And...One Year of Memphis

Funny how that is: the same day I started my anti-PLCB blog, Brendan and Leigh opened the Memphis Taproom. You could argue that they were more constructive, I guess.

Cathy and I went down to Memphis for their anniversary celebration tonight. It was jamming, but we managed to wedge our way in and grab a Bear Republic Racer X (rocking hopper, and I expected nothing less) and a Schlenkerla Fastenbier (smoky, light, and...tart? Not sure about the condition of this one...). It was an awesome line-up of drafts. About then, Leigh came busting in, holding high a sampler of meatball sandwich chunks: delish.

We slowly slipped into the dining room (past Nodding Head's Curt Decker, who was "just going to stand here and drink cask Fuller's ESB till my eyes bleed," which didn't seem like a bad idea at all (Curt's wife Paula is Brendan's second partner in Memphis, and the third, Ken Correll, can be seen in the pic just over the tray Brendan's holding)), and found, to our surprise and delight, an empty table for two. We grabbed it, and tasted some other stuff: ham and onions on rye, a buffalo wing, some chicken liver mousse with dried fruit soaked in JW Lee's Harvest (awesome, BTW), and blueberry soup. Cathy got a Sly Fox Instigator (sweet and delicious, dark, rich), I got some of that ESB (smoother than silk, not as intrusive as the bottled ESB) and then I had another.

Then I had an Uerige Doppelstike, and it was one of the very best beers I've had in months. I may go back to Memphis tomorrow just to get more. Wow. Malty-dry (Germans are geniuses with that), hoppy, big, but not boozy, holy crap. Excellent beer. Then I tried Taras Boulba again... I don't get it. It's citrus peel-pith bitter, shallow, with just a bit of fruit character. Didn't do it for me when I had it the first time, after WhiskyFest NY at dba last year. Low alcohol, session beer, yeah, but it didn't make it for me this time either.

And then...we went home. Happy birthday, Memphis!

Top Ten: Favorite Cities

The monthly not-usually-drink-related Lew's Top Ten. This month, a truly off-the-top-of-my-head list of the cities and towns I most like to visit or have most enjoyed on a single visit. Thoroughly me-centric, and I'm not anywhere near as well-traveled as I'd like to be...but it's what I've got. As always, the list is unranked, in the order I happened to write them down, and as I've done in the past, I cheated a little by shoving some close cities together.

1. Portland, Maine. The first time I drove into Portland, it was 72°, blue sky with a few clouds, and I bought a paper and looked at the want ads. Just a marvelous city, surrounded by water, fed by the water (and B&M Beans), and blessed with some solid beer joints. A little gem.




2. Chicago. Cathy and I have been enjoying the blazes out of Chicago for quite a few years now, thanks to WhiskyFest Chicago and our good friends, George and Sue Sarmiento, both Chicago natives who have shown us some of the fun to be had there (and Frank E., and Terry and Monica Sullivan...yeah, all you guys). Great museums, the Lake, the German joints (and Polish joints, and Ukrainian joints, and Swedish joints, and Irish joints...), and some truly excellent beer spots. A great city to walk around in, to dine in, to have a hell of a time in.

3. San Francisco. Simply gorgeous, in a way most cities only hope for. The Bay's a wonderful window on the world (and Oakland), the bridges are inspiring, and there are bars here that have been serving for well over a century. The people are very interesting and friendly (friendlier than I remember from the 1980s, actually), the food is outstanding, and the romance is palpable.
4. Portland, Oregon. Only been once, can't wait to return. Portland has a smaller beauty, and an intense desire to better itself that is much more appealing than it sounds. One of the best beer scenes in the world, of course (although believe me, guys...we know you know...), and a happy worn-in attitude about it.

5. Bamberg. How can you not like a town with so many good breweries, so much history and preserved architecture, walkable and beautiful? I'd go back every year if I could.






6. Toronto. Good beer in excellent places, great transit, old buildings, the St. Lawrence Market, and vibe just shimmering off it. And of course, The Lake, right there, which Toronto makes the most of. Love visiting this town, any month of the year.








7. Düsseldorf/Köln. I picked both to avoid the arguments, yes. Hate to disappoint the folks who told me to skip Köln (and kölsch) and just stay in D-dorf and drink altbier: I love both, and I particularly love the places they're served. Actually, if I were going to go on where they're served, Köln might have a slight edge, if only because of numbers. But truly, both wonderful places, -- not just for beer, for people and architecture and setting and history -- and I'm hoping to make them a yearly visit.




8. Ghent. I really am picking Ghent over Brussels, after only one visit to each. It may be because I was a bit overwhelmed by Brussels (may be that I was a bit over-served there...), but mostly it's the canals and the look of Ghent. I'm a sucker for water, and Ghent has so much of it. It's also of a more manageable size than Brussels for a first-time visit. My opinion may well change (especially after I get to Brugge), but for now: top ten.


9. Madison. Spectacular lake setting, and when it's really on, it's beautiful here. The people are wonderful, the beer culture is the closest thing to Germany I've encounted in the U.S., and the brewpubs rock. Another town I'd re-locate to in a heartbeat.

10. Washington/Baltimore. I hate the heat, I despise humidity. These towns can be miserable with it. But I love them; DC for the bustle, the international character and attractions of such a relatively small city, the Smithsonian, the embassies, and all the goings-on. Baltimore is special for its real personality, a town that has as much individual character as Boston or New York, some great beer bars and brewpubs, a gorgeous ballpark, and the whole harborside thing, and the exceptional seafood. Always happy to visit these towns; need to do that again soon.

