard-issue pub grub.
And while its upscale beers will likely be too pricey for the dive bar crowd, they will still cost less than wines of similar caliber – making them the perfect lubricant for cash-strapped foodies.
At DBGB, draft beer won’t arrive in pitchers but in wine carafes – in liter and magnum sizes. Instead of Jack and Bud, the beer-and-a-shot special might pair Poire William (clear pear-flavored brandy) with Duvel (a Belgian ale). And there will be beer-based cocktails, too – including suds blended with syrups, liqueurs and essences. After all, just because Boulud is slumming it on the Bowery doesn’t mean he’s hit Skid Row.
The restaurant will feature 24 taps divided into major styles like pale ales, lagers and wheat beers, and there will be an extensive bottle list, too. But drinks master Colin Alevras says wine won’t be left out of the equation.
“Let’s just say the snobs of both worlds won’t be able to ignore each other,” says Alevras of his developing list. “Sometimes the right wine is a beer,” he adds, noting that pairing “red wine with cheese is probably the single biggest culinary mistake people make on a regular basis.”
DBGB isn’t the only place where the line between beer and wine is blurring. Café D’Alsace notably featured a “beer sommelier” when it opened in 2006. Gramercy Tavern introduced a vintage beer list that same year. And the year-old Beer Table in Brooklyn feels more similar in spirit to a wine bar than a brew pub.
“Beer is the underdog. It deserves something a little more special,” says Beer Table owner Justin Philips, who worked as an importer before opening what he calls a “tasting room” with his wife last year. Touches like table service and a daily changing menu organized by flavor add to the room’s civilized aura. On a recent night, drafts started at $6 and escalated from there. A $116 magnum of Swiss beer aged in pinot noir oak barrels, anyone?
While double- and triple-digit price tags are off-putting, Philips says business is “twice as busy as I had hoped.”
Similarly, at Gramercy Tavern, some beer bottles cost more than wine. “If you don’t like beer or associate it with a meal or coming to Gramercy Tavern, you have to be ready to jump [right in],” admits managing partner Kevin Mahan.
The restaurant’s drink list boasts an entire page dedicated to “vintage beer and cider,” which it serves at cellar temperature – meaning those expecting frosty mugs will be sorely disappointed.
But you can’t just age any old bottle. Most vintage beers tend to be stronger ales or barley wines with a higher alcohol content to help preserve structure. Gramercy’s oldest brew – an English ale – dates back to 1996. And while some customers are puzzled by the notion of aged beer – after all, Budweiser features a “born-on date” – they’re coming around to the idea.
“When our captains ask if we could pair a beer with a course, [diners] are so much more receptive now than they were five years ago,” says Mahan.
Other high-end restaurants have been sneaking suds onto their tasting menus for quite some time now. Brooklyn Brewery creates an exclusive beer for Thomas Keller, while an $85 wine pairing at Momofuku Ko last year actually included a can of Bud.
“As the formality in restaurants starts to ease up, [chefs] are admitting they like beer and they like to drink it with this food,” says Alevras.
Sam Adams brew master Jim Koch agrees. “The next generation of chefs who may or may not be classically trained are making a name for themselves by going beyond the constraints of cordon bleu cooking. Many of these people have grown up with craft beer. They know good beer and if you ask them what do they have with their meal, it’s beer. But in their restaurants they have had pathetic beer lists historically.”
That, of course, is changing. On Feb. 5, Sam Adams will showcase its latest batch of imperial beers at a private dinner at Fishtail by David Burke located – where else? – on the Upper East Side.
“Beer is now a part of food culture,” says Jeff Gorlechen, who handles promotions, sales and marketing for Sixpoint Craft Beers, a local brewery based in Red Hook, Brooklyn. “There are a lot of restaurants doing beer dinners right now.”
Indeed, the local food movement has been a boon to area breweries. So has coffee culture and its interest in small, artisanal producers. “Beer is the next logical step,” says DBGB’s Alevras.
But beer fans say they’re still struggling for respect. “I’m still constantly
frustrated when I go out to a nice place [and] see industrial products sitting on the menu right next to amazing wine,” says Beer Table’s Philips. “The deep, old bias against beer as a common everyman’s drink goes back to ancient times, and it’s a big obstacle.”