(photo: Phillip M. Geiger)
May 13, 2014 – Something’s brewing on Alvarado Street in downtown Monterey and it’s attracting a diverse crowd of artisan food and beverage fans to the new, unofficial “gastro hub” of Monterey. The lights are on once again in the old Regency Theater, but nobody’s watching movies and the soda fountain is pumping a whole different kind of suds.
More than a dozen beer taps line up like sentinels behind the bar, their shiny black levers undistinguished by decoration or label. Which is no problem for the “beer tenders” polishing glasses or pulling taps at Alvarado Street Brewery & Grill, who keep it all in their heads. They also understand and would be happy to explain any craft beer on tap—those brewed on site or their guest taps brewed locally or across the country—to the patrons lined up one and two deep against the white marble bar.
Take a walk on the wild side and try a hand-pumped hibiscus beer, the Doc Belgian Brown, or the Minesweeper IPA with a hint of habanero peppers.
“Brewmaster J.C. Hill makes three or four 350-gallon batches a week,” says beer tender Wade Caswell, “depending on how he feels. He rotates his beers every week and is a very creative, experimental guy.”
The Monterey brewery and gastopub, which was up and running on Monday, May 12, is a modern reimagining of the legendary Regency Theater. Built in 1915 to house the Elks Club on the upper levels, and the Strand Theater and two retail stores on the ground floor, the historically significant building, representative of the Beau Arts era of architecture, was closed in 2005. Eight years later, in honor of the architecture and a vision for what it could become, architect John Hill and his son J.C. Hill purchased the property as part of a carefully considered plan. Their intention was to convert the building into current use with four upper-level apartments and the Alvarado Street Brewery & Grill on the ground floor. In so doing, they sought to respect and reflect the historical prominence of the building in a contemporary context.
“We wanted to evoke the era of the Regency Theater but in a modern way,” says John Hill. “Working with traditional design elements from around the turn of the last century, we brought in modern technology and materials to create a big city setting with a neighborhood sensibility.”
White marble tables, high enough for stool sitting or standing round, run through the deep rectangular room, sitting on black-and-white basket-weave tile and hardwood floors. Olive green beadboard wainscoting flanks the walls, themed out by heroic color photographs of old beer cans, shot by renowned local photographer Winston Boyer. The cans themselves are on display in an old Regency marquee behind the bar. The open ceiling, supported by original riveted steel beams, disappears into the anonymity of black. The lighting is both interesting in its fixturing, and subtlety.
The kitchen, clean and contemporary, is on display, with a lot of white tile and stainless steel, and cooks moving in a kind of choreography to turn out artisan foods that complement beer and spirits.
in place of wine or water
“We’re going for a new American style, creating a kind of melting pot, and stirring it up to see what rises to the top,” says chef Aaron Haas. “Our goal is to have fun and take people to places they’re not used to, which means earning their trust and then thinking outside the plate. We use beer to cook everything that might call for water or wine. We use locally sourced, sustainable food when we can, and we recycle or upcycle everything. Our spent grains from brewing go into our flatbreads or off to local farms to feed hogs. We want as little as possible to go down the drain.”
Chef Haas says his intention is to harness old-school practices and get into his grandmother’s mentality of wasting nothing. He collaborates with brewmaster Hill to create food that complements the beer. Hill brews the beer, both taste it, and together they decide what artisanal food will work best with it.
“In pairing beer with food,” says Haas, “we decide how to make it work harmoniously. A lot of breweries have food, but we intend to make food and beer sing together with all their aromatic qualities and flavors.”
While the menu will continue to evolve depending on the seasons and the suds, if the appetizers served at the grand opening are any indication, the brewery and grill promises quite the pairing of artisanal food and brew. Consider a chef Haas favorite, the House French Fries, made with pork belly, cheese curd and beer gravy over the top.
“And that’s exactly what it is,” says chef Haas, “over the top. I love it.” He’s not alone.
Alvarado Street Brewery & Grill
426 Alvarado St.
Monterey
Open Su-Th 5-10pm, Fr-Sa 5-11pm, lunch hours coming soon.
About the author
A fifth-generation Northern Californian, Lisa Crawford Watson has enjoyed a diverse career in business, education and writing. She lives with her family on the Monterey Peninsula, where her grandmother once lived and wrote. An adjunct writing instructor for CSU Monterey Bay and Monterey Peninsula College, Lisa is also a free-lance writer, who specializes in the genres of art & architecture, health & lifestyle, food & wine. She has published various books and thousands of feature articles and columns in local and national newspapers and magazines.
