My hours at Harriet started to dwindle away. I kept telling them that the new job would start in a few weeks, over and over again, because that's what I was being told. Finally, they ran out of shifts to give me in early November, and I spent a solid month completely unemployed, waiting for my new job to start, subsisting on unemployment, selling things off, borrowing some. It was a rough time. I'd go out once in a while, to my favorite taprooms, brewpubs and bars, watching the bartenders hard at work, dreamily eyeing their actions, thinking: "I so want to do that again! Let me back there!"
I took the job of beer server at the brand new Eastlake Craft Brewery in the Midtown Global Market, at Lake Street and 10th Avenue, for several reasons. I wanted to be involved with a small start-up, just taking off. The project intrigued me with the possibilities inherent in the location, being part of a multicultural marketplace in a part of the city that's starved for local beer options, and utter lacking in beer bars. The location was convenient, also, as it's just four blocks away from where I live. Easy commute there. Even in the dreadful days of winter, a short walk home from work won't be too terrible.
Only one thing was unclear, and the question was asked to me, though I had no answer: "How good will the beer be?" I didn't know, for the owner / brewer had no experience brewing anywhere else, being yet another home-brewer going pro. I was not his friend before they hired me, so I never hung out at his home, drinking his hombrew. Once the brewery was up and running, I got some early tastes from the tanks, but it was too soon to judge their quality, being unfinished, not fully fermented. Mostly what I had to go on was his taste. I had a good feeling that this was going to be a terrific taproom and a quality brewhouse, and that feeling had to carry me from September 24, when I accepted the job, until December 11, my first real shift behind the bar at the finally open taproom. (I certainly got advice from friends and family, telling me: "just get another job." But it's not that easy to "just get a job", and I already had one, plus in the time it would take to apply, interview, be hired and train, the job I wanted and had would be starting.)
We have four beers from the mind of Ryan Pitman to start with: a saison, Belgian pale, black IPA and rye stout. I'm fondest of the last two. The response so far has been universally positive. We'll be up to eight beers on tap in a few weeks, and who knows where we go from there. I'll be filling your pint or tulip 5 days a week soon, and no, I keep telling my friends and acquaintances who visit the following: no, it's not my place, I'm not an owner, or a manager, I didn't design the place or pick the beers or write the descriptions. That's all Ryan and his wife. Me, I'm fine "just" bar-tending for now. Nothing wrong with it. And I might use this space to tell you about the beers, but I won't be reviewing them. I went over all that mulling about the beers at that other place where I was FOH manager, and here I have a specific monetary interest in having you visit the place and drink the beers and leaving a tip. That's how I'm paying the bills and keeping Sonny and Rollie the cats in Fancy Feast.
So, I'll post about the beers for informational purposes from time to time, but I won't give my opinion, bad or good. This will be the first and last time I say, come down to Eastlake and have a pint! Choose from any of the fifteen restaurants, bring your food in, settle into our cozy taproom and enjoy yourself.
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