Charleston City Paper: Swig Bar Guide, Spring 2022 by CharlestonCityPaper

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Raise a glass for another year of Swig, City Paper’s bar guide. Beat the heat and rinse away Charleston’s summer humidity with a frozen cocktail and some light poolside reading. Learn the secrets of crafting a cocktail menu for some of Charleston’s newest and hottest spots or find out what it takes to lure in label shoppers from a few of Charleston’s breweries and graphic designers. And if your tongue is feeling a bit adventurous this summer, be on the lookout for savory drinks. Go ahead and treat yourself. Just don’t forget your ID. —Michael Pham

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CRAFTING COCKTAILS Two bartending consultants give some insight into creating a cocktail menu for Charleston establishments

SAVORY, NOT SWEET

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These bars are serving unique frozen drinks in Charleston

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The Caprese Martini at MOMO at Riverfront Park. Photo by Rūta Smith.

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WHAT’S ON THAT CAN?

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Some mixologists are skipping the sugar for the salt, artichoke and tamarind — in wildly creative cocktails

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Crafting Cocktails Two bartending consultants give some insight into creating a cocktail menu for Charleston establishments

By Michael Pham

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rafting a cocktail, especially a cocktail menu, is no easy feat. Like crafting a hearty meal, mixologists spend a lot of time experimenting with different flavor combinations to create a wellbalanced drink. Hours, or even days, are spent behind the concoction in that glass in front of you.

For Brianna Berry, recently featured in City Paper’s May 25 issue for her coffee consulting business, Talk Coffee to Me, the second half of Berry’s business has been working with some of Charleston’s newest spots like Bodega and Pink Bellies (voted Best New Restaurant in City Paper’s 2022 Best Of awards) to create cocktails curated to pair with the establishments’ eclectic menus and vibes. “For me, it’s two parts, at least,” Berry said. “One, having a discussion with the owner and seeing where

their passions lie, what their background is or history. What kind of experience they want the customer to have; is it adventurous, is it comforting? What is the goal? And working towards that.” Gauging the vision and goal of the new establishment pushes Berry in the right direction to follow the path of the owner or restaurateur. Once those questions have been answered, it’s time for her to hit the books (or Google). “But then on the back side, [I do] a lot of research,” Berry added. “For instance with Pink Bellies, I was

Brianna Berry studying hundreds of years (above left) of cuisine and flavors and and Roderick spices. For Bodega, it was Groetzinger researching Cuban and (above right) Miami and Spanish influshare secrets ences and seeing how we to building a can play with flavors.” cocktail menu She didn’t stop at just the flavors of each culture. Berry pushed the boundaries and researched the cultures of the respective restaurants: “I like to build on top of that and go outside of the box. Look at not only food, but cultural or social influence and try to draw inspiration from that.” One of the cocktails Berry developed for Pink Bellies, the Pho Cocktail, takes that same approach Continued on page 8

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of combining flavor with culture. Pho, a Vietnamese noodle soup that has gained popularity across the U.S., uses spices like cinnamon and star anise in the broth, and is popularly topped with lime juice and sriracha. For the cocktail, Berry took these flavors and crafted a syrup infused with traditional pho spices and combined it with gin, lime juice, sriracha and fish sauce to replicate the flavors of the hearty noodle dish into an ice-cold glass. “A lot of this goes into experimentation of making syrups at home and going like, ‘What flavors work with what?’” she said. For Bodega, Berry took a similar, but slightly different approach for the brunch spot, combining tropical flavors with easy-to-crush ingredients and approachable liquors and liqueurs. “The idea was having batchable complex, ready-to-go ingredients as bases or pizazz for many cocktails,” she said. “Be it a house-infused spirit or, for example, the homemade allspice and pepper pineapple shrub featured in the Pine N’ Ginga. “As much of a bop as the song it’s named after (Amindi’s “Pine and Ginger”), this cocktail uses the complex acid of the shrub to balance the sweet of the ginger liqueur. We added some texture and kick with the extra spicy ginger beer and used the light and floral Striped Pig Gin as the foundation for this refresher that you could easily crush a few of.” Roderick Groetzinger, owner of recently opened Equal Parts Bottle Shop on Johns Island, worked with his neighbor Weezy’s Ice Cream and Cocktails to create a colorful array of cocktails fit for the “’70s, clubby vibe.” Groetzinger takes the same approach as Berry when consulting clients on a cocktail menu: “The first part is to talk to them and find out their vision for the place,” he said. “Like ‘What is Weezy’s? What is bar X, Y and Z or your restaurant?’ — to kind of get a sense of what they want the feel of their drinks to be because to me, it’s very similar to the food. “You want your menu to speak about who you are and what your concept is, what your identity is, and I think you don’t necessarily have to mirror that perfectly or pair it perfectly with food per se, but I think it’s important that a cocktail menu can kind of have its identity.” Groetzinger also looks at the more technical aspects when curating a menu: like an establishment’s size, potential volume, bar setup, water use, equipment and most importantly, ice. “A lot of other people never realize how important the ice is,” he said. “And there’s so many different ways to get to that. You know, like, is there a crushed ice machine or are we cracking it, crushing it in a bag

