Why do restaurants neglect beer?

I was so lucky to fall into a job years ago at a local restaurant in northern Virginia called Magnolia's at the Mill. It was a very high end restaurant (for the area). Along with it's similarly fancy sister restaurant called Tuscarora Mill - and an artisan pizza joint called Fireworks - it championed craft beer and fine cuisine side by side.

They had a 30 tap system with several bottle selections, and featured monthly or bi-monthly six course beer dinners with pairings of fine foods and fine beers, featuring breweries from Stone to Bells, Dogfish to North Coast, and everything in between. The brothers that owned this small group of restaurants had a passion for fine food and fine beer, and it was a blessing to be employed there, as it opened my eyes to both worlds.

 

I visited Brussels years ago. I was there for only a couple days and recall only one meal at a French restaurant near La Grande Place. So the "dining" scene across Belgium is what? Is it a broad mix of cuisines (i.e. Italian, French, Thai, etc), is it traditional Belgian and French restaurants mostly or is it something else?

 

Mostly international, surprisingly hard to find a decent "Belgian" restaurant. Mostly Italian (since the first generation of Belgian immigrants were virtually all Italians, they came to work in the mines which have since closed) and Chinese (again, mostly mid-20th century immigration). Most restaurants that do serve typically Belgian food usually have at least half a menu's worth of random international food. Mostly Italian.

Most authentically Belgian restaurants are also in a higher price-range for the average diner, since ironically our local produce isn't very cheap. Most of the food we tout as typically Belgian is quite posh, like seafood or steak. Usually you'll have a hard time finding proper workman's grub, and if you do it's either way too expensive for the ingredients they used, or just very poor quality.

Brussels and Bruges are hotspots for those expensive Belgian restaurants, mostly for tourism purposes. No wonder I call those two cities our "fairytale villages" Though I have to say you still have some really authentic stuff in Brussels. Thanked be the heavens that the one city that represents the Belgian burgondian ideal the most is, at least, our capital

 

This has to be one of the biggest problem. We all know of the relatively short shelf life of certain styles. We all know the difficulty in getting that special/limited release. Beer takes up plenty of room. A keg fridge that would hold say 6 sixtels takes up enough space to store 20 cases of wine that the owner may have been able to get at a great price and that he knows will sell quickly. Large format bottles are hard to sell by the glass because of carbonation. It's also been touched on that there aren't enough people in management that really appreciate craft beers so even if they were willing to take OUR word for it, they now have a whole new market to learn and take a chance on. That's a tough thing to do when things are already working out fine for you.

Also mentioned earlier is the lack of good food at places that already do a great job with their beers. Why no start there? You're a regular at your local beer bar. Tell THEM to step up THEIR game. While I appreciate a good burger or pizza, they shouldn't be the best things on the menu. When a "beer bar" serves great food and their business increases because of it, other restaurants in your area WILL take notice and they'll rethink their beverage options and food pairings.

 

I think it's a deeper problem than one that is fixable by politely asking them to step up their game. As I said elsewhere above, it's not just the restaurants - it's the customers. They WANT craft beer bars to serve base foods like chicken wings or burgers, and a long list of fried apps. That's what they eat. They want a place where they can scream at a long row of TV's with sports and eat base foods. They aren't "wine people" for the most part who normally eat higher tier food when going out. They're different demographics, in my experience. The gastropub phenomena is great, but it's only appealing to a subsection of craft beer drinkers. I think beer getting respect will involve supporting the gastropubs and that minority of beer bars that really are just like proper wine bars - no TV's, nice atmosphere, quiet music, etc. I think this is the most productive solution, and most likely to bring about bigger change - supporting the nicer places rather than changing the others. I think there will be this split in the industry for awhile, because there just aren't enough people who are willing to remove the chains of beer being the common man's drink so that it can be elevated to the respect levels that wine enjoys.

 

I may be in the minority, but I go out for beer and eat whatever is there. If I want a good beer that pairs well with food, I am a good enough cook that I will just cook it myself and drink what I want.