tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3076725205410370436.post5732393378911689058..comments2024-01-29T10:16:00.995+00:00Comments on CALLED TO THE BAR : Beer and food once moreAdrian Tierney-Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05421802854011395300noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3076725205410370436.post-91118697862425375172012-08-19T08:55:37.291+01:002012-08-19T08:55:37.291+01:00I can see both angles. Firstly, this all sounds lo...I can see both angles. Firstly, this all sounds lovely, but yeah..It's a shame that some pubs have to have 'themed nights' , when it could be just a matter of course that they serve beer and food. I've been to some lovely meals, but at wallet-raping prices. Overall, however, this really made me salivate. Leighhttp://www.goodfoodgoodbeer.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3076725205410370436.post-67032105390428858692012-08-16T17:56:47.506+01:002012-08-16T17:56:47.506+01:00The flip side is that we are happy to have good be...The flip side is that we are happy to have good beer where it is to be found. That's what I do. There are enough good sources of supply to meet demand. I don't need a barrel aged raspberry soaked brett infected imperial stout everywhere I go. Even in my dead end of the western world I can manage my access to good beer quite nicely. I could not say that five years ago.<br /><br />And it is at a price I can afford. 75$ dinners for tiny plates and 4 oz glasses of craft beer don't help me and, in fact, hinders as paying what is asked for those partial portions of beer is a falsehood upon the marketplace and my wallet. Making good beer swank arsed is a means to allow too many to make too much on it - meaning I am asked to spend too much of my money. I like my money more than that.<br /><br />I really think all we are seeing is describers describing that something is changing implying a major shift where the actually change is so tiny as to be unidentifiable. This is along the line in the US of all those PR releases from trade associations about how craft beer has broken the 5.75778% market share wall and now sits at 5.75779% of overall beer sales. More valuable to those proclaiming the dawning of the new era than anything else. Sadly, a new too highly priced era at that.Alanhttp://agoodbeerblog.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3076725205410370436.post-68061549119605032392012-08-16T17:22:12.897+01:002012-08-16T17:22:12.897+01:00Isn't the flip side of that "We should be...Isn't the flip side of that "We should be happy paying for crap"?<br /><br />What we're seeing with the whole beer-with-food thing is an example yesterday's nerdism going mainstream.The Beer Nuthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14105708522526153528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3076725205410370436.post-68586153211451499142012-08-16T17:12:14.368+01:002012-08-16T17:12:14.368+01:00But doens't that mean that nerdism is what it ...But doens't that mean that nerdism is what it is? Like, say, an audiophile who has to have 1976 speakers and amp to listen to 1976 lps, is it maybe the case that the enemy of the good is in fact the excellent and we have allowed ourselves to be overrun by excellence? Why must the world bow to the particular form of nerdism that we love? Alanhttp://agoodbeerblog.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3076725205410370436.post-67735011003530134892012-08-16T17:05:46.285+01:002012-08-16T17:05:46.285+01:00Guess I'll have to agree to disagree on this. ...Guess I'll have to agree to disagree on this. I know a great many people -- mostly but not exclusively a generation or so older than me -- for whom quality food and wine are very important but have no appreciation of beer beyond the hot-day refresher. These are the people for which the restaurants I'm talking about cater; indeed I imagine they're the owners and managers.<br /><br />And it's not just beer. My acquaintances in coffee geekdom tell me their situation is the same, if not worse. The vast majority of quality eateries appear to think that a big shiny Italian coffee machine is all that is required for a quality coffee offer. Not so, I'm told.The Beer Nuthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14105708522526153528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3076725205410370436.post-52821912969092569162012-08-16T16:36:00.852+01:002012-08-16T16:36:00.852+01:00Shitty beer lists do not have anything to do with ...Shitty beer lists do not have anything to do with the concept that food and beer are age old partners. That just means you are dealing with a crap restaurants. Wine lists are generally crappy (and over priced) too. Maybe what is really being identified as those who hold themselves out as knowledgeable restaurant owners worth following don't know as much as they are taken as knowing. So, if the beer list is bad maybe the cheese tray is, too... or the ketchup sucks... or the salad's unimaginative. The placing of beer v. all of food makes less sense than beer as one part of all food. Me? Me, I rarely go out to eat for the superior food experience. But I come from a family that had chefs in it so am quite handy in the kitchen. I go out as much for the joy of good service. <br /><br />At no time in my life have I lacked access to a happily acceptable beer and food experience either in the pub or in the home. Do I have access to saison in every joint? No. But I don't care and find advocacy for this somewhat precious and needy because it fails to acknowledge how any substantive disconnect between beer and food pre-dated current beer nerdism and was concurrent with prior (and likely more sanely reduced) states of obsession with food generally. Alanhttp://agoodbeerblog.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3076725205410370436.post-10676823724709982612012-08-16T16:23:50.051+01:002012-08-16T16:23:50.051+01:00In the UK sometimes they have shitty beer lists be...In the UK sometimes they have shitty beer lists because shortsighted licensees/restauranteurs compare how much they get for selling wine and how much for beer so they go for the easy option especially if their wholesaler can sell them one-dimensional beer alongside readymade gravy and frozen coq au vinAdrian Tierney-Joneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05421802854011395300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3076725205410370436.post-62101472650383643042012-08-16T16:08:06.762+01:002012-08-16T16:08:06.762+01:00or to put it another way, maybe there has been to...or to put it another way, maybe there has been too much defensiveness around food and beer, either Uriah Heep like in timid assertions of beer and food’s eligibility or Barnum T Bailey’s bellowing through a microphone about beer’s right to be at the table. Time to move on up, it’s here and it’s beer.Adrian Tierney-Joneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05421802854011395300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3076725205410370436.post-22768826859479473912012-08-16T16:03:24.762+01:002012-08-16T16:03:24.762+01:00admit that no one really had a quarrel with beer w...<i>admit that no one really had a quarrel with beer with a meal at any time</i><br />I wish I could. But most restaurants I go to still have shitty beer lists compared to the wine offer.The Beer Nuthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14105708522526153528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3076725205410370436.post-39541045686546535602012-08-16T15:59:38.206+01:002012-08-16T15:59:38.206+01:00"...it’s generally accepted that food and bee..."...it’s generally accepted that food and beer works..." <br /><br />Yes! Like a law that is brought in but actually addresses no mischief, so to the cause of beer and food had no opposition or even no lack of history. As a movement mainly formed to advance the movers more than that which they sought moved, it is really more time to let it go and admit that no one really had a quarrel with beer with a meal at any time, you know, the history of the western world. Causing inflationary pressure on the price of beer by attaching it unnecessarily to swanky arsed food? Now that is another matter.Alanhttp://agoodbeerblog.comnoreply@blogger.com