Scowl, Nu?

Four PM, Friday afternoon marked the end of a long, dragging week. So, we decided to go to the Toronado for an end-of-the-week beer.

Friday: 5:10 PM – after exiting the 71 Limited that brought me back from the brink of hell (that is to say, the Financial District), I immediately crossed the street, making a bee-line for the Toronado. As I walked by Rosamunde, I noticed that Jeff (the owner) was tending shop, so I decided to stop in to see what he was up to. What he was up to, I immediately found out, was

Lamb and Lentil Stew… and Weiner Schnitzel.

Aah… Jeff’s Weiner Schnitzel. He only makes it once in a blue moon, but as soon as the word gets out, his shop is practically overrun with locals wanting a plate of his perfect Schnitzel. If you’ve never had Wiener Schnitzel, let me describe it for you. Weiner Schnitzel, aka Vienna (Wein) style fried port cutlet. Jeff takes thin-cut pieces of port, seasoned and then dredged in flour. He then pan-fries the cutlets and serves it up with sweet and hot mustards. I placed an order for the Weiner Schnitzel and then promptly walked over to the Toronado to have an anticipatory beer.

The beer… Speakeasy IPA (which I still call Barfly Pale). The bartender… Pauly (and Steve). The Weiner Schnitzel… as perfect as always.

Janet made it about 30 minutes later, and she ordered up a Blanche de Meteor, a belgian witbeer which is similar to Hoegaarden White, but a little less sweet with a nicer yeast taste. I took this opportunity to order up a Speakeasy Prohibition Ale. I really need to drag my ass back to Speakeasy to say hi to Forrest, Eric and Steve.

At 7pm or so, Ian came in… so we decided to stay for another beer. Janet had another Blanche de Meteor, while I decided to have a Lagunitas Hairy Eyeball (a dark, hoppy ale).

We left at 7:30, making a stop at Rosamunde for a take-home bowl of Lamb and Lentil Stew and a second stop at Sunshine Market for a few British candy bars.

Saturday, 10pm… post sushi – Janet and I decided to make a quick hour-and-a-half trip to the Toronado. Ian and Robert were on shift, which means that we could have stayed as late as we wanted… but we had stuff to do at home, so we cut it short. The beers… Janet had a pair of Guinness and I had a Lagunitas Maximus (IPA) and a Speakeasy Barfly Pale. I really hope that Forrest and Eric decide to continue making the IPA, because it’s quickly becoming one of my favorites.

That’s all for now.

The other day we noticed some anti-yuppie stickers that someone had plastered all over one of the bathrooms at the Toronado (the bathroom with the huge “GO HOME YUPPIES” painted in on the wall with silver paint.) “Y2K –Yuppies 2 Kill.” is printed on the corner of each of them, along with messages like “Go home, Yuppies, we hate you and some of us are armed” and “Go buy a house on the peninsula before it’s too late.” Other than that, though, it’s been weird going out lately. So…blah. So…nothing happening. So…same old, same old. I hope it’s just a short boring section in the cycle of life and not a case of permanent malaise.

As usual, Saturday Night was spent at the Toronado. Upon our 11pm arrival, were immediately faced with the typical crowd of people. So we decided to forgo pushing through the crowd so we could place our order and decided to just talk to Tad for a while.

A few minute later, Carmen (a long time regular) stopped in and immediately obtained two choice seats at the bar. About 15 minutes later, our typical seats opened up and we pounced on them.

Ian immediately greeted me with a barleywine called “GWB 1987″… I have no idea what it really was, but it tasted exactly like a tawny port. I then ordered a Hop Ottin IPA. Janet had a Framboise.

Five minutes later… Steve from Speakeasy Brewery comes in for a beer… and he asks if I had the IPA yet. My response: I’ve only had Prohibition (the IPA like beer that they brew) a couple hundred times… of course I have, Steve. He then informs me that this wasn’t the Prohibition on tap… it was their hundredth batch commemorative IPA. I immediately downed the Hop Ottin and started on this yet unnamed IPA.

The IPA, which I will call Barfly’s Pale, was the beer that could really win mainstream support from the Sierra Nevada / Anderson Valley IPA crowd. It was a extremely crisp, pale beer… so hoppy that you could practically chew the beer. I easily rate this to be as good of an IPA as my current favorite Pale Ale (Hop Ottin from Anderson Valley). Unfortunately, only 2.5 BBL (5 kegs) were produced… but at least all of the publicly available kegs are at the Toronado. Sometime while I was drinking the Barfly’s Pale, Janet ordered a Weinstephaner Lager (from one of the oldest breweries in Germany).

