Bluegrass Kitchen offers up a tasty beer selection
On a recent Friday evening, I made a long overdue first visit to the Bluegrass Kitchen on the corner of Washington and Elizabeth streets in Charleston’s East End. My mission was to eyeball the beer selection and, of course, share a few beers over dinner with my wife and friends. The first thing I noticed (besides running into a favorite bartender, Herb), was the absence of draft taps, so draft beer is not available. I can get over that, provided they have a good bottle selection.
The BGK did not let me down in this regard. I counted 20 or so specialty and/or craft beers just from what I could see in the back-bar cooler. That’s a pretty good selection by Charleston standards. I was in the mood for something bitter and refreshing, so I ordered a Great Lakes Burning River Pale Ale, which is a fantastic example of the American pale ale style. The wait staff did not appear to automatically bring a glass with your beer. I asked for one just to be sure. They were really busy, so I did not have much of a chance to observe or test the wait staff’s beer acumen. Not that I would put anyone on the hot seat, but if you just ask a few open-ended questions you can tell soon enough.
The Bluegrass Kitchen’s beer cooler also contained the usual selection of domestic and imported swill like Corona, along with three or four beers from Great Lakes and three from Samuel Smith’s, a smallish independent brewery from the Yorkshire area in the UK. I tried Samuel Smith’s Organic Tadcaster, which tastes like a typical toasty English ale, but came across with an American hop flavor (though I am not 100 percent on the variety of hop used). The beer is brewed with the traditional English, hard water profile in which the mineral hardness accentuates, but rounds out the bitterness; a very nice beer. I have come across a few organic beers in the last few years. Beer is already a very natural product with no chemical additives, but the organic label assures that the grains and hops were grown organically; it does nothing for the taste of the beer.
The Bluegrass Kitchen features an interesting menu selection with many items that would naturally pair well with beer. The blackened shrimp cocktail and the Burning River Pale Ale were a very good match; more so with the un-sauced shrimp. How about a W.Va.- style hot bologna sandwich on a sourdough bun, paired with a Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold? I only wish restaurants like this would take a few moments to put together beer/food pairing suggestions. Doing so would not only enrich the dining experience of their patrons, it would help beer sales!
IF YOU GO: The Bluegrass Kitchen, 1600 Washington St. E. 304/346-2871. Mon-Thur 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri-Sat 10:30 a.m -11 p.m. Closed Sunday.
Suds: decent beer selection for WV, interesting styles of beer offered, non-frosted glassware.
Duds: no draft selection, generic pint tumbler glassware only.
March 21st, 2007 at 12:42 pm
[…] Better organic beers would be Samuel Smith’s Organic Tadcaster ale (which I discussed in my recent review of the Bluegrass Kitchen). Then there a few really nice products from a German brewery called Pinkus. Pinkus Munster Alt is a wonderful amber altbier (meaning brewed in the old style). There is a slight caramel sweetness that finishes slightly sour. It is not really deserving of the altbier label. Pinkus Ur-Pils is also a well made beer, but is not as bitter as I would like my German style pilsner to be. Pinkus Organic Hefeweizen is a really nice beer and a good hefeweizen to boot, really great for washing down steroidally grown chicken or banquet brand Salisbury steak (just kidding). I have seen all of the Pinkus products at the Wine Shop in the Capitol Market. I am sure we are going to be seeing more and more organically produced beers in the not too distant future, my only concern is will be able buy them here in West Virginia? […]