It’s time once again for me to get out the house, and head out to some of Boston’s best beer bars to give you—yes YOU—the information you need to know regarding where to go to get your beer snobbery on. Last week I decided to inaugurate myself into this type of column by going up to The Publick House in Brookline, MA for a few beers and some of their fine scaled-up pub food. But first, some background information.
The Publick House (formerly the Anam Cara)
1648 Beacon Street
Brookline, MA 02445
Website
Here’s what you need to know about the place. The beer selection is enormous, with rotating taps and too many bottles to count (they even have a rotating cellar selection). The food is great, but it’s consistency has diminished a bit in the last few years. The staff is, well, the staff depends. On some nights you’ll get a server that’s knowledgeable in suggestions, attentive, and quick. Other nights you’ll get a server that just doesn’t care, takes an initial drink order, a food order, and disappears for the rest of the time you’re there. It’s one bar staff behavior that I will never understand—the longer a bar patron’s glass stays empty, the more the patron will want to leave the place, resulting in a leaner tab and a [possibly much] leaner tip. I did pretty good this time around, landing a seat in the newly renovated Monk’s Cellar section of the bar, and a waitress that actually noticed when glasses and plates were empty. Score for me. Now, on to the meal.
I started my night with a light Belgian-style beer—Brooklyn’s Cuvee de Cardoz, a light golden-colored beer. Coming in at 8.5% ABV (at least, according to the menu. Brooklyn Brewing has the ABV at 8%), it was served in the Publick House’s standard the-brewer-didn’t-send-us-something-specific stem glass. It had a taste very close to Victory’s Golden Monkey, but with a slightly different finish. It never tended towards bitter, and the swallow was not overly sweet. Thumbs up to a new offering from Brooklyn.
The Monk’s Cellar section of the bar has its own set of six rotating Belgian taps. I decided to grab my next selection from that list (and to give me a chance to try something new). I went with the Moinette Brune from Brasserie Dupont. This beer was also listed as 8.5% ABV, and came in the same nondescript glass as the Brooklyn. Colored a dark amber/ruby, it tasted wonderful. Notes of dark fruits, hard candy, and Belgian sugars were very evident. The very end of the sip hinted a wisp of bitterness, before the sweetness guided it down. Solid.
It would be remiss for me to not mention the other half of why I went out last week—the food! My meal was a big plate of fish & chips, with coleslaw and horseradish tarter sauce. In addition to being a great portion size (three very large hunks of fried fish completely covered the plate of fries), the meal turned out to go great with the Moinette, enhancing the “candyness” of the beer without turning it into something too sweet.
Keeping to the Monk’s Cellar list, the next beer I found myself with was a Pauwel Kwak. This chestnut-colored brew weighs in at 8% ABV, and came in its brewery-specific quarter-yard glass with wooden stand. Human quality may ebb and flow, but one thing about the Publick House is a certainty: if a brewer makes specific branded glassware, the bar will do its absolute best to make sure that they have that type of glass in stock. I saw one of these quarter-yards leave the bar while I was eating and that was it; I was going to get one, too. The beer itself is also very good, tasting a bit like the Moinette, but with a lighter flavor that was perfect for something you’re drinking after a meal. It also evidenced good sweetness without any cloying.
Knowing I should probably wrap up this beer and food fest before long, I went over the menu to find one more beer that would rank high on the Efficiency scale, but low on the wallet. At the Publick House, this means looking for any and all things local. What I found was the Otter Creek Otter’s Dubbel, coming in at 7% ABV for about five bucks. I could not have picked a better dessert beer, though. Served in the nondescript stemware again, the beer was a dark ruby/mahogany color. Medium bodied in the mouth, it served up a flavor of chocolate and plums with no syrup quality and no bitterness. There was a slight “earthy” flavor towards the back of the sip, it almost was like a bit of chicory. A great end to a great meal.
Final thought, Show?: Four or five years ago, I didn’t have the vocabulary to express all the good thoughts I had about this bar. From that time to now, some things have changed but the overall selection, atmosphere, and food keep this place in the top tier of my favorite bars in Boston. There are plenty of reviews online decrying the service and sometimes the food, and some of those have merit. But when you go to a moderately pretentious place, you run the risk of having some staff treat you accordingly. It’s not right, and I’m not condoning it, I’m just saying it happens from time to time. But, with that in mind, the place is always crowded at nights, with 6p or 6:30p being the “cut-off” time to get there if you don’t want a long wait. The place is one of the few bars with a substantial nontraditional selection of beers. This is the place I bring first-time guests that come up to visit. It’s a welcome addition to a city filled with Irish and/or sports bars.
And when you’re done eating, you can head up the block to their provision shop to purchase most of what you drank with your meal. Highest recommendation.
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