Though we only had two beers each (I don’t count the taste of the barleywine), we ended up not getting home until after 4am, about three hours later than we initially intended.

Still, it was worth staying late… not only did we get a chance to finally talk to Ian, we got the grand tour of the new shelves that he and Johnny built in the keg-storage closet.

Last night we went to the Toronado to visit with Ian and have a few barleywines, since it was the barleywine festival and all. But as it typically happens during one of these big festivals, Ian was too busy serving $1.00 tasters of barleywines to these pseudo-beer-geeks (who didn’t seem to tip well at all), which made it difficult to order a round of beer, let alone talk to Ian for any length of time.

Since it was a festival, the usual cast of characters were there: the group from Magnolia Brewing, Dave and Jennifer (the owner and his girlfriend), Nico Freccia from Celebrator Beer News and a ton of people who I see at every special event. It was nice to see Stu at the bar again… he was released from the hospital last night. His hair was green, his Guinness was black and the pins sticking out of his shoulder were a bloody shade of gun metal (long story, we’ll tell you about it later).

So we spent the night talking to Todd and Tad (who showed up for a quick pint) and drinking our beers. Janet got one of those 30oz buckets of Hoegaarden White. I decided to go on a barleywine kick. My tasting notes follow:

• Alaska Brewing Co. – Old Growth What a strange little beer. It smelled of pine trees (they brewed it with spruce tree tips), tasted of strawberries and had the kick of a small mule. A fantastic barleywine.
• Broken Drum – Percussion Eh. Nothing special. Passable.

• Lagunitas – Brown Shugga A favorite… candy-sweet and potent as hell.

• Stone House Brewing – Old Mjolnir Dangerously drinkable. Dark, strong and not too sweet. I’d get this again, if I had a chance.

Since Barleywines are so strong and sweet, I needed something to wash them down, and a De Koninck did the job perfectly. I would have had a taste of the Barley and Hopps 1995 Big Head Barleywine (which closed last year due to the smoking prohibition at their brew pub) or the aged in bourbon-barrel Hair of the Dog Batch 29, but the three gallon keg ran out within a few hours of its tapping.

We’ll be back on Saturday to sample the few remaining barleywines, so expect a Sunday night update.

In the Fun Facts and Useless Miscellaneous Trivia Department, upon finding out that Avery is a M*A*S*H fanatic, Tad challenged him to name the five characters that have been on the show from start to finish. Avery’s first answer was “Nurse Kelly.” “Nurse Kelly!” cried Tad. “She’s the crux! No one ever gets Nurse Kelly!” See, he is a fanatic. He even has a blue and white Hawaiian shirt that we refer to as “the Hawkeye shirt.”

Last night, we went to the Toronado (as usual on a Saturday night) not only for a few beers, but to also catch up with Jocelyn and Paul. Jocelyn is leaving for Budapest on Thursday, so we wanted to wish her a safe travel and also catch up on what’s going on in her life.

When we walked in a little before 11pm, the bar was empty… which is completely unheard of on a Saturday night. According to other locals floating in and out of the bar, the whole city was dead… nobody was out in any of the bars in any of the districts. Our collective theory is that the rain kept everybody at home. I can only hope that the rainy season (which starts in late February) will ensure a few months of low-traffic weekends at the Toronado.

Anyway, the 5th Annual Barleywine Festival started today (Sunday), and in preparation, Dave (the owner) took most of the beers off to make room for the 35 Barleywines that he’ll be offering for the next 6 days. Now, don’t get me wrong… I love Barleywines… but the Barleywine Festival just throws me into overload. Luckily for Janet, the Guinness was still available (and she consumed three imperial pints of the famous Irish stout).

I, on the other hand, decided to have a Lagunitas night… even though the team from Speakeasy was there celebrating the Head Brewer’s birthday. Over the next 3 hours I would have the following:

• 1995 Vintage Gnarlywine – one of my favorite Barleywines. Though this wasn’t supposed to be available until Sunday’s festival, the bartenders made an exception and poured me a 3oz glass of this sweet nectar. It was so good, I would have a second glass before leaving yesterday night.

• Brown Shugga – a mistake on the 1998 Gnarlywine where the brewers added brown sugar in an attempt to raise the end alcohol content.One of my favorite beers of all time… it has the depth of the Gnarlywine with a Belgian candy-sugar aftertaste.

• Hairy Eyeball – a very hoppy amber ale. Ian and I split a bottle of it. I think that the Hairy Eyeball is better in the bottle than on draft.
• Eye of the Hairball – Lagunitas’ wheat-wine. Dangerously drinkable. Damn good.

I’ll probably stop by at the Barleywine Festival on Wednesday, so I’ll give another update then.