Masters of Brewtality straighten their bow ties for a visit to the 1899 Bar and Grill

Welcome back to the crypt, boils and ghouls! This month, we’re resurrecting our equally sporadic and beloved special feature, “No I Don’t Come Here Often,” with a visit to the totally haunted, north side of campus for a feast at the criminally underrated 1899 Bar and Grill.

How haunted, you ask? Probably about as much as any of the other buildings on that ancient part of campus, but we’d put money down that if you hung out long enough, you’d see something. The staff here at MOB will always remember our single semester in Taylor Hall where stereo settings would move by unseen hands and windows and doors would open close on their own accord. Not much, but still something!

We heard rumblings about the potency of the cocktails here when 1899 first opened some years ago and, when we checked it out, we weren’t disappointed. The margarita we sampled was easily one of the strongest you could put together while still being able to call it a margarita. We pride ourselves on being pretty good at drinking, and one of those took us to the moon. The food was great, too, and there’ll be an update on that later.

Flash forward to last month when we took the whole Masters of Brewtality crew out of their subterranean lair for a hopeful repeat. Things hadn’t changed much at all, which in these times of constant and almost never positive renovations, was honestly reassuring. A little consistency gives one just a whisper of stability, and we could all use a bit of that these days. Most impressive is the massive fireplace that looks like something out of a steampunk-take on a Tim Burton film. The color scheme is muted enough to maintain an aura of class that you’d never expect on a college campus and the lighting is dim enough to create a noir ambiance that we night-dwellers love. Shockingly clean bathrooms, too, which should be a mark of deep, deep shame for several local establishments that will not be named.

We hit 1899 right around opening on a Tuesday and were pleasantly surprised to see it reasonably busy but not slammed. The old folks seemed to recluse themselves in the corner bar while the fresh-faced future of the world laughed in large groups in the main dining room. We went for a light lunch of Cesar salad and red pepper Gouda soup and, being connoisseurs of both dishes, we were impressed. The soup was rich and creamy and topped with a drizzle of basil oil that complimented the light acidity of the tomatoes and peppers immaculately, and the Cesar was as classic an expression of that dish as we’ve found in town. Simple, straight-to-the-point and well-executed. The menu is split into lunch and dinner sections, and, thankfully, most plates are under the $20 mark which is refreshing as prices have gone up everywhere else. They do offer more expensive, highend fare like Atlantic salmon and Ribeye, but the emphasis was placed mostly right up the middle. Our fast friend bartender Ryan Kinens recommended the lamb burger for lunch, and we’re going to be all over that like maggots on roadkill next time we’re in.

Onto the drinks! The selection of fine, craft beer and cocktails is as thorough as any other bar in town. Local brews on tap include the ever-present Mother Road Tower Station, several taps from Cottonwood’s favorite That Brewery, Grand

Canyon and Historic. Odell, Breckinridge, Firestone Walker, State 48 and Blue Moon also made the cut, and the bottle selection had every macro-brewery standard you could want before hitting the big game or whatever the normal people who drink that sort of stuff do. The first measure of any tap is cleanliness. Again, there’s a few local establishments that shall not be named that could take a pointer from 1899 here, everything was clean with no funky off-flavors from dirty lines. The pours were done with an elegant grace that Ryan, with just a year under his belt there, pulled off perfectly. Each pint had just enough head, they were poured at the proper angle so as to not flatten the beer, and served immediately, ice cold.

Remembering the glory of the years-ago margarita, we wanted to kick the afternoon into high gear, so we thought we’d have a round. Wisely, this was not the degenerate display of hedonism we had last time, but it was executed like a proper margarita should be: just enough mixer to frame the flavor of the tequila and just enough bite to make you feel like you’re actually having a drink with alcohol in it. There’s nothing we hate more down here in the MOB crypt than drinking without feeling like we’re drinking. “I just follow the recipes,” Ryan said. There’s hope for the kids after all!

All in all, we’d give 1899 an 1899 on a scale of 10 and will be back anytime we pop out of the secret tunnels that run under the campus. This is one of Flagstaff’s best kept secrets, and we’re always ready to ruin that. Until next month, cheers!