When times get tough, consumers choose the familiar, the pleasing and, of course, the affordable. That helps explain the prominence of beer-friendly concepts and promotions in restaurants today.
More than a few operators, including some known for tony upscale cuisine and impressive wine lists, are building business with plainspoken but popular fare like great burgers, artisanal sausages and well-chosen craft brews.
But it’s really not a surprise, considering the growing regard for beer. When Gallup Inc. polled consumers last year about their alcoholic beverage of choice, 11 percent more of them preferred beer than wine. That marked beer’s first double-digit advantage over wine since 2002, according to the research company.
And when the National Restaurant Association’s 2008 What’s Hot survey asked professional chefs to rate the hottest food and beverage items and trends of the day, craft beer/microbrews placed 24th of more than 200 choices.
Beer is part of the curriculum at The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College in Philadelphia. Adjunct instructor Alex Crowe, former brewmaster of a New York brewpub and recent recipient of the Craft Beer Institute’s Certified Cicerone credential for beer expertise, teaches students the basics of beer styles, service and storage, the brewing process and pairing beer with food.
“These young people will be chefs or owners someday,” said Crowe. “I hope to make an impression on them and change the way beer is presented. If you look at northern European cultures, especially Belgium, beer is part of fine dining. And it’s getting respect on this side of the Atlantic, too.”
No less a luminary than Daniel Boulud, chef-owner of the rarified restaurant Daniel in New York City and eight other highly regarded dining places, is opening a new concept in which beer plays an integral role. DBGB Kitchen & Bar, slated to open on Manhattan’s Bowery this spring, will be Boulud’s most casual and accessibly priced restaurant to date.
It will give beer and wine equal weight, “something quite new for us,” reported Georgette Farkas, spokeswoman for The Dinex Group, the parent company of Boulud’s restaurants .
The menu will meld the characteristics of a French brasserie with an American diner, offering artisanal sausages in styles from around the world and more than a dozen draft beers, she said.
To celebrate the new eatery, Restaurant Daniel held its first-ever beer-and-food-matching dinners on consecutive evenings in January. The four-course, $135-per-person events, hosted by beer consultant Samuel Merritt, featured pairings like Warm Veal Tongue Salad served with Brooklyn Brewery’s Local 1 and Baked Scottish Salmon with Belgium’s Saison Dupont.
“Those dinners were really special,” said Merritt. “They’re the pinnacle of where we can bring beer.”
Another fine-dining operator leveraging the drawing power of beer is Michael Taus, now in his 17th year as chef-owner of Zealous in Chicago.
“We do a lot of beer sales, and it has gone up in the last five years, dramatically,” said Taus. It’s not unusual for Zealous guests to begin the evening with craft or import beer before switching to wine. “It’s a nice, relaxing first beverage,” he said.
Taus’s second restaurant, a casual eatery called Duchamp that debuted last summer, revolves around chef-made interpretations of familiar foods and more than 20 craft and import beers. Included are Belgian ales like Delirium Tremens, Duvel and Chimay Red, local craft products like Goose Island Matilda and import lagers like Stella Artois and Heineken.
Sandwiches are priced around $11 and entrées top off at $21, with selections like a havarti cheeseburger served on a dill bun with tomato rémoulade, and a riff on fish and chips made with crispy skate wing and garlic fries.
“It’s amazing how much beer we sell there,” said Taus. “Some of the pilsners are great with a burger.”
At Artisanal, a fromagerie, bistro and wine bar in New York City, a promotion called Brew Tuesdays has been boosting patronage and beer sales. All evening, the bistro’s 13 craft and import beers, priced at $7 to $13 per bottle, are offered at half price. In addition, it matches a flight of three of its house cheeses with brews like Hofbrau Hefe Weizen, Peak Organic Nut Brown Ale and Stone Smoked Porter, priced at $14.50. On Tuesdays in February, it offered a complimentary beer pairing with cheese fondue, priced at $24 for one to three people and $40 for four to six.
“We were looking for new ideas and flavors in addition to the expected wine and food pairings we’ve always done,” said Artisanal general manager Xavier Villasuso. “It has been hugely successful for us.”