On tap at Ebenezer’s Bar in Sturbridge’s historic Publick House, gelatinous soft-toned ‘extra pale ale’ brings local wildflower honey creaming to sugary wheat setting. Subtle citric easement leads to floral-dried grassy hop meadow. Lemon custard, vanilla and butterscotch illusions waver.
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK
508 GASTRO RAISES NEW YORK CITY’S BEER PROFILE
There’ve finally been some steps taken to make Manhattan not only the cultural capitol of the world, but perhaps someday, the hottest brewing municipality on the planet. Granite City has dragged behind the rest of America’s incredible Craft Beer Renaissance due to ridiculous political animosity, nonsensical licensing regulations and the sheer amount of money needed to establish any restaurant or brewery on or off-Broadway. However, the landscape’s slowly changing.
Portland, San Diego, Denver, Philadelphia and many other lesser cities have more brewpubs than the largest Mecca on the universe so it stands to reason that taking a chance on going for broke would be ill-advised for now. Yet just a few blocks from lower Broadway, a well-educated entrepreneurial South American native that settled in the greatest city on earth decided against all odds to brew a few new recipes for the awaiting huddled masses.
Gaining immediate respect as both an exquisite artisanal restaurant and worthy small-batch brewery, 508 GASTROBREWERY is the brainchild of Brazilian-born Anderson Sant’anna De Lima and his Pittsburgh-raised wife, Jennifer Sant’anna Hill. Located at 508 Greenwich Street one block from the Holland Tunnel (and visited on a Saturday night in February), this Mediterannean-American hotspot opened in ’08 and by June ’11, received its license to brew on-premises (then closed January ’15). And now the usually tranquil Tribeca-bound neighborhood it services is a destination point for serious beer aficionados as well as sophisticated chowhounds.
A cozy downtown retreat, 508 GastroBrewery now joins upscale Italian-run midtown rooftop phenomenon, La Birreria, and spacious Chelsea Brewery (at West Side Highway’s Pier 23) as the only NYC brewpubs. (Heartland Brewery’s five fine restaurants strictly count as ‘beer pubs’ since brewing is done off-premises in Brooklyn.)
“We’re going to try to open a real full-scale brewery sometime,” Anderson explains as I dip into 508 Cream Ale, a sessionable saison-like hybrid contrasting a peculiarly engaging lemon-seeded orange rot tartness against honey-sugared caramel malts. “We’re not upscale. We just look good. There’s no white tablecloths.”
The San Paulo-bred gourmandizer graduated from Parsons School of Design after coming to New York in ’95. He worked for an ad agency, but became unhappy with corporate life. When he met Jennifer, the soon-to-be-married couple decided to open a restaurant in the Caribbean. Their affluent Virgin Gorda eatery was a success, but very soon into their one-year journey they yearned for the island of Manhattan.
In ’08, while chatting with friends at the restaurant, the subject of brewing came up. Jennifer heard Anderson say how much he’d love to become a brewer, so that very next month, she brought him a brew kit for Christmas.
“I remember making an Amber Ale,” Anderson recalls while I delve inside Citra Common, a crisply well-balanced ale with lightly spiced lemony orange bitterness usurping creamy crystal malts to its crackling citric-hopped finish.
He continues, “When I was younger, I drank German hefeweizens by Franziskaner and Ayinger. But my introduction to America’s craft beer movement came in ’97 when I discovered the (now-defunct) Tap Room Brewpub. It was expensive during college so I’d only go once a month. But it didn’t get the reputation it deserved.”
Though Anderson’s clearly an experienced brewer, he plans to attend Chicago’s famed Seibel Institute for a few concise courses that’ll broaden his scope.
“Education never ends,” he contends as I toss down Neves Winter Ale, a honey-spiced medium body with ancillary lemon custard, fennel and lavender notes. “I want a better understanding of nerdy stuff. I’ll spend a few weeks there and come back with an expanded level of knowledge.”
For the true beer-food connoisseur, 508 Gastro does pairings Sunday and Monday for two hours (5:30 PM until 7:30 PM) at $39. It includes three dishes and bottomless beer – so drink as much as you can.
As for the elegantly curtained interior design, a 12-seat right side bar with hanging pendant lights opposes six left dining booths. To the rear is a chef’s table snuggled next to two more 4-seat tables. Going through the busy sky-lighted kitchen down narrow stairs to the basement, there’s a private 12-seat dining room posing as a catacomb-like wine cellar. The small brew kettle setup (seven 55-gallon fermenters) recently hosted several beers not yet available at the upstairs taps or bottles.
“There’s a sour ale and gueuze readying alongside a Saison, Belgian Strong Ale, Smoked Rye IPA and Golden Strong Ale. We have to utilize space well. I also have a storage space two blocks away for bottles,” he assures me as I try the approachable tropical-fruited India Pale Ale, where sugary pineapple, mango, tangerine and melon counter midlevel piney grapefruit-peeled bittering.
