When Monk’s Café in Philadelphia opened in 1997 as one of America’s pioneering Belgian restaurants, it was pretty much a given that the beer list would be heavy on brews from “Het Bierland,” or “The Beercountry,” as Belgium is sometimes known. And sure enough, Monk’s Café today boasts one of the most meticulously selected menus of Belgian beer seen on the East Coast.
But what of restaurants specializing in the cuisines of countries not necessarily known for their breweries — places like Italy and Japan and New Zealand? As Spiaggia Restaurant and Cafe Spiaggia in Chicago have found, what may have been a challenge a decade ago is accomplished much more easily today.
Boasting a bottle list of 16 Italian beers and two on tap in the cafe, the two sides of Spiaggia lay claim to what may be the largest selection of Italian craft beers in the Windy City. Executive chef Sarah Grueneberg said the customers “are loving it.”
“It’s hard to break people away from wine,” Grueneberg said, adding that both the fine-dining restaurant and cafe are well known for their wine lists. “But we’re trying some fun ways to introduce people to the beers, and they are starting to get a cult following.”
Those “fun ways” include recommending beers for specific courses in the restaurants’ tasting menus, especially the cheese course, and featuring the beers in special events such as their recent Beer & Beef dinner, which highlighted locally raised beef descended from cattle from the Italian region of Piedmont.
“Price has been the biggest challenge,” Grueneberg said of the beers, some of which Spiaggia sells for more than $50 for a 25.4-ounce bottle.
One way in which the restaurant seeks to address that issue is by encouraging tables to treat the large-format beers as they would bottles of wine, sharing them among several people.
Sticker shock is less of a problem at Manhattan’s Nelson Blue, a New Zealand-themed bar and grill, said managing partner Michelle Casano. They sell five brands of New Zealand craft beer for $7 or $8 a bottle, depending on the brand, which Casano said is not a problem for most patrons.
“They are imported, so people expect to pay extra” Casano said, adding that the extra cost notwithstanding, they sell “a ton” of the Kiwi craft beers.
“We get a mix of Wall Street regulars and people who come here specifically because it’s a New Zealand bar,” said Casano. “But both types get excited when they have the chance to try a beer they’ve never seen before.”
That hints at what is perhaps the ultimate argument in favor of stocking beers that match the cuisine or theme of any bar or restaurant: the curiosity factor. With the specialty beer market continuing to explode in popularity and to outpace other segments in growth, beer drinkers are more interested than ever in trying new styles and brands. Establishments that recognize this interest and stock their beer lists accordingly are thus best positioned to profit from that curiosity.