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Sit and sip the Pine N’ Ginga on Bodega’s outdoor patio with a mallet — all that kind of stuff. I think it’s good to get that in the beginning.” But what happens after the menu is done and the restaurant opens? For Groetzinger, it’s an opportunity for the establishment’s bartenders to stretch their own creative muscles, because it’s more than crafting just the menu, but training a bar or restaurant’s staff to make that menu. “I think it’s important to engage with the staff, because you want them to feel like they’re a part of it,” he said. “You don’t want them to feel like some person handed them this thing and this is what they have to do now. You want them to be excited about it. “It’s going to be their place and their project and then eventually, you know, it becomes theirs,” he added. “Essentially, you hope that your drinks won’t phase out, but they’re going to, because in a perfect world, you want them to succeed and grow. You want somebody to take the reins who’s gonna make it their own baby.” Berry shares the sentiment: “I love being able to go into something, give people the tools they need to succeed, and then take a step back and let it grow on their own,” she said. “I think you always get the best results that way, not standing or hovering over or becoming obsessive, which is something I think I could easily do. I want to be able to let go of a project and see it flourish without getting in the way.”

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Savory, not sweet Some mixologists are skipping the sugar for the salt, artichoke and tamarind — in wildly creative cocktails By Michael Pham

ocktails come in an endless assortment of shapes, sizes and flavors, from bitter, spirit-heavy drinks like the Old Fashioned to sweet and tangy daiquiris. But savory cocktails are the hidden gems of the cocktail world. Underrated and underloved, savory cocktails are seeing a full-on renaissance in some of Charleston’s hottest bars and in the minds of their mixologists. Ricky Dunn of MOMO at Riverfront Park has crafted the Caprese Martini and Artichoke Hold. While downtown, owner James Bolt and bar manager Dylan Goff of The Gin Joint craft new savory cocktails each season. This summer, The Gin Joint offers The Prime Minister. “What is savory?” Goff said. “It’s probably one of the harder ones to define. It could be something with some spice. It could mean salts or you might get a cocktail with a few dashes of saline in it. It’s definitely interesting. It’s not always easy to nail down and specify what it’s going to be. It’s a pretty broad characterization.” “I think with, at least my culinary background, I kind of lean more toward savory drinks in general,” Bolt added.

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A PAD THAI COCKTAIL?

“Yeah, essentially,” Goff said. “Definitely kind of styled around that.” The Gin Joint’s Prime Minister, described as “Pad Thai for the People” on its menu, was Goff’s creation after Bolt’s wife suggested using tamarind in a cocktail. Goff’s first step was to look in the Flavor Bible, a book that breaks down individual ingredients and gives a sense of what might pair with what. “The first thing that kind of jumped out was tamarind and peanut,” he said. After searching for flavor combinations of tamarind and peanut, the same answer repeated: Pad Thai. To craft that cocktail, Goff started

with a peanut orgeat, a syrup traditionally made from almonds, sugar and rose water or orange flower water. “That was kind of the easy part,” he said. “I guess the more difficult part was tamarind. Tamarind is a bit harder to work with in cocktails. There’s tamarind paste and tamarind pulp and everything, but oftentimes trying to convert them into like a liquid, whether it’s a syrup or whatever, it can end up with kind of a grittiness to it.” To jump over that hurdle, Goff searched other markets for tamarind, and found that Jarritos makes a tamarind soda that’s hugely popular in Mexico, and now uses it as the topping agent for The Prime Minister. Finding the use for his two core ingredients, Goff moved on and researched more Pad Thai elements, including lemongrass and a “spice component, where the savory part comes in.” Goff used an old Gin Joint falernum recipe, made with lime zest, almond and hard spices like cloves, allspice and ginger. “Even though that particular ingredient wasn’t necessarily native to Southeast Asia, all of those ingredients played well off of those and it added a bit of spice to it,” Goff added. Finally, the drink is topped with a bitter ice cube, offering flavor notes of allspice, ginger and black pepper to “keep it from being one note and not just peanut or falernum.”

