Atlanta has somehow become a craft beer mecca with some of the greatest beer bars in the world. This is a tribute to the beers and the bars.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Kirkwood Public House

Yesterday I mentioned that it seemed that Kirkwood Vinocity had become Kirkwood Public House.  I stopped in today to get the scoop and was lucky to find the owner, John Turpin, behind the bar and we talked for awhile.  Apparently my speculation was correct.  The Vinocity sign came down Monday and the new sign started being painted yesterday (Wednesday).  The official re-unveiling to the public will probably be January 30th.  He confirmed that they had a new chef and before I realized he was the owner I told him the old food was inedible.  The new kitchen is completely farm to table.  It haven't eaten there yet so I can't comment on quality, but the few words I've heard around have been positive.

As for the important thing at this site, they have expanded their beer list.  The have 11 beers on tap (technically 12, but one will always be occupied by Miller lite for the football watchers) and will soon have 38 bottles for an even 50 beers, which will be more than their wine selection.  They'll still offer 38 wines by the glass though.  It was clear that John is still more of a wine guy than beer guy, but he also clearly wants to run a good beer bar.  As I hope is clear, everything is currently in transition, so I'm not judging anything yet.  On the bright side they had Allagash Tripel, Highland Oatmeal Stout, Clipper City Loose Cannon, and a tap will soon have Terrapin Hopsecutioner.  It seems that having the Terrapin Hopsecutioner, Clipper City Loose Cannon, Dogfish Head 60 minute, and Sweetwater IPA is quite a bit of overkill on highly hopped IPAs, but hopefully we'll see more of a balance of styles soon.  Of the 12 taps he said that only the Guinness, 420, and Miller Lite would be regulars and the rest of the taps would rotate, which to me is the mark of a good beer bar.

A little complaint: I don't mind if smaller places don't go to quite the lengths of The Porter and BSP in providing every beer in its own glass, but I would like to taste something like the Allagash Tripel in a goblet instead of a pint glass.  I realize I'm a beer snob, but hey, we all have issues and it really does make a difference in the flavor and overall experience.  It's hard to complain too much about the glass though when you're getting 12 oz of a good trippel for $5.00.

I'll be checking back to see how the transition goes.

Update 1/22: fixed major typos
Update 2/10: I've eaten here now and since this is a beer blog didn't think that food warranted a whole new post.  This is a vast improvement over the old chef.  I just got a burger and fries and they were both good examples of just letting ingredients shine.  It was a simple burger, but well seasoned, well cooked, and somehow very meaty.  The fries were nicely crunchy and potatoey and some of the best I've had in the city, maybe only behind The Porter (some would disagree...The Porter's are loaded with herbs and garlic and come with an awesome charred onion mayo, all of which can be a little polarizing).  Beer list leaves something to be desired to be a beer destination place, but at least there's Allagash Tripel.

1 comment:

  1. We ate there last night. It was delicious. But, I had no problem with anything before. Except, maybe the price. But I've always had good food there.

    ReplyDelete