TAP ROOM? IN A GROCERY STORE? OR, WHY I BELIEVE DAVID LANNON MAY BE THE SMARTEST MAN IN AMERICA.

Now that we’ve settled into our new home in Santa Rosa, I’ve been floor malting grains from Mendocino and Sonoma counties in my garage. I know. Don’t ask. But, actually it gets worse. Lately I became obsessed with finding out how my malts compare to what the big guys sell. This being the Bay Area, I figured there must be an app for that. So I used Yelp. But when Whole Foods turned up as an option for homebrew supply stores, I figured it must be a paid ad or some kind of mistake. After a little digging, however, I was shocked to find out that, yes, Whole Foods in Santa Rosa sells homebrew ingredients and equipment.

Once I arrived to pick up said malts I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Like James W. Marshall at Sutter’s Mill, I was discovering something almost as valuable as gold (to me, anyway). A Tap Room in a Grocery Store! It’s as if I had been trekking through the desert for years with no water and then suddenly there was water. Except it wasn’t a desert, it was a grocery store, and there was beer.

And yet, somehow this all makes nothing but absolute sense! Being a husband and a father of three year old triplets I don’t have time to go to bars much anymore. But this? This is not a bar. This is a Tap Room. IN A GROCERY STORE! No longer does running errands have to be a chore. I am backing out of the driveway before my wife can even get the words Milk and Eggs out of her mouth. We’re out of salsa? I better go to Whole Foods. Only two yogurts left. I’ll be right back.

Turns out, the Santa Rosa Whole Foods was the first store in the company to install a tap room. The Peter Freuchen type of character that hatched this amazing idea was David Lannon. As a resident of nearby Sebastopol he knew that beer would go over well with the local’s taste for craft beer. So he put in a tap room four years ago and it has proven so successful that they had to double its size this year. It also has become a model for other whole foods across the country – and it all started here with the support of the Santa Rosa beer drinking community.

The beer selection is superb and three members of the staff, headed up by Tyler Smith, have completed the cicerone certification program. They have also started to offer beer pairing dinners with the staff cooking up the menu. Oh yeah, and if you want to learn how to make beer at home, Tyler also offers homebrew classes.

I personally like to stop in and get some “shopping” any chance I get. So let me take this opportunity to say THANK YOU, David Lannon. Santa Rosa is a better community because of your pioneering vision.

 

THE SONOMA COUNTY DISTILLING COMPANY

There is an energy in the air of Sonoma County that I have not experienced since the early aughts in Williamsburg Brooklyn. Everywhere I am visiting to write about beer and spirits is overflowing with a can do attitude. Some of the places I am visiting are hard to find or are in limited supply. The people I am meeting are figuring out ways to make a better beer and better spirit usually with little or no background in the beverage industry and very little money. Lack of experience and money are not getting in the way of them making world­class beer and spirits and it is inspiring.

You would not be mistaken for mixing up Sonoma County Distilling Company for an auto body repair shop or a cabinetmaker from the outside. The concrete building and closed roll up doors tell a very different story once you walk through the doorway though. World­class spirits are being made in this building and its owner is showing the spirits world what can be done with a little bit of space and sheer determination.

The lure of a place like Sonoma County to many people is wine. Often over romanticized with its sprawling vineyards and the promise of making you feel sophisticated if you can identify oak or blackberry in one of the hundreds of expensive tasting rooms you might find yourself in. There are days when this is fun or appropriate but I always find myself looking for the small producers who are building a business against all odds.

The guys on limited budgets doing the most that they can do with what little they have always seem to be on the path to the most interesting experiences in life. When your choices are limited, you have to work smart and get creative. I have always been drawn to the creatives making things happen despite the odds being squarely set against them.

This brought me to Sonoma County Distilling Company and the whirlwind of a man behind the distillery is a perfect example of this work ethos.

Disillusioned during the financial crash of 2008, Adam Spiegel was part of a mass layoff that occurred when the financial company he worked for lost billions of dollars in a manner of weeks. Managing money for foundations and endowments, a disillusioned Adam Spiegel decided to forge his own future and work in a position that allowed him to get his hands dirty. After years spent sitting in a chair and staring at a screen he decided that enough was enough and started making whiskey.

At first in a garage with a fifteen­gallon still and working with his former business partner, the results were promising and the whiskey they were creating was better than most whiskey’s they could buy on a shelf.

So he decided to open a full blown business.

Sonoma County Distilling Company was founded in 2010 as 1512 Spirits and was later remained in the city of Rohnert Park. The beginnings were humble: a 784 square foot warehouse, an alembic still and above all a driving belief that they could make a better product than the big guys.

