From the Washington Post: --- Megan Parisi, the veteran brewer who was hired at Bluejacket with considerable fanfare in 2012, has parted ways with the brewery and restaurant less than three months after the operation opened near the Navy Yard. Her last day was Friday, Jan. 17. Greg Engert, beer director for the Neighborhood Restaurant Group, which includes Bluejacket, said the parting was amicable. He could not discuss the particulars of Parisi's departure, but said "it was by mutual agreement with all parties involved that this was the right move." Reached at home this morning, Parisi agreed the job wasn't a great fit for her or for Bluejacket. She compared the situation to buying a pair of shoes that don't quite match the shape of your feet. "It's nothing wrong with the shoes and nothing wrong with your feet," said Parisi, 42. The two just don't fit well. --- More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...acket-and-head-brewer-megan-parisi-part-ways/
After all the hype from the last 2 years on this place, all the collaborations, all the articles written, you have to think that this is not a good sign. Hopefully it's not a Cabinet Artisinal Brewhouse situation with owners who only want to be the cool trendy kid on the block, instead of allowing the brewers to brew great beer. I mean come on. Three releases in a week designed to be paired with donuts from one of the companies other establishments. What is this Rogue? I'm all for pairing beer and food at your establishment, but they are just trying to push the other restaurants in their group. It will be interesting to see what the next year brings for Bluekjacket
Everytime I am ready to go check this place out, and think it's got its bearings suddenly now this wrench. Hopefully things will work out well for all parties involved and good things come out of it. Hope to try also future beers designed by Parisi. Always looking for good beer...
You can read between the lines a bit with this Zagat interview: http://www.zagat.com/b/washington-dc/qa-brewmaster-megan-parisi-of-bluejacket Space was big, maybe too big for what she was trying to do in a brewpub setting. Never visited, so I have no opinion, just thought it was an interesting retrospective.
Hey hey hey, let's slown down here. As much as I enjoy questioning some of the decisions that NRG has made with Bluejacket, as far as we know, no one there is a felon (apologies to Matt S if you're not a felon. I can't keep all the tax evasion, forged liquor licenses, etc straight these days). Cabinet/Bookstore/Fork/Boiler/TapandTable is a different beast than this mess.
Woah! I wasn't trying to take it that far and imply that anything illegal was going on. I doubt that Bluejacket isn't shipping illegally made beer across state lines under a false business name ect, ect, ect. That who thing was a completely different beast. I was just merely saying that this is the second time in just a few years that a highly regarded brewer suddenly bailed from a new brewery that made a name for themselves through a bunch of press with collaborations with big names breweries in the area. It seems that there may be a reason, which is alluded to in the article that they want to be the popular kid. You get a great brewer, you collaborate with other well respected craft brewers, you say that you are barrel-aging and having a coolship and blah blah blah. You seem that you want everyone look up to you before you even open. Then you do open, your brewer bails after three months and you bring in someone who has an impressive, but not very long(time wise) resume (what was it 6 breweries interning for 10 months, then HFS, and then roasting coffee) and add that to a brewer with 1 year at Allagash, and one who was previously a Sous Chef. That scream that the owners are a pain to work for and they want someone who will do whatever they say. Just sucks to see. Even though I live in Oregon, I have been following this closely because I grew up in Richmond. It's just crazy to here. ::end rant::
Heard about this from someone last week and kind of yawned... Bluejacket, haven't cared to visit personally. Haven't heard anything very good about it from anyone "in the NoVA/DC scene" nor random beer enthusiasts. No one said the beers were notable, no one told me the food was better than average or worth the price. ChurchKey, Rustico, et al. do whatever it takes to earn any and all allocations to the region from breweries/12%/shleton. That's a great business model, and people know where they can find the rarities... however: Neighborhood Restaurant Group [Mafia] does not support local/local brewers/local breweries. IMO.