Anderson admits, “Sometimes I run out of certain beer. But I never have an empty fermenter. People have really been coming for the beer. They also give feedback and know more about beer these days. There was a Northern California hop farmer in last week who gave me ten pounds of fresh hops.”
Arguably the best selling flagship beer of the week is the soft-toned Brazil Nut Brown, a moderately embittered invigoration placing peanut-shelled Brazil nut, toasted walnut and pine nut against caramelized hazelnut sweetness. And the response is likewise positive for mild Seltzer-fizzed Hefeweizen, where tranquil orange peel zest lingers above the expectant banana-clove conflux and creamy wheat-buttered malting.
MGMT’s hooky Farfisa anthem “Kids” plays in the background as I taste the marvelous Octopus with Garbanzos, a grilled seafood dish utilizing olive-oiled garbanzo beans, dried apricots, smoked paprika and pancetta. Next, the white-wined Steamed Mussels retained tender freshness.
My wife shared the pita-breaded Greek Mezze Platter, a nifty appetizer culling roasted garlic, hummus, babaganoush, olives and yogurt-like tzatziki. For dinner, she ordered the simply irresistible asiago-cheesed, balsamic-vinegared Artichoke Flatbread Pizza. My son, Christopher, enjoyed the Lobster Rock Shrimp, which gathered oyster mushrooms, pappardelle and tomato cream lobster sauce. Several homemade pastas went untried but looked fabulous, such as Truffled Mushrooms, Goat Ragu and Three Cheese & Chard Ravioli.
“The food recipes are my wife’s. She has complete freedom with her food and I have complete freedom with my beers,” Anderson points out as I dig into the fine cuisine.
At this point, he breaks out a bottled version of the truly amazing and rather unconventional Montezuma Imperial Stout, the perfect mocha-related dessert treat. Its robustly bitter coffee prominence and hop-charred black peppering (two stylistically offbeat leading flavors) overlay Mexican chocolate sweetness, creamy vanilla hazelnut swirls and espresso-milked cappuccino reminders.
The future’s bright for 508 Gastro as they’ve found the right combination of memorable edibles and impressive libations.
Anderson concludes, “I went on Beer Sessions Radio with Jimmy Carbone (owner of below-ground East Village joint, Jimmy’s No. 43) to talk about beer with Kelso Brewery’s Kelly Taylor (who concurrently crafts Heartland’s ever-increasing lineup). It’s pretty cool how Kelly handled the business end. With each Heartland location, they proved you could make craft beer in the city and still make money.”
Busily aggressive draught version of Blue Hill’s India Pale Ale may be too rangy for its own good. Unexpected herbal whim (ginger-chamomile-mentholyptus) slips into honey-spiced fruiting contrasting lemon-soured grapefruit bittering. Dry pine and sweet spruce peak through leafy hop resin as lemon-sugared peach-pineapple-tangerine-nectarine tang and ancillary apple-spiced pumpkin pie regalia reach fruition.
On tap at Shepherd & Knucklehead, mild helles lager-like barleywine ups the spice-hopped sugaring and honey roasted caramel malting, leaving behind any true ‘winey’ conviction. Butterscotch-candied praline, almondine, and chestnut illusions enrapture zesty citric snip. But it’s too toned down for exalted style.
Crossover for English India Pale Ale fans readied for hickory-smoked earthen peat dewiness and grassy-hopped vegetal snip crowding the usual Americanized piney grapefruit rind bittering. Sugar-caned crystal malting, honeyed cereal graining and toasted oats base contrast lemon-pitted dry spicing. A toned-down East Coast IPA best served to compromised Saranac fans.
Sweet and sour blueberry lacquering affects candi-sugared Belgian-like yeast influence to white wheat backdrop. Minty herbal freshness sneaks inside blueberry pancake-like dessert option.
THE SHEPHERD & THE KNUCKLEHEAD EMPOWERS HALEDON
I first met entrepreneurial beer baron, Chris Schiavo, when he was the liquor supervisor at North Haledon’s still-thriving Grand Opening Liquors in the mid’90s. At the time, I was a green craft beer enthusiast amazed by the thousands of national and international beers lining the shelves at this small mall spot, purchasing hundreds of diverse libations over the course of several stimulating sojourns.
Little did I know that Schiavo, along with Andy’s Corner Bar owner George Gray and now-deceased Beer International founder Rich Stolarz, formed the early foundation for New Jersey’s craft beer movement. The burgeoning triumvirate truly changed the direction of the state’s once-stale beer scene, creating a new-sprung market for independent brewers looking to increase visibility and gain a stronger foothold. Stolarz played the role of knowledgeable godfather, mentoring Schiavo and Gray like a genuine titan.
Just a stone’s throw away from midtown Haledon and down the hill from William Paterson College, THE SHEPHERD & THE KNUCKLEHEAD PUB has prospered since Schiavo opened its doors on July 3rd, 1998, at 6 PM. A diminutive neighborhood bar readied for expansion, its rangy customer base includes young beer geeks, established businessmen, local politicians and curious couples – all congregating here on my initial late-afternoon February visitation.