CAPRESE AND ARTICHOKE IN A GLASS

On the other side of town in Riverfront Park, Dunn offers the Caprese Martini and Artichoke Hold as part of MOMO’s special upstairs cocktail menu. “I bartend like I cook,” Dunn said. Continued on page 12

The Prime Minister (above) at The Gin Joint is the Pad Thai-flavored creation of bar manager Dylan Goff (below)

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SAVORY continued from page 10

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“Cooking is bartending and bartending is cooking to me. Instead of doing things like you know, umami, salt, acid, fat and heat, you’re looking for sweet, sour, bitter and ways to touch your palate. “So, concept cocktailing for me is, I go and I have an amazing banh mi sandwich at Xiao Bao Biscuit and build a cocktail around those flavors … and it has all the notes of that sandwich.” Dunn’s “Banh Mi Beauty,” was thus made with peanut, bourbon, carrot juice, lime juice, ginger, cinnamon syrup, pickled peppers, togarashi and cilantro. And like the Banh Mi Beauty, Dunn did the same when crafting The Caprese Martini and Artichoke Hold. “I started [The Caprese Martini] initially with tomato water and maybe a cheese garnish on top,” Dunn said. “But I wanted a crazy salad in a glass instead.” So Dunn went down the rabbit hole, creating a white tomato balsamic, basil, black pepper shrub and burrata-washed vodka. “You’re getting all the notes of a caprese salad, but when you drink that cocktail it doesn’t taste like the salad, it just reminds you of the flavors of the salad,” Dunn said. To top it off, The Caprese Martini uses aquafaba (the potlicker that comes from cooking chickpeas) for the viscosity and to mimic the “creaminess of the cheese” and a salt and

olive oil rim to round out the flavors. Another cocktail Dunn keeps on the menu is the Artichoke Hold. “It’s really weird,” he said. “But everyone I put this in front of tasted it and said, ‘This is good. I don’t know why it’s good.’” The Artichoke Hold started with a base of Carciofo’s artichoke Amaro, and from there, Dunn wanted to experiment and play with flavors. Inspired by the Netflix documentary Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, Dunn took a chef’s approach to balancing flavors in the drink, asking questions like: “Is this enough bitterness or sweetness?” or “Does this need some type of saline or salt or pickle brine?” For the cocktail, Dunn built up from the Amaro, adding amaretto, lemon, Luxardo liqueur and pickle juice, garnished with pickled green beans and togarashi to create a salty, brine-y balance of flavors you wouldn’t expect in a cocktail. “That, for me, is like my favorite thing about savory cocktails,” Dunn said. “It’s like, ‘Hey, I’m gonna put celery shrub into a cocktail and pair it with tequila, mezcal and apple puree’ — that’s the Soylent Green — and people drink that and they’re like, ‘Why is this okay? What are these flavors and why does this work?’ “And that’s what I love.”

The Artichoke Hold

Photos by Rūta Smith

Ricky Dunn (above) continues to experiment with all types of flavors, so be on the lookout for his next crazy drink

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These bars are serving unique frozen drinks in Charleston By Elise DeVoe

W Sing your heart out and freeze your brain at Bangkok Lounge with seven different flavors

hen the heat turns up in Charleston, few things can cool you down better than a frozen cocktail. Frosé, frozen margaritas and frosty painkillers are mainstays on many cocktail menus, but a few bars in Charleston are further mixing up these flavors so we can all keep our cool. Here’s a collection of local establishments offering icy imbibements.

