Everything's Fine

Some pizza and beer news and I drop the Mikerphone

Well, wasn’t last week’s newsletter a massive letdown? I felt bad ruining your Thursday by being a Debbie Downer, so to start this week’s newsletter, I’d like to share with you some positive beer-related things that lift my spirits:

• I went to a brand-new brewery in Beacon this weekend and the beer was absolutely delicious and the place was packed with people. Pillow & Oats Brewing should be on your list if you head up the Hudson.

• In light of last week’s news, I found the very last six-pack of Anchor Steam at Westside Market on 14th Street, and even though the handle was half-torn off and I had to carry it like a newborn child through the store, I was grateful to find it. I was even more grateful to drink it.

• Finback Brewery brought back their Double Sess (now Double Sesh), a wheat beer with Szechuan Peppercorns and ginger that was one of the first beers they ever released, and it’s making me nostalgic for 2014.

• I’m going to a beer festival in Virginia this weekend and I’m super-excited about the brewery lineup. Not only is the list a who’s who of American breweries I geek out about, but there’s beer from Belgium, Canada, England, and Spain, which reminds me just how much of a gravitational pull our country’s beer scene has globally.

• On the heels of last week’s news, there are vague, albeit real, efforts from within the beer industry to save Anchor Brewing from closing, including from the employees of Anchor themselves.

Now, on to some more good pizza news… er, beer news. Yes! Good beer news!

Meet Lala’s, Grimm’s new pizza joint opening this weekend

The long-awaited rooftop restaurant at Williamsburg’s Grimm Artisanal Ales will hold its grand opening this weekend, serving up their house beers and wines, cocktails, and New Haven-style pies. Lala’s sits three flights above the street-level taproom and features an indoor and outdoor space, a horseshoe-shaped bar, and a brick pizza oven adorned with the Grimm logo.

The colorful space will serve an array of New Haven-style pizza, or “apizza,” as it’s called up there, hand-stretched, charred, and served sliced on rectangular trays (I would say the pies compare most in presentation to Sally’s or Bar from my experience, but as a Modern die-hard, I won’t hold that against them). The traditional red, white, and clam pizzas are all on the menu, the latter coming topped with a butter sauce made with Grimm’s Physica Riesling. A seasonal pie made with summer squash and ricotta is a delicious if untraditional offering, and the Hot Pepperoni Pie kicks up the heat with serrano chilis and a drizzle of honey.

As expected, a wide variety of Grimm’s beers made downstairs will be on draft, and for the beer-averse, wine and some house cocktails will also be available to pair with the pizza. Lala’s will be open this weekend on Friday and Saturday from 3-10pm and on Sunday from 1-8pm, with further expanded hours to come in the weeks ahead.

Lineup announced for Kills Boro’s Pizza Party

The view from Kills Boro’s first Pizza Party in 2021

Staten Island’s Kills Boro Brewing is throwing a pizza party next Saturday, July 29th. It’s not like a little reward for getting through all the books on your summer reading list… it’s a full-on beer and pizza fest that’s entering its third year. Pizza Party is a beer festival featuring some of the region’s top brewers and the island’s top pizzas, held at the scenic Smug Harbor Cultural Center. The outdoor event is a four-hour, picnic-style celebration of beer and pizza in a lovely park setting.

Among the breweries pouring this year: Other Half, Two Villains, Threes, Bolero Snort, Wild East, Brix City, and more, in an all-you-care-to-drink format. Your ticket also includes pizza from some of the best pie-makers from an island that has a lot of good pizza to offer. Lee’s Tavern, Lorenzo’s, Jimmy Max, and Goodfella’s are among those serving slices at the event, so you can get a Staten Island pizza tour while barely needing to move.

Tickets are still available for the event for $65. The venue is just a quick 10-minute bus ride or leisurely 30-minute walk from the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. Enjoy the boat ride across the harbor and make a day of it.

Brewery Tracker

Total brewery count: 3,127
Total breweries visited in 2023: 232
Total breweries visited in Illinois: 59

Brewery Visit of the Week

Brewery #2944, Mikerphone Brewing, Elk Grove Village, IL (Visited 2-Mar-2023)

Back in March, I had a four-hour layover at O’Hare Airport. Rather than waste time drinking $15 beers and $20 burgers, I hopped in a Lyft and took the 20-minute trip to a brewery that had been on my radar for quite a while. I became aware of Mikerphone if only because of their collaboration beers they’ve done with both Finback and Other Half, but given the company they keep, I had a feeling they knew what they were doing.

And yeah, the beer was great, but the real star of the show was the taproom. The blue-hued venue had a calming vibe, but also a great energy, from the records on the wall to the marquee with upcoming events hung over the bar. There was a back room with pinball machines that was packed for a Thursday-night pinball tournament that the bartender even invited me to join (I would’ve, but I’m no pinball wizard, and I had a flight to catch in an hour). The pilsner I had here was just as noteworthy as the hazy IPAs that the brewery is best-known for. And all this was happening in a very typical setting for a brewery, but an atypical setting for one this vibrant: a deserted suburban industrial park where my Lyft driver questioned whether he was dropping me off in the right place.

There are plenty of hyped breweries out there that do nothing to create an enjoyable place to drink their beer. Mikerphone is not one of those, and my only wish is that I wasn’t rushing myself through the experience to catch my connecting flight.

The Weekly Reader

• The North Fork’s brewery taprooms aren’t just for drinking [Lauren Parker, Northforker]

• Gene-edited yeast is beer’s next new innovation [Anna Parker, Wired]

• Why are cash-back deals hot in beer right now? [Kate Bernot, Good Beer Hunting]

• I babbled about the evolution of New York’s modern beer scene for VinePair [Dave Infante, Taplines Podcast]

One More Thing

Going to bury the bad news in this week’s newsletter at the bottom: it appears that Queens Brewery has closed. A seizure notice from the US Marshall appeared on the building in late June, and the taproom has not been open since, and the outdoor seating was demolished this week. It’s a bit of a whimpering end for a brewery space that drew a vibrant neighborhood crowd with live music and events, though never seemed to draw much attention for their beer. Luckily for Ridgewood residents, there are two other breweries both within close walking distance: Evil Twin and Bridge and Tunnel.

Cheers,
Chris