Taking its chuckled moniker from the first novel Schiavo got published in 2001, The Shepherd & The Knucklehead may, by delineation, be a pun on the duality of man. But in actuality, it’s one of the most pleasingly inconspicuous residential hideaways imaginable. A designated landmark by sundry beer connoisseurs, the hot l’il joint regularly attracts some of the finest Jazz artists as well. On Sunday evenings, it’s not unusual to see old and new William Paterson-related musicians get together and jam in a small club-like setting here.
The Shepherd’s casual interior, adorned by solid oak furnishings, bronze neo-Classical ceiling tiles and exposed pipes, couldn’t be cozier. The snug right side bar features over two dozen tap handles (collected inside a black stovepipe) and a fine assortment of spirits, plus a TV, jukebox, dartboard and River Horse insignia back-siding the front-windowed Founders Brewery neon sign.
On this busy Tuesday schmooze, dedicated bartender Talya Cacchione, who has been aboard since ’09 (and splits time in local indie rockers, Caged Animals) serves the devoted crowd splendid suds while chowing down rice-noodled Mie Fun. The chestnut-haired lass got into Allagash White Ale and Bitburger Pils as a teen, expanding her palate thereafter.
“What really got me hooked on craft beer was Young’s Double Chocolate Stout,” Cacchione says as she pours my cinnamon-toasted apple pie-like Shipyard Applehead. “Our taps are always changing, so finding the right beer for mainstream drinkers isn’t very difficult. I try to find out what they like and match that to an accessible choice. This is a special type of bar with a different kind of atmosphere. The late night crowd is full of off-hours musicians and artists.”
As night falls, the best selling beer so far is Colorado-based Tommyknocker Cocoa Porter. Two wonderful Lost Abbey brews from California, dark chocolate-roasted Serpent Imperial Stout and citric-herbed Devotion Belgian Pale Ale, score high with three young dudes. Yet besides being a beer centric bar, The Shepherd also boasts a terrific wine and bourbon selection. Schiavo, an experienced wine sommelier who built up Grand Opening’s vino sales from scratch before turning his attention to beer in the ‘90s, was the brainchild for Build Your Own 6-pack (along with beer pal, Mike Berini, “a flaming comet from out West”).
‘Mike turned me on to beatnik poet, Jack Kerouac, and that affected the microbrew scene,” Schiavo maintains. “Ale Street News went to print and asked us to be on an amateur home brew tasting panel. When (The Shepherd) opened, there was an ongoing concern for people in the community as well as those looking at us as a destination spot. We couldn’t be more grateful for their support.”
I dip into richly viscous mocha-bound Leinenkugel Big Eddy Imperial Stout (a creamy molasses-sapped, dried-fruited, bourbon-wined, cedar-burnt full body) while Schiavo explains The Shepherd’s impending expansion.
“We’ll have 60 new tap lines, a kitchen and 44-seat dining area,” the Mount St. Mary College grad proudly exhorts. “I’m hiring two full-time Culinary Institute of America cooks in March. We’ll serve steak, fish, kebab, bratwurst and sauerbraten. There’ll be 30 different bottled Belgian beers to complement the food with champagne-like herbal medicine qualities that suit these interesting digestifs.”
In typical rebellious Kerouac fashion, he concludes, “I plan to have a filibuster night for religious and political debates as well. We’ll talk about hot topic issues like an academic center.”
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My wife and I hit Shepherd & Knucklehead one night in June 2012 to try the newfangled cuisine with a few tapped beers. Richly sauced Riggatoni (with tender pork and fresh ricotta) and robust lamb wraps went well with tart cherry-enriched cream ale Erie Derailed Black Cherry. While vinous dry-wined sour ale Bockor Cuvee De Jacobins goes best on its own, multi-dimensional JW Lees Harvest Barleywine aged in Apple Brandy Barrels proved to be a fine dessert treat.
After multiple 2013 visitations, decided to spend a few consecutive nights soaking up many seasonal pumpkin ales during early September, imbibing Anderson Valley, Blue Point, Erie, Ithaca, Lake Placid, Long Trail and Smuttynose offerings alongside another fine autumnal libation, Anchor Big Leaf Maple Autumn Red. On Tuesday, wife and I enjoyed The Sheps Paella (with saffron rice, mussels, shrimp, crab and chorizo), garlic-slathered Beer Mussels, spicy buffalo wings and nachos while imbibing tempting suds.
On tap at Shepherd & Knucklehead, resinous hop-embittered ‘double’ IPA hybrid stays mild despite exalted ‘big beer’ tag. Moderated grapefruit-peeled orange rind bittering contrasts tangy nectar-mango-pineapple tropicalia and sweet-honeyed caramel malting. Minor herbal tease sneaks in.
