Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Restaurants Talking Head: The Distillery in Savannah breaks the mold
Posted by Jeff Holland on Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 1:49 PM
In less than two weeks an estimated 400,000 revelers will descend on Savannah for the second largest St. Patrick's Day celebration in the United States. There will be parades, Irish music, and green beer, but it will be hard to find a Guinness stout, much less a top-notch American craft beer. The proprietors of The Distillery, which opened in November across from the Savannah Visitors' Center aim to change that.
Michael Volen purchased the building that houses the Distillery in 2004, but was unable to find a satisfactory tenant until his son Ben suggested a bar dedicated to craft beer. Ben Volen got bitten by the craft beer bug while a student at Pace University in Westchester County, New York, where he drank the local craft beers from Captain Lawrence Brewing Company in Pleasantville. After finding that the "craft beer scene was non-existant in Savannah," he convinced his father, a teetotaler, that a first-class taproom could succeeded there. Ben and his friend Chris Hubbard, who serves as the reaturant's general manager, came down to Savannah last summer and began renovating the century-old building that was once home to the Louisville Distilling Company, named for the Louisville road that begins across from the site.
In honor of the building's roots, The Distillery has a "pre-Prohibition pub" feel, with brick walls, industrial artifacts and a custom wooden bar. Although flat screen TVs adorn the walls, they normally play silent movies that make an appropriate backdrop for the scene. The bar sports 21 taps that are stocked primarily with American micro-brews from the likes of Stone, Lagunitas, Victory, and Georgia breweries like Terrapin and Savannah's Moon River. David Little, president of the local homebrewing club and beer guru at Savannah Distributing Company, helped train the staff on the finer points of craft beer, and his homebrew club holds their meetings there.
Ben Volen has jumped headlong into the challenge of serving esoteric brews to a town over-run with college pitcher-pounders by taking a no-crap-on-tap approach to his beer list. "We carried Bud in a bottle for a while, but we have dropped that," Ben says. "The distributor was pretty upset about it. We still have Yuengling and PBR for those who just can't choke down one of our beers, but we try to steer them to [Victory] Prima Pils or Scrimshaw Pilsner. Then I take them over to the wheat beer; you can always satisfy somebody's palate."
The Distillery has live music several nights a week, and will be hosting regular beer dinners. It's conveniently located near several hotels, but is a comfortable distance from the madness of River Street. They don't have Guinness on tap, but they do have Victory's Donnybrook Stout, a low-alcohol Irish dry stout in the same tradition, along with plenty of Irish whiskey and a proper pub atmosphere. I say "Slainte" to that!
Comments (1)
Showing 1-1 of 1
like
dislike
Latest in Omnivore
-
Local restaurants honor the late Warren Bruno
Percentage of sales will be donated in Warren Bruno's honor.
-
Weekend food events, May 25-27: 3B Fest, a patio party, and more
Weekend events for Friday May 25 to Sunday May 27.
-
Waiting on Shaun Doty's chicken at Ansley Mall
It's a game of retail dominoes
- More »
