This evening I had the pleasure of visiting The Sidecar for the first time. This small bar turned out to be absolutely awesome, and given the North Coast tap takeover under way I was surprised I was able to immediately get a table. The waiter was very personable and competent, and had tried all the beers at the beginning of the evening so that he could make recommendations. I had the good fortune to be able to taste all of the offerings on tap, with the exception of the ACME IPA, which kicked just minutes before I was ready to order it. I'll recount the beers I tried in the order I tried them, as I'm sure that this effected my taste buds.
The first beer I tried was Old Rasputin on Nitrogen. This was interesting, as its a full bodied beer with good head retention to begin with, and the Nitrogen only enhanced this. I personally thought that the bear actually lost some of its roasty depth, but that may have more to do with how cold it was served than anything else. This beer actually became significantly more bitter than I remembered as it warmed up, but was quite good none the less.
The friends I spent the evening with let me try their Blue Star wheat and Brother Thelonious Belgian Strong Dark. The Blue Star was good, but fairly unmemorable; I'm writing this 3 beers and 4 hours later, and I honestly don't remember it.... The Brother Thelonious was very good, with a dark malt backbone. The sweetness was fairly high, the malt a bit less complex and the carbonation much lower than I expected, but very tasty overall.
The second beer I bought was Old Stock Ale. This is their, well, old stock ale. I've never actually tried this style before, and I must say I've been missing out; I really, really liked it. This beer reminded me of an English IPA but without all the hops. It still had a bit of bitterness and some hop aroma,but overall it was a big, moderately sweet maltiness that made this beer extremely enjoyable.
My friends tried the Le Merle saison and the Pranqster golden ale at the same time. The golden ale was pretty good, but the Le Merle surprised me a bit; this beer had a lot bigger wheat/yeast character than I've ever experienced in a saison before.
I then tried both the Red Seal Ale and the ACME Pale Ale. The Pale Ale was kind of weak in my opinion, but no bad tastes were evident. I think this is a pretty good session beer, but it was like water after the Old Rasputin. The Red Seal Ale is an American Amber, but to me it tasted like a Rye IPA. There was a spiciness to this beer and some citrus in the nose, but it was overwhelmingly bitter. I wasn't a huge fan of this beer, but I prefer more aromatic IPAs anyway.
In addition to all this good beer, I had very good burger. The burger was nice and juicy, and the bacon, cheddar and sauteed mushrooms really blended well. The french fries were nice and crispy, with lots of pepper and just enough salt to set them off.
The best part of all of this was the service though; our waiter was quick, efficient and knowledgeable, and managed to snag me the second to last bottle of Old Rasputin XII, which he kept in the cooler for me until I was ready to leave. He also kept up well stocked on beer and food without being annoying, which I greatly appreciated. I've only heard good things about Sidecar from other people as well, so I'd give it a shot if you are in the area.
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