Beer Trails: City Steam Powers Hartford As Relic Takes Root In Plainville John Fortunato June 4, 2012 Columns 1 Located at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Hartford, City Steam Brewery may be the most versatile New England gastropub. On an overnight May ’12 jaunt, my wife and I (with dog, Roscoe, in tow) stayed across the ...
Beer Trails: Mews Tavern’s 69 Taps & Cloverleaf’s MBA Program John Fortunato May 14, 2012 Columns Neatly reminiscent of a proper English pub, pine-timbered Country Inn-styled sports bar, Mews Tavern is rightly claimed Southern Rhode Island’s best and most popular watering hole. Hosting an astounding 69 micr...
Beer Trails: Dog, Fox, & Duck Face Off Against Vintage Port District John Fortunato April 27, 2012 Columns 1 Along with my wife, Karen, I once more ventured out on a brewpub tour. This time, we took in a few newly discovered and previously uncovered Maryland-Virginia-D.C. establishments. Taking 78 West through Pen...
Beer Trails: Twisted Elm Validates Mr. Rogers’ New Neighborhood John Fortunato April 13, 2012 Columns 1 As America’s craft beer revolution continues to move onward and upward at an increasingly fast pace, many fine neighborhood gastropubs have been popping up all over the Garden State. Being one of the latest...
Beer Trails: Rummaging Jersey Pre-March Madness John Fortunato April 2, 2012 Columns 2 A few days before Kentucky and Syracuse lead a field of limber hopefuls into the NCAA basketball tournament, I perused Central Jersey’s northernmost shoreline in search of newfangled brews from three trusted br...
Beer Trails: 508 Gastro Raises NYC’s Beer Profile John Fortunato March 19, 2012 Columns There’ve finally been some steps taken to make Manhattan not only the cultural capitol of the world, but perhaps someday, the hottest brewing municipality on the planet. Granite City has dragged behind the ...
Beer Trails: Northern Connecticut’s Willimantic Brewery and Tullycross Tavern Prove Worthy John Fortunato February 13, 2012 Columns Willimantic Brewery Connecticut may not get the same respect its New England neighbors receive, but there’s a few wonderful Constitution State breweries competing favorably against the best public houses d...
Cotton Mather: Kontiki John Fortunato January 18, 2012 Albums 1 I first got introduced to Austin-based band Cotton Mather when 1994’s superb debut, Cotton Is King, hit the streets. Genuine hook-filled opener “Lost My Motto” sounded like ‘80s pop kingpins Squeeze, riding...
Beer Trails: Manhattan’s 404 Hosts Triumphant Beer Bar Fest NYC John Fortunato January 10, 2012 Columns 1 Hundreds of beer geeks joined ranks Saturday, Dec. 10, for the first Beer Bar Fest. Hosted by prospering New York City Homebrewers Guild bellwethers Chris Cuzme and Mary Izett at a hot new venue, this merry two...
Beer Trails: Nine-Day Thanksgiving Feast John Fortunato December 14, 2011 Columns 1 November 19: Enjoyed 381 Main’s November Winter Fest in Little Falls, NJ, this Saturday, featuring Jersey brewers’ elixirs tapped or bottled. Owner Steve Baskinger’s made this lounge-y hangout the perfect s...