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BANGKOK LOUNGE

Photos by Rūta Smith

This King Street karaoke bar lets you choose your own adventure when you need to escape the Charleston heat. They have seven frozen drink machines filled with banana, lemonade, mango, margarita, strawberry, piña colada and rosé. The ice cold bevies are not pre-mixed with alcohol, which allows guests to flex their creativity when ordering. “People have more fun with it that way,” said Bangkok Lounge general manager Matty Lane. “One of our regulars is a big Elvis fan and for him, we combined banana with Screwball whiskey and sprinkle bacon bits on top.” If you’re not feeling especially creative, Bangkok has a menu of popular combinations. In true Charleston style, there’s a banana pudding drink — a mix of frozen banana pureé, Absolut vanilla vodka and Jameson whiskey topped with a sprinkle of cinnamon. For an extra kick, add a Kahlua floater for an additional $3. A 12-ounce serving of one of these frozen delights with house liquor is $8 and you can upgrade to top shelf liquor for $2 more. All are served in souvenir glasses, so you can remember a great night of drinks and karaoke. Continued on page 18

SWIG // Spring 2022

TASTE THE SMOOTH

Courtesy of Little Palm Bar

Dip your feet in the pool, get a nice tan and stay cool with frozen cocktails at Little Palm STAY COOL continued from page 16

Our Talented Bartenders' Staff Creations Cocktail Menu Changes Monthly!

“We just wanted to have a fun tiki bar vibe, like you’re on vacation, sitting on the beach, singing karaoke and drinking frozen drinks,” Lane said.

LITTLE PALM BAR

This poolside bar is located inside the Ryder Hotel on Meeting St., serving tropical cocktails and coastal cuisine. A day by the pool would not be complete without a frozen cocktail, so Little Palm created “The Green Light,” which has become a mainstay on the menu. It’s a unique combination of sauvignon blanc, pear brandy, Midori and chareau aloe vera liqueur. “We wanted to create an option that was lower ABV,” said general manager Sam Penton. “A lot of times with frose, you have one of them, and it’s quite a lot. So we wanted something you could sit down and have a few of.” If you prefer to have a drink with a bit more kick, however, there is the option to add a floater of rum, Pastis (anise-flavored aperitif) or housemade jalapeño tequila. In addition to offering a beverage with lower alcohol content, Little Palm

wants guests to experience a memorable flavor combination. “We really wanted something that was fruity, but in a way that you’re not used to,” Penton said. “Combining those flavors of pear, honeydew, aloe vera, muskmelon, things like that as opposed to your typical strawberry or pineapple type of drink.” Due to its popularity, The Green Light has earned a permanent spot in Little Palm’s two-chambered frozen drink machine, while the other flavor rotates. “Every time we make a new frozen drink, our bartenders take their time to get the proper measurements,” Penton said. “It’s really important to get the drink at the right consistency, which takes a bit of time and chemistry, making sure that it’s balanced and has the right amount of acidity so it’s not just a sweet bomb.” Little Palm recently extended its hours and now opens at 11 a.m. every day, while closing times remains 11 p.m. Stop by for discounted classic cocktails during happy hour from 4-6 p.m., Monday through Thursday. On Mondays, there is also the option to stick around Continued on page 21

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This brewery is a newcomer to the Charleston scene, opening in October of last year. Although one would assume that patrons of a brewery would solely enjoy beer, owners Mary and Jason White wanted to have a beverage for everyone, and thus the blushy (beer slushy) was born. “Most breweries, if they have a beer slushy, it’s going to be made with all beer, not something that someone who doesn’t like beer would like, so ours are kind of sweet,” Mary said. The first blushy flavor to hit the menu was margarita, which the couple created using the same recipe they use to make margaritas at home, swapping the tequila for beer. Now, the brewery has four mainstay flavors on the menu: margarita, piña colada, lemonade and strawberry daiquiri. Each of the mixes is made in house and tested with different flavors of beer by both the owners and patrons alike to create the best combination. “The customers are the ones that have come up with these blends,” Jason added. “They are constantly saying, ‘Give me half of that beer and half of that blushy and let me see what it tastes like.” If you’re mixing a beer with a blushy,

Mary recommends mixing the Tippy Toe brew with the lemonade blushy for an extra cool and refreshing shandy. Since beer is the only source of alcohol for the blushies, they are about 5% ABV, making them a refreshing and light summer drink. The brewery’s hefeweizen brew, Tippy Toe, is used in all of the basic four flavors except for the margarita. “Since the Tippy Toe has the banana flavor and notes of clove, that one really went well with the piña colada and other flavors,” Mary added. If you can’t decide between flavors, Edisto River Brewing offers blushy flights. Be on the lookout for seasonal specials as well, like pumpkin pie in the fall or Bahama mama in the summer. Visit Thursday through Sunday on Johns Island to cool off with a blushy and complimentary popcorn. Visit edistoriverbrewing.com for hours.

Owner Mary White (left) pours four blushy flavors for you to enjoy

Photos by Rūta Smith

Espresso Martini 2 oz Tito’s Handmade Vodka 1 oz coffee liqueur 1 oz espresso 1/2 oz simple syrup Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with espresso beans.

