Good beer + good food.......

However I did try a new beer at our restaurant that I fell in love with. It is from Belgium called Stiegle Radler grapefruit beer. It is so delicious. I am probably going to be laughed off as a girly kind of beer drinker but this stuff was really good.

I believe it is from Austria, not Belgium. Salzburg, to be exact.

How many people will or will not go to a restaurant based on their beer list?

I'm not coming back till I see that list! Or you could just tell me what you got and I'll probably be in tonight or tomorrow.

I am with Deb. I am too chicken to post the draft beer selections on this forum.

It's so easy to forget the obvious sometimes. When Coals Artizan Pizza opened, many people, myself included, anointed this “new to the area” pizza style genius. Well, I had just about convinced myself that I'd found pizza nearly as good as Coals. It hardly seemed worth driving across the river for the difference.

Last night I was enjoying some fabulous pizza at the River City Winery in New Albany. I said to my friends that this pizza was as good as Coals except for the crust. They gave me a long suffering look that said “why is that even an issue?” Getting this group to cross the river for anything except earning a paycheck requires a certain genius in itself. What did they know? They had just ordered their 5th bottle of wine.

RCW's pizza is great though! The ingredients are of the highest quality, the sauce is wonderfully complementary, and the cheeses - oh lord the cheeses are varied and altogether delightful. The crust on their pizza is a bit tough along the outside edges and it's just a bit of a chore to chew up.

Coal's toppings, sauce, and cheeses are every bit as good and Coal's pizza crust is light and delicately chewy all the way out to the edge without being crumbly. It's freakin genius is what it is. I never consider leaving any crust on the plate at Coals.

Coals only got their beer taps installed late last year. Madeline Peters had to convince her partners that it was important to include quality tap beer in the restaurant. I was there soon after with a Hotbytes off site and I've returned several times. Coal's tap line-up consists of only six beers however, it is well-thought out and provides something good for nearly everyone. Unless you want a strong sippin beer and they've got wine for that.

Madeline recently posted she was afraid to post her beer line-up for fear of earning the ire of this forum's beer bullies. I didn't believe it. After all, this was a person who moved here from the far northwest and opened a pizza restaurant in a town full of pizza restaurants. Her restaurant would implement a unique coal fired oven which would require her to create a new kind of pizza altogether. Afraid? I seriously doubted it. I just assumed Madeline wasn't interested in playing our reindeer games. Well she didn't need to. Her restaurant is one of the few places I would go to even if she only served water to go with her delicious pizza!

But I'm really glad that isn't the case. I followed-up my RCW pizza last night with an early evening Coals pizza dinner with my wife and daughter. I drank a Schlafly Hefeweisen but I could have had a Stone IPA, a Pilsner Urquell, a Bells Oberon, or a Shandy of some kind. She also still maintains an extensive line-up of bottled beers. Consider the pleasing atmosphere, competent and friendly service, and the best pizza menu in town and who needs beer? Yeah I said that. Hard for me to believe too.

Oh btw, RCW has no beer at all. Just wine, Pepsi products, and of course water. I drank water last night and drove us all safely home. Do Coal's and RCW need beer to be successful? No, but I'm really glad Coals has it. It's the difference that makes it worth crossing the bridge for me. Cheers!

Madeline recently posted she was afraid to post her beer line-up for fear of earning the ire of this forum's beer bullies.

I dont see why anyone would be afraid to post their list.

As you pointed out, and I did when I brought up Coal's on page 1, they have a decent list.

But even if it wasnt decent, what would that matter? Its not like it isnt public knowledge, all you have to do is go inside the restaurant to see it. And, hey, in some cases, there might be a good business case for being BMC only. I cant think of one, but there might be.

Posting it might lead to pointers on how to optimize a limited number of taps to provide better diversity. One problem Ive seen (not Coal's, but in general) is a place has something like 6 taps, and they are trying to carry craft beer, but 4 or more of the taps are very similar.

Posting it might lead to pointers on how to optimize a limited number of taps to provide better diversity. One problem Ive seen (not Coal's, but in general) is a place has something like 6 taps, and they are trying to carry craft beer, but 4 or more of the taps are very similar.

That's hitting the nail on the head.