Wilson
07-25-2005, 04:01 PM
I just spent a very long weekend visiting some new and familiar haunts in the Big Easy and will share some of what I remember.
Club Decatur - A little bar on, guess where..., Decatur on the fringes of the Quarter. This was a new one to me, but their beer selection was really top notch for New Orleans. I had some good Hoegaarden on tap, a HUGELY skunked Dinckel-Acker pils, and some good Flying Dog Pale here. They had a good supply of German, lots of Belgian and some micro US stuff. The atmosphere is a bit lacking, and seems to be a local workers (i.e. FQ waitstaff, bartenders) hang out. This is not a bad thing, but I did get a few funny looks while there. Bar tenders where good. They also have pizza. I would bop in and get something to go while walking around.
DBA - One of my favorite places to go outside the FQ in the always fun Marigny area of town. Cool vibe, good music. I had some good Anchor Liberty, Schneider Weisse, Rogue Brutal Bitter, and Abita Imperial pils, all on tap. I've never had any other Imperial Pils, but there didnt seem anything Imperial about the Abita, but dare I say it may be the best Abita beer I've had, except maybe to TurboDog. It was part of their "Select" line and didnt have that Abita twang I get with their other stuff. Good selection of German and Belgian beers, even with proper glasses. Bar tenders could be a bit bitchy, but most of them are in NOLA. Got crowded late.
Gordon Biersch - New to the city and me. There food was Ok and beer was Ok to mediocre. I wound up drinking their Pilsner which was vaguely similiar to Urquell, and the hoppiest thing they had. They had the normal Marzen, which seemed to lack a bit to me, "lite", a schwarz, a hefe. The hefe was good, too much banana IMO. The "lite" was blech. They also had a seasonal Czech Lager which apparetly won a gold medal in the GABF. I didnt think it was any better than their regular Pils. Schwarz was decent.
Crescent City Brewhouse - a brew pub with always mixed reviews, held a surprise for me. Their nornal line up includes a schwarz which was pretty good, a Weiss which I also enjoyed, a pils which was their version of the marcos, a red which is Ok, and my favorite - a seasonal called Tomahawk Pale Ale, an APA. It was very good! I'd give it 4/5 stars. Nice light redish/amber hue, good hop nose, flavor, and bitterness balanced very well with rich malt. I came back everyday for this, and got huge 24oz'ers to go. My hats off to the CCB for making my favorite beer of the trip. I also had some good red fish here, (my girlfirend had an AWESOME tuna steak), and always found the staff nice and quick.
A neat little bar I found (or stumbled upon) was The Kerry Irish pub, but there is nothing Irish about it. A little place on Decatur street, which had some fresh Sierra Nevada on tap (as well as the macros and a few other standard offerings) and a really good classic rock band. A small place, but everyone was friendly and I had a really good time here - locals and tourists. I swear I saw the lab guy from CSI Vegas here, but, yes officer, I'd been drinking.
I had a good pint of Murphys at O'Flahery's Irish pub and watched an old rugby game on TV while listening to a good traditional Irish band.
A great little trip, I'd recommed these places to everyone. Again, I raise my pint to the brewers at Crescent City, a really good APA!
Club Decatur - A little bar on, guess where..., Decatur on the fringes of the Quarter. This was a new one to me, but their beer selection was really top notch for New Orleans. I had some good Hoegaarden on tap, a HUGELY skunked Dinckel-Acker pils, and some good Flying Dog Pale here. They had a good supply of German, lots of Belgian and some micro US stuff. The atmosphere is a bit lacking, and seems to be a local workers (i.e. FQ waitstaff, bartenders) hang out. This is not a bad thing, but I did get a few funny looks while there. Bar tenders where good. They also have pizza. I would bop in and get something to go while walking around.
DBA - One of my favorite places to go outside the FQ in the always fun Marigny area of town. Cool vibe, good music. I had some good Anchor Liberty, Schneider Weisse, Rogue Brutal Bitter, and Abita Imperial pils, all on tap. I've never had any other Imperial Pils, but there didnt seem anything Imperial about the Abita, but dare I say it may be the best Abita beer I've had, except maybe to TurboDog. It was part of their "Select" line and didnt have that Abita twang I get with their other stuff. Good selection of German and Belgian beers, even with proper glasses. Bar tenders could be a bit bitchy, but most of them are in NOLA. Got crowded late.
Gordon Biersch - New to the city and me. There food was Ok and beer was Ok to mediocre. I wound up drinking their Pilsner which was vaguely similiar to Urquell, and the hoppiest thing they had. They had the normal Marzen, which seemed to lack a bit to me, "lite", a schwarz, a hefe. The hefe was good, too much banana IMO. The "lite" was blech. They also had a seasonal Czech Lager which apparetly won a gold medal in the GABF. I didnt think it was any better than their regular Pils. Schwarz was decent.
Crescent City Brewhouse - a brew pub with always mixed reviews, held a surprise for me. Their nornal line up includes a schwarz which was pretty good, a Weiss which I also enjoyed, a pils which was their version of the marcos, a red which is Ok, and my favorite - a seasonal called Tomahawk Pale Ale, an APA. It was very good! I'd give it 4/5 stars. Nice light redish/amber hue, good hop nose, flavor, and bitterness balanced very well with rich malt. I came back everyday for this, and got huge 24oz'ers to go. My hats off to the CCB for making my favorite beer of the trip. I also had some good red fish here, (my girlfirend had an AWESOME tuna steak), and always found the staff nice and quick.
A neat little bar I found (or stumbled upon) was The Kerry Irish pub, but there is nothing Irish about it. A little place on Decatur street, which had some fresh Sierra Nevada on tap (as well as the macros and a few other standard offerings) and a really good classic rock band. A small place, but everyone was friendly and I had a really good time here - locals and tourists. I swear I saw the lab guy from CSI Vegas here, but, yes officer, I'd been drinking.
I had a good pint of Murphys at O'Flahery's Irish pub and watched an old rugby game on TV while listening to a good traditional Irish band.
A great little trip, I'd recommed these places to everyone. Again, I raise my pint to the brewers at Crescent City, a really good APA!