SWIG // Spring 2022 21

WHAT’S ON THAT CAN? A look at the design of Charleston’s favorite beer cans

By Michael Pham

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f you’re like me and don’t know too much about beer, you might be a label shopper. “Oh, that label looks cool. I’ll try that,” is something I’ll say to myself walking down the beer aisle. Sometimes the art lives up to the taste, other times … not so much.

But we’re not here to talk about the taste of beer. Today we’re here to discuss the visuals that draw our eyes to the cans — the sometimes vibrant, abstract or even nostalgic labels that capture our attention against the hundreds of other cans stacked on the shelf. North Charleston’s Holy City Brewing Co., Downtown’s Munkle Brewing Co. and West Ashley’s Frothy Beard Brewing Co. each have widely different labels, catered to their respective themes and genres. Holy City sticks with an ever-changing label vibe, many of which are curated by Gumbo Designs, otherwise known as Griff. In collaboration with Holy City’s owners like Chris Brown, Griff and team shoot ideas around in a group chat when a new beer is planned. “We’ll plan out a rough idea of what we want to do for the year,” Brown said. “It always changes but we try to plan a little bit ahead … so some of it, I can plan ahead with Griff and be like, ‘All right, we know we want to do this. How far ahead of time do we need to start coming up with an

idea for what the label is gonna look like?’” A lot of the time, the label is based on the name of the beer, which stems from the type of beer, Brown added. But other times, they just roll with the punches and figure out names and labels with little to no context. For their recent hazy IPA, which is actually called Bill is the Animal, Brown and the team wanted to name their new IPA after something related to the month of May, the beer’s planned release month. As a starting point, Griff looked up Zodiac animals related to each sign and in the group chat, wrote “Bill is the animal.” “I was describing the month and I said, ‘Well, the bull is the animal that represents it (Taurus), but my autocorrect put Bill,” Griff said. “My head cellarman’s name is Bill,” Brown said. “So I was like, ‘That’s the name right there. Bill is the animal. That’s gotta be it.’ Immediately, we had a name.” “Sometimes weird stuff like that just lands,” Griff added. “And it’s on me to then

Photos by Rūta Smith

For Frothy Beard (above left) a simple image of a cute dog will catch a casual shopper’s eye, while for Holy City (above right) creative typography will do the trick just come up with something crazy, or in a very structured idea to visually follow the name that came from nowhere.” Fortunately, Griff had some room to play with, as Bill is a keyboardist in a band, composing an image of Bill as a bull playing the keyboard. “I think one time out of how many labels he’s done for us at this point, I’ve been like, ‘I don’t know about that one. Maybe not the right direction for that beer,’” Brown said. “Majority of the time, I trust Griff. I love what he does. I love his art. So I kind of let him be creative and do what he wants to do.”

Across the North Bridge in West Ashley, Frothy Beard employs the art of Chris Miller for their nautical and nerdy labels. For instance, last fall, Frothy Beard released a Jurassic Park-themed four pack, centered around the beloved franchise. “For Jurassic Park,” Miller said. “We have weekly meetings just in general for the brewery, but we knew that we wanted to do a big four pack release, so different ideas were tossed around where everyone could have had their input. It went from Continued on page 24

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CAN continued from page 22

potentially Spielberg movies in general and then got narrowed down to ‘There’s so much in Jurassic Park, let’s focus on that and have a more consistent theme.’” For a special single release beer, Miller and team sometimes just toss around ideas for something they like: “Sometimes one person might have a full idea,” Miller said. “Sometimes it’s a group effort for a theme or just bouncing ideas off whatever we’re into at the moment. “Something like the Mystery Science Theater, I’m a huge fan,” Miller added. “One of the owners and I were talking about it and another beer coming up hadn’t been named yet. So I think we kind of were just geeking out over that show and we’re like, ‘This would be cool for a label’ and it goes from there.” While Griff has complete free reign in abstract label designs, Miller has his own constraints in designing for Frothy Beard; The brewery’s mascot, Finn, is incorporated into most labels. But that doesn’t mean Miller still can’t challenge himself. “It may give some limitations, as far as if I wanted to do something more abstract,” Miller said. “But I really don’t find it limiting because then you’re able to challenge yourself, too. How can this be interesting and different from the last one that I did with our mascot?”