Lunch in Köln

I got up this morning about 8:30, got some work done, and then Steve and I took a walk around the shopping district. I grabbed a Berliner -- the jelly donut, not the wheat beer -- which was just wonderful, and munched as we walked. After an inspiring tour around the Dom -- it was a cool, breezy, sunny day, and the view was, well, awesome -- we tripped down to the Gaffel Haus and had a couple stange of that crisp, hoppy kölsch.

Then we made our way through the torturous nest of intersections at the south end of the Heumarkt (if you've been there, you know just what I mean: 5 minutes to get 60 meters!) and had lunch at Malzmühle: as Steve said, the other end of the kölsch spectrum, the malty, even a bit sticky end. The food was as farmer-simple as I recall: a hearty mash of potatoes, green kale, and hammy bits cooked up in broth, with a fat and solid grilled bratwurst sitting on top. I could not finish it, delicious, but just too much. A last kölsch, back to the room (we're stazing at the Maritim, a very nice hotel just about 40 meters from Malzmühle), and then we hopped the train to Düsseldorf...where I'm typing this now before heading over to Uerige.

Tomorrow: Belgium.

Hiding Out in Lagerland

Yes, I'm on that trip. I landed in Lagerland yesterday, met Stephen Beaumont at the Frankfurt Airport, took the train to Köln, and checked in at our hotel. My room has a great view of the Dom.

We hit Früh for two quick kölsches, then trained up to Düsseldorf. We picked up a tourguide from the local tourism bureau, who gave us a real whirlwind tour spiked with plenty of history. Then we got a brewery tour at Zum Schlussel (details on all of this later, I'm a bit rushed for time right now) and a delicious schweinehaxe dinner, and plenty of good altbier.

After that, getting a little bit of a second wind, we crossed the street to Im Goldenen Kessel for a couple glasses of Schumacher, then down to Zum Uerige, where we actually found an open barrel-table right next to the one where my blog picture one the left was taken. Like coming home. But I was crashing hard, been up almost 36 hours at that point, so we had two and caught the train back to Köln. And now we're up and ready to go back to Düsseldorf for more. I may or may not be able to post more, it's going to be a bit crazy.

Back to Uerige

See that picture of me I've had pinned to the top left corner of the blog since I started it, a little over a year ago? That was taken -- a little over a year ago -- at Zum Uerige, in Düsseldorf. I hope to have another one soon: I'm headed back. Stephen Beaumont recently contacted me, saying, I'm going to Düsseldorf and Belgium, wanna come along? Hell yes, I did: I, um... have never been to Belgium. True. So I'm going to fix that. After all, Steve's never been to Düsseldorf.

The fun thing is, what originally seemed like a problem -- a trade fair in Düsseldorf made it impossible to find a hotel room (is there always a damned trade fair in that town?) -- turned into a plus: we decided to stay in Köln and take the train back and forth, getting us what Steve is joyfully calling 'a twofer.' So I'm essentially going to be commuting to work, something I haven't done in over ten years, unless you count walking down to my basement office (as I'm sure Ms. Anonymous will tell me doesn't count because it's not a job...thanks, toots). And when I "get home from work," I can toddle by the spectacular Dom for a couple glasses at Früh.

Ahhh, wonderful...and that's not even touching on the beauty that will be visiting Belgium: Brussels, Ghent, a couple small family breweries in the country. I'll be trying to blog some of this for you, but I may get busy. You understand, of course.

It's all part of my continuing education (without brewery sponsorship, by the way) to get to know these places, these breweries, these beers better, so I can write better. Okay, it's fun, too, but shouldn't every job be this satisfying?

(Addition: I promised Adam I'd post the two sites I used to plan that first trip to Düsseldorf and Köln: Ron Pattinson's excellent and superbly chatty European Beer Guide, and Fred Waltman's much more focused Sticke Warriors site. BTW, Adam: I fully endorse Fred's recommendation of Hotel Haus Rheinblick (the link's in German, but if you can figure out that "Reservierungsanfrage" means "reservation requests," you can probably take it from there), a very nice family-run hotel in the north half of the Altstadt, a short easy walk to the Rhine, Im Goldenen Ring is three minutes walk, Uerige is about seven minutes, Im Füchschen is about 12 minutes...and you get breakfast, too, for well under E100 a night. I can't recommend the penzione where I stayed in Köln; clean, but not particularly comfortable, in the Turkish quarter, which was fascinating (and delicious) during the day, but scary at night; we heard frightened screaming people running through the streets two nights in a row. Trying a new place this time; pricier, but close to the train station, because of the commute. Actually...I just looked at the map, and it's not closer to the station. But it is right beside Malzmühle, and it's not uphill, so I'd say it's a win.)

Just the coolest damned thing

Check out this event on the Michael Jackson Toast list:

"MESZ in the UERIGE-Hof
Bergerstrasse 1, Dusseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia
Description
On Sunday we want to open a fresh barrel of UERIGE Sticke (Unfiltered, about 2 weeks before Sticke-day) to remember Michael Jackson and his work in Düsseldorf. We start at 8 p.m. MESZ in the UERIGE-Hof, the place where Josef Schnitzler met Michael the first time in the early Eighties."

Now...is that just pretty damned cool, or what?