TAG | Anchor Steam
Pop into this bar in San Francisco, and you’re in for a treat.
The place started in 1948, and has a peculiarly French feel to it. With awful portraits on the wall (one claims it’s Patrick Swayze, but the only way of telling is to read the sign saying who it is below), it’s certainly a sight to see.
As I walked in, the sight that greeted me from the upstairs balcony were two feet. Whoever it was up there (who, listening to the bar-tenders chatting to themselves, had imbibed a fair amount of Absinthe), had decided to relax a little.
The amusing signs are all over the bar. Some parts are dedicated to people who used to drink there – the John Wilkes Memorial Booth is above the bar to the right; a large portrait of the original owner – Henri Lenior, a stern-looking french man, in a beret. The signs are classy and amusing – even, somehow, the one typeset in MS Comic Sans. No, really.
The gas-lamp chandelier above the bar, and the art-deco mirror, will give you plenty to look at when you choose your beer; however, the range on tap isn’t quite as exciting as the decor, sadly. Here’s what was on tap when I visited the other day…
Anchor Steam (San Francisco, California, USA)
Widmer Hefeweizen (Portland, Oregon, USA)
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (Chico, California, USA)
Pilsner Urquell (Pilsen, Czech Republic)
Budweiser (St Louis, Missouri, USA)
Stella Artois (Leuven, Belgium)
Amstel Light (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Bass (Burton, UK)
Guinness (Dublin, Ireland)
“Come to my birthday party,” said a friend, “we’re going somewhere in Bristol which does really really nice cocktails.”
My heart sank. Anywhere that does really really nice cocktails, invariably (in my experience) thinks that a choice of beer is a choice between a Becks and a Tiger. Boring, boring, beer.
So imagine my delight when reaching The Rummer Hotel in Bristol, I flicked to the back of the cocktail menu to discover… the beer menu (that’s a Word doc).
And what a beer menu indeed. I sampled an Anchor Steam Beer; an odd lager called Curious Brew Brut (made with champagne yeast); and a delicious slow-drinking Station Porter made in Gloucester – I could also have chosen proper decent German smoke-beer, Cooper’s Green, or even Nigerian Guinness (which isn’t brewed with barley, but uses sourgum and maize instead).
What a joy to discover a place that understands that a huge choice of whisky might be interesting to a whisky drinker; a huge choice of cocktails might be interesting to a cocktail drinker; and a huge choice of beers might be interesting to a beer drinker. Top marks go to The Rummer Hotel. I shall return. Probably. At some point.