“There’s a lot going on, but it feels very us when you see it. So putting our bearded mascot in a different scenario, different adventure, something that’s happening to him, doesn’t really feel limiting as much as I get to challenge myself and be even more creative than going from a complete blank slate.” On the peninsula, Munkle Brewing takes its labels personally, as owner Palmer Quimby finds ways to pay homage to his childhood home, his youth and his dog Brugge. Many of Munkle’s beers, and even the brewery’s name, come from Quimby’s life and history. The name Munkle comes from his uncle Rob who became an Episcopalian monk, while beers like Silver Shoes Stout and 3rd Floor Trippel are direct references to his family history in Charleston. “That Silver Shoes Stout is named after my great uncle who was a famous dancer on the Folly Pier in the ‘50s,” he said. “And he spray painted all of his shoes silver to highlight his dance moves on the floor. “The way I work is, if I’m envisioning a name for a beer, I’ve already got an idea of what the label is going to look like,” Quimby said. The labels at Munkle are designed by Quimby’s friend Curt Clinefelter out of Brooklyn, New York. Clinefelter, Quimby said: “is very good at taking that image out of my head and conveying what I want it

to look like.” Munkle’s 3rd Floor Trippel is an homage to his grandparents home on downtown Charleston’s Bull Street, with an image of the house directly on the can. The name originally featured the actual address of the home, but Quimby reckoned it could present issues with the home’s current residents (who have become regulars at Munkle according to Quimby), so he gave the beer its current “3rd Floor” moniker. “My mother is the oldest of six kids and was the first kid to live on the third floor, and then all the kids lived there,” Quimby said. “And I lived there for a year when I moved back for college. They sold the house a few years after my grandfather passed and it’s kind of a way for me to hold on to a little piece of it.” Not surprisingly, one of Quimby’s future releases will honor his local legend grandfather, J. Douglas Donehue, former editor-in-chief of The Post and Courier, local radio personality and the first person to serve in all five branches of the military. “A lot of what I do and appreciate is an homage to him and the family.”

The back of most of Munkle’s cans maintain a design theme of a metal gate Rūta Smith

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GEMÜTLICHKEIT To Low Tide Brewing bartender Zach Kramer craft beer is all about sharing moments

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By Zach Kramer Pouring and serving beer to customers with enthusiasm comes from a passion for drinking beer and sharing beer. Whether a customer is a big beer drinker traveling the country in search of new and unique brews, a regular just looking to sit in good company or a new beer drinker who’s unsure, the goal is the same — find an enjoyable beer. There is a word in German, Gemütlichkeit, that conveys the idea of warmth, friendliness or social merriment. It’s one of those words that doesn’t necessarily translate perfectly to English, but one I find best relates to my relationship with craft beer. Imagine sitting outside under the shade of a live oak enjoying a crisp golden lager and all your best friends are there. The sun is shining and the Spotify playlist is on point. That beautiful moment is all

centered around and created by the beer. These are the moments I strive to create and hope everyone who walks in the door of Low Tide experiences. From drinking some of my first craft beer and watching a baseball game with my grandpa and dad to meeting new people at a brewery or bottle share who geek out over rare and exciting beers, it’s all about Gemütlichkeit. It’s an immediate kinship based on a shared passion. Anytime I find a new beer, I can’t wait to share it with one of my buddies who I hope will enjoy it as much as I do. Sometimes I drink a beer so delicious or special, but something feels off because my buddy isn’t right next to me partaking in beer euphoria. Breweries serve as a common meeting place to celebrate or collaborate over a pint, something unassuming and

“

It’s one of those words that doesn’t necessarily translate perfectly to English, but one I find best relates to my relationship with craft beer.” simple. When a patron walks in wearing a brewery shirt, a conversation begins over a common enjoyable experience. It gives me a place to start a conversation on

mutual ground and make recommendations based on beers they may have tried. Low Tide Owners Mike Fielding and Andy Elliott have always encouraged and supported staff education. Taking the opportunity to share and discuss beers has spurred staff to be more enthusiastic about our beer and has lead to the creation of several cicerones — beer connoisseurs equivalent to a sommelier. Creating a culture for beer along with passionate, personable and knowledgeable bartenders has led to winning Best Bar Staff two years in a row in City Paper’s Best Of Awards. Gemütlichkeit — next time you are about to partake in a captivatingly cold, foam-capped beer, stop and look around. Is this a perfect moment? Do you feel comforted by your surroundings and more relaxed? Take the opportunity to share the experience with someone.

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