We hear the cliches all of the time about being passionate and usually when I hear someone say they are passionate about who they work for or whatever hobbies they are into I tend to take it with a grain of salt. The truly passionate people that I have met never say the word.

The word passion didn’t come out of Adam’s mouth on the day that I visited, but it was palpable. The obsession was omnipresent, the goal in making the best possible product despite knowing that it will be harder or more challenging or require some kind of clever solution that has not been thought of yet.

All of the hallmarks of great Whiskey making are present behind those concrete walls at Sonoma County Distilling Company. Fermentation on grains to extract as much flavor as possible, open tank fermentations to allow the naturally occurring yeast and bacteria in the Sonoma County air to find its way into the tanks and add more depth of flavor, small batches that can be all monitored constantly to ensure that top quality is maintained at every step of the process, a small barrel step up program that allows for depth of color and flavor to happen more rapidly, cobb mountain water sourced directly from the spring, gorgeous packaging that symbolizes that every detail from start to finish has been given deep consideration.

When visiting Sonoma County Distilling Company, you will not get rolling vineyards or castles nestled in a valley. However what you will get is a different kind of romance. The kind where if you work your ass off and are passionate about what you are doing, you will find a market. Or maybe more appropriately, a market will find you.

Web: http://sonomacountydistilling.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DistillingCo

Instagram: http://instagram.com/sonomacountydistilling

 

THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE

As Santa Rosa's beer and spirits ambassador, I feel a deep responsibility to provide a fair and balanced account of the pursuit of inebriation in our fine city. While our limitless wineries can be home to a fine mood­lifting afternoon, and none would deny the immeasurable value of our own Russian River Brewery, there are times when that can all be a bit much and getting down to drinking is all that is required.

With that in mind, let me introduce to you what I like to call the “golden triangle.” Well­known to many locals, its intrigue lies in the simple fact that you can spend a solid afternoon and evening drinking at these three well­worn establishments without having to drive from one to the next. Grab an Uber ride home after you have had enough. Yes, Uber has made it to Santa Rosa.

The “golden triangle” consists of the 440 Club (434 College Ave, Santa Rosa, CA 95401), Round Robin (616 Mendocino Ave, Santa Rosa, CA 95401) and Gary’s at the Belvedere (727 Mendocino Ave, Santa Rosa, CA 95401).

There are no hipster cocktails served by mixologists at these establishments. No suspenders, handle bar mustaches, or irony here.

Just fair prices and stiff pours. Maybe a Giants or 49ers game to take in while you make small talk with the locals. Down a Budweiser and a shot of Jameson, then casually stroll to the next bar in between innings. You can keep going from bar to bar to bar to your hearts content, all while enjoying a rotating cast of locals that keep things interesting.

If you are not as old as I am, you might prefer these places later in the evening. They get packed with people who are there to make memories and have some good times. And probably a bad decision or two. Whether you are young or old, you can hit your drinking stride in one or all of these establishments and enjoy a little bit of Santa Rosa that most visitors neglect in their pursuits of the perfect expression of Pinot, Cabernet or something along those lines.

 

 

 

FOGBELT BREWING COMPANY

On an unassuming stretch of Cleveland Ave. a couple of friends decided to do what every homebrewer dreams of doing everyday. They opened a brewpub. Fogbelt Brewing Company to be precise.

Paul Hawley and Remy Martin grew up in Healdsburg. Both the sons of prominent winemakers and both with extensive experience in the winemaking business. In fact, they started brewing beer together while working at Kim Crawford in New Zealand.

“We worked the night shift and when our shift was over at 7am all of the beer was gone. The day crew would drink it all when their shift ended in the evening. So we just started making our own beer for us to enjoy” says Remy. “The saying goes…Behind every great wine there are about a thousand beers”, chimes in Paul.

Paul and Remy are the embodiment of everything that I expected from Sonoma County when I moved here last year. Down to earth, friendly, authentic. All with a casualness to hyper quality ingredients that most of the country would die to get their hands on.

Maybe it is an issue of accessibility. If you grow up around such high quality food and wine, you just kind of accept that this is “just the way it is”.

The staff at Fogbelt all seem to be homebrewers themselves and are welcome to use the pub’s pilot system to test out their own recipes. So they do. On their days off.

The food menu is small but they pack a ton of flavor into what they offer. Their vendors are top notch. Sonoma County Meat Company, Costeaux Bakery, Imwalle Gardens. Everything local. Including the hops that they use in their Fresh Hop Beers, which are grown on two acres at Paul’s family farm. They have brought that attitude of “just the way it is” to their freshly opened brewpub and thankfully we can all go in and experience it ourselves.

http://www.fogbeltbrewing.com/

https://twitter.com/FogbeltBrewing