Owning Up to ‘The Drop’
It’s inevitable at every beer festival with hardwood or concrete floors. A few hours pass, a glass drops and a crashing sound freezes all in attendance. What follows is a chorus of shouts, jeers and laughter culminating in a roar rippling across the festival hall. While oversampling is often to blame and not to be applauded, there are appropriate excuses (simultaneously high-fiving your buddy and checking in your first taste of 3 Floyds Dark Lord to Untappd comes to mind). To those who own up to the drop, shake off the laughter and carefully clean up the shattered remains, we raise a glass in your honor. With a firm grip, of course. –Jon Page
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There’s a bar outside of Albany, the Man of Kent. The last time I was there, they had one television, a fairly small one, that I was told was just for major news and sports events. It’s up in the corner of the room. And behind sits the ashes of a former regular — I think his name was Horst? — who hated the television, but loved the Man of Kent, and asked to be “buried” there. They put him in the one place in the room where he wouldn’t have to look at the screen. I like that.
What a great story- stories like this sum up the real community of what a bar creates and breathes life into
Nice one, Lew. I recently saw an article about Anthony Bourdain where he basically bashes a lot of the craft beer environment; he spoke about walking into a craft beer bar and witnessing several people carefully drinking flights and making an “experience” out of it. His words: “”This is not a bar. This is f—ing Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This is wrong. This is not what a bar is about.”
I think the old idea of a “bar” is already well-known: a place where you watch the game as you work on quietly getting drunk, stewing in your thoughts.
While Bourdain may have a point, I would posit many craft beer bars are not these types of “bars.” You don’t go to see how many shots you can handle before browning out as you watch sports, you go to drink exquisite beer and connect with your friends around you.
I do appreciate that the craft beer bars and brewpubs are locally owned and so far I haven’t seen a lot of turnover in staff here in Dayton, O. It kind of makes your day to walk in and they know your name. Also as a local tour guide the owners are always willing to throw a t-shirt or two my way to give to one of my guests.
It’s a fickle thing that you can’t cater to all types. It really reflects on the establishment whether TV’s and disturbances are allowed. Several taprooms in Tulsa offer TV’s mainly for sports but American Solera is very minimalist with a community table and picnic benches outside in essence to bring community together. But knowing the brewers, it’s just their personality and experience they want to give their customers.