New York City Beer Guide
Special Report
Paris: What I Did on My Vacation
by Josh Mittleman, Westchester Editor & World Traveller
15 May 1997
Riva & I vacationed in Paris, and naturally we were on the look-out for
great beer. It wasn't hard to find. Our first meal (eaten in a haze of
exhaustion brought on by being awake for 36 hours) was lunch at a small
brasserie where I found a pint of Grimbergen Abbey Ale. Wonderful stuff:
nutty and yeasty and tart. Just about every cafe and brasserie we noticed
had at least one abbey ale on tap, usually Grimbergen or
Leffe.
La Gueuze:
The Beer as Big as Riva's Head
The next day we had lunch at La Gueuze, as recommended by the Paris
Beer Guide. It was a convenient stop between the Musee Cluny and the
Pantheon. Fine choucroute for me and great moule-frites for Riva,
accompanied by a pint of Gueuze Becasse for me (wow!) and a bucket
of Hoegaarden for Riva. She ordered a half liter, but they brought this
absurd glass about as big as her head.
The tap list: Gueuze Becasse,
Spaten lager, Leffe, Lucifer, MacEwan, Guinness, Hoegaarden, Framboise
Becasse, Kriek Becasse, Pecheresse, Mortimer, Rodenbach. 47 FF the
half liter. The food was great, and one dish would easily have been enough
for both of us.
We met up with Pierre's friend Jackie one night and went to check out
The Frog
and Princess, Paris' newest brewpub. They do serve food, but we
didn't see anyone eating. We sampled their six beers which ranged from
great to icky. The two bitters were hand pumped; the rest were tapped.
The atmosphere is typical brewpub with an English feel. The bartenders had
British accents. They've taken cute beer naming to its extreme limit; but
happily, they are clever most of the time.
- Inseine (Mild bitter) An acceptable, very drinkable bitter
with a citrus nose. 4.5% alc. Jackie compared it to Watney's Red. A good
session beer, and their top seller.
- Parisytic (Strong bitter) The best of the lot. Good malt
start, tart finish, very smooth. 5.2% alc. This was a real winner, but I
probably wouldn't drink more than a pint in an evening. The mild bitter
was the better choice for an evening.
- Dark de Triomphe (Dry stout). The bartender described it as
halfway between Guinness and Murphy's. That's a good description. Very
chocolate & roasty. Our second favorite.
- Frog Natural Blonde (blond ale). A rather nice intro beer,
fruity, mild, and well-balanced.
- Trente Wheat It claims to be a wheat ale flavored with orange rind. It
smelled and tasted like raspberry. Too sweet for a wheat.
- Raspberet Yuck. A violent raspberry nose with a taste to match. Jackie
said it reminded her of cream soda.
In sum, they hit on half the beers, and those were quite fine. So I count
it a success.
Our most extravagant beer-related adventure was at Ledoyen, a very posh
restaurant on the Champs Elysee, just behind the Petit Palais. The current
chef, Ghislaine Arabiane, is Flemish and features beer in several of her
signature dishes. We had an astoundingly marvelous meal, which finished
with a beer-lover's dessert: Belgian waffle served with kreik ice cream.
And don't think in terms of tepid American "rum"-raisin. This stuff tasted
EXACTLY like kriek!
Later in the week, we visited
Académie
de la Bière for a drink. This is a wonderful place. Their
current tap list was:
- Abbaye Ter Dolen
- Abbaye Maredsous
- Trappe
- Trappe Brune
- Guinness
- Gueuze Saint Louis (good, but sweeter than I prefer)
- Faro
- Tennent's Extra
- Dekoninck
- La Chouffe
- Sixtus
- Ayinger Blanche
- Picon Biere
Josh Mittleman
May 1997