Let’s face facts. I scream, you scream—well, we all scream for better beer.
Okay, it doesn’t exactly rhyme, but one cannot have his ragged doggerel and drink it, too.
In my personal lexicon, an establishment that specializes in serving better beer, usually (although not always) in the absence of its own brewery, is a “better beer bar.”
Some, including Jim Vorel at Paste, simply call it a “beer bar.” To me, inserting the word “better” as a modifier rather than Vorel’s chosen “craft” strikes more closely to the heart of the matter, but otherwise his comprehensive definition more than suffices.
A “beer bar,” for the purposes of this article, is one where craft beer is the primary focus of the drink program, especially in the form of draft beer sales. Typically, this means a notably large number of taps, perhaps an extensive bottle or cellar list, and a passionate crew of staff who act as beer evangelists, able to make suggestions and help a customer find the perfect beer for them. A beer bar may have an in-house restaurant, but the importance of the food is typically understood to be secondary to the beer—the same can be said of its cocktail or wine...Read more