This is a great thing IMO. They probably spent $5 million building the place. The beer was absolutely horrible and they got a bad review on the food in WaPo as well. They needed to turn the ship around quickly so I'm assuming they paid an arm and a leg to get Owen in there to brew some Hill Farmstead clones. I might have to give them another shot in a couple of months. Brew up some Abner for me!
I went there a week ago Friday and enjoyed a majority of the beers. A lot of beers were between 5-7 abv, which in a place with 20 beers on tap where you can only get those beers, I appreciate. No there weren't any 10% IPAs or 15% barrel aged imperial stouts or more than just a light sour(aka the "trendy whales"), but I had an IPA, DIPA, Pale Ale, Schwartzbier and a Kolsch that I really enjoyed. A few beers were a bit muddy, but when you are making 20 and open less than a year I don't expect perfection. I agree the head brewer leaving already is strange, but to say the beer was horrible(at least on my visit) is bizarre.
Bad news for Bluejacket, but they really do need to get all their stuff figured out now before baseball season starts and they're busy every day. My experience was there was very hit and miss. I'd been reading about the brewery and all the money it was putting towards barrel aging, sour beers, etc. for a while and so I had high expectations. The beer was very high concept- hoppy kolschs, oud bruin, new zealand hops, bretty ipas.... But the actual results of all these beers were very hit and miss. I liked a couple but most left me somewhat underwhelmed. Still, I appreciate that they're trying different stuff and bringing unique styles to the masses. The food was actually pretty good, I thought. Myself and my buddies all enjoyed what we ate- the only issue I had was with their tiny portion sizes on a cheese plate. Some of my bigger problems with the place were other stuff- for example, our table had no overhead lighting, it was just dark as hell and we were all struggling to read the menus by the few candles we had on our table- whenever the waiter brought our drinks over he had to squint over a candle to read which beers were which. It was pretty laughable. Also, at the end of the night when we tried to split a few of our food items the waiter apologetically told us that certain items couldnt get split up in their system- well that seems like a really stupid design if you ask me. I really do hope the quality of the beer ends up improving at this place- I really would like to have a great beer place within walking distance of Nats park.
The review to me came out more "disappointing" than bad I would say as per Tom's writing: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...539d80-6b48-11e3-aecc-85cb037b7236_story.html I do think though that while they seemed to play with food concepts, you might very well realize they are catering to a clientele that isn't exactly BA crazy, which seems by reviews and yelps and other stuff that there are people enjoying the beer. However, when you come here all you hear mostly are negatives... which is fair and fine but of course they are often going to be the loudest most noticeable voices, but they might be aiming for a different clientele. Still got the curious bug and who knows, but only time will tell... On a side note, dingy pubs and darkness have their places, but can we cut it with the dark drinking places for once?! It kills me there is next to no light in Churchkey in about 70% of the bar. On a side note I would kill for Tom's job, and this is hardly a bad review of a restaurant by him.
That is a huge bummer. I was just planning to check out this place for the first time this weekend. I hope they can manage to get their stuff together because I have been looking forward to their opening for over a year now.
I, for one, think this is a good thing. Blue Jacket has been producing some pretty underwhelming beers. Point Blank. I see this as a sign that they are aware of this fact and that they are on the road to making things better. It's been said before in other posts about Blue Jacket, but I feel like they should focus on quality over quantity. Scale back the number of beers they're experimenting with and hone in on some truly great beers.
If it just doesn't fit, you must jump ship. No sense in sticking around if it's not going to work. Good for her!
I've been a couple times and generally enjoyed their beers. Hopefully this leads to better things for both parties.
I don't know how much he's going to be able to add; if he could brew reasonable approximations of HF beers, I doubt he would have been working as a barista. Seeing as how Shaun does all the brewing himself, I don't know how much value this hire really has beyond pandering to people who will drool over the Hill Farmstead name. Particularly since Engert says that the vision won't change, the vision being the brainchild of him, a guy with no commercial brewing experience. That's going to keep holding them back.
