This is pretty sad.
Uninformed.
Condescending.
Essentially treating the readers like boobs.
One might call it the foodie version of the McCain Campaign, were one the sort to do that.
One hopes, in any case, that perhaps Craig LaBan, a very good restaurant critic who has become one of the advocates of craft beer in America’s Best Beer-Drinking City, might take the colleague with whom he shares a page every Sunday in the Philadelphia Inquirer aside and knock a bit of sense in his head.
Quite simply, Rick Nichols embarrasses himself here, in a piece about a new wine bar in Manayunk which has been added to the perennial Jake’s on Main Street.
The column is built around the shtick that the once high end destination avenue has regressed and been down-scaled into a frat party atmosphere:
Jake’s has been for grown-ups: In a sea of increasingly down-market beer joints and “drink specials,” on a strip that toward midnight gets fratty-er and boozier, it has catered to an older, more refined clientele, denizens of Chestnut Hill and the moneyed Main Line.
[ ... ]
Whether Manayunk’s “degentrified” main drag can regain its lost luster is a harder question: Sonoma and Kansas City Prime are gone, and Roscoe’s Kodiak Cafe, and bold Vega Grill, and pioneering Jamey’s.
Perhaps demographics will be destiny: Cooper posits that the $100,000 rowhouses that were converted into apartments for college kids five years ago are climbing in value and becoming owner-occupied; and that, regardless, the 21-year-olds of that era are now 24, 25 and 26, more grown up themselves - with better jobs, broader tastes, and a bit more income.
Fair enough. But then he falls back on the old saws and images to make his point in the next two (closing) paragraphs:
In other words, they’re ripe to join the adults at Cooper’s Brick Oven Wine Bar. He spotted four of them the other day, sharing a $35 bottle of malbec and a cheese plate at one of his sidewalk tables.
They were still watching the girls go by. But in a watershed moment, Cooper noticed what they weren’t doing; they weren’t drinking beer.
Because beer, of course, is crap and anybody drinking it is a frat boy or lowlife.
All beer is cheap, fizzy yellow liquid, not fit to be served with decent food.
Not drinking beer is a sign of sophistication and high income.
Pathetic.
Manayunk IS fratty, with lots of stupid kids drunk on miller lite or whatever the special is. Despite the connotations of beer he may have, he’s quite right about the area…
What kind of powers of observation are required to get some deep meaning — “a watershed moment” — out of four guys drinking a bottle of wine…at a wine bar?
Good catch, Jack. This is insulting.
[...] Manayunk and its newest eatery, Cooper’s Brick Oven Wine Bar and while doing so, he draws the ire of Jack Curtin. Perhaps demographics will be destiny: Cooper posits that the $100,000 rowhouses that were [...]
Nichols has got one helluva point in the sense that a majority of places in Manayunk are indeed the wateringholes away from the beerpong tables. Its a fucking demographic just like Old City is filled with heaps of South Jersey testosterone and the Barbery is a chock full o’ hipsters. Should he have singled out 4 dewds, theoretically, maybe not. However, he’s just pointing out a demographic (not all priests molest youngins). But saying Laban should knock sense into him? A great writer he is but Laban is the one that adores PBC’s Walt Wit beer, which is by far one of the worst wheat beers to be released in the summer ‘08.
Bpotts and Princeponiatowski89, I have no quarrel with Nichols’ description of the crowd or the nature of the street, but with his silly assumption that people who are not drinking beer are therefore desirable grownups and the underlying theme that the problems on Main Street are all tied to beer itself rather than the nature of the businesses and how they go about attracting the audiences they choose to attract.
His perspective is akin to my saying that the demographics of skid row prove that wine is a only beverage for winos. It’s just dumb and ill thought out.
Besides, as Lew says above, guys drinking wine at a wine bar? Not so astonishing. And certainly indicative of nothing more than that.
The truth is, most teenagers/young adults in this country, have little to no interest in drinking wine, and it’s typically only when they reach a certain age that they start grabbing the merlot. It’s happened to most of us, whether we think it did or not. Now, the way he phrased it did sound like he was equating drinking beer with college-aged behaviour, and with that, I think you’re totally correct in being annoyed (I feel like I have to stick up for craft beer constantly as a worthy adult beverage). However, the point was to show not just how the demographic was changing, but how the people themselves are changing to allow finer food and drink into their lives earlier on.
And in order to do that, to show that these changing people are willing to go with finer food and drink, he made the point not just by indicating what they were drinking but by stressing what they weren’t drink, that awful beer stuff.
There’s a basic message here and a subliminal one. If you really want to “stick up” for craft beer constantly, these are things you need to notice.
Hey, “prince!” Count me in with Laban: “PBC’s Walt Wit beer, which is by far one of the worst wheat beers to be released in the summer ‘08″ is purely your opinion. If Laban was quick enough to realize it’s worth, maybe he’s even better than I thought.
Just my opinion…
Hot damn, let’s you and him fight.
Jack, after reading Nichols article in the Inquirer on Sunday, I had a similar reaction, especially after reading the last two paragraphs. But I remember reading some comments on foobooz.com back in July before Cooper’s open, including their food menu and their list of available brews. It’s was pretty impressed.
Here is the recent list od both draft and bottled beers. Jack, you will notice a few Sly Fox brews are on tap. I am surprised you were not aware of that. The more important question is how did Mr. Nichols overlook a fine assortment of draft as well as bottled beers. I don’t think Craig would have and stated the observation appropriately.
Shame on Mr. Nichols!
http://foobooz.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/coopers-wine-menu.pdf
Yeah, Richard, of course I have a complete list of every Sly Fox beer in bottles and on draught everywhere at all times memorized and keep it constantly updated. I am so ashamed that I did not remember to check it so I could have…well, not sure what, but something.
Which or how many beers were or were not available has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the point of what I wrote, which was about how Nichols chose to characterize the situation and not Cooper’s itself, but I do appreciate your concern.
Jack, I AQREED with you!
Lew, I understand. I was just figuring you could take that one. I mean, a man AQREES with me, he’s my kinda guy.
Jack? Take what? Understand what?
Although, someone who aqrees with you certainly IS your kind of guy. I quess.
To Lew: Sorry, I mixed up your response with the one from Richard.
To Richard: the AQREES comment I sent to Lew was meant to play off your typo. And I know you agreed with me, just didn’t see what the point of the irrelevant “I’m surprised you did not know that” was.
As the gm/beverage director of Cooper’s, I feel the need to comment. I do beleive that the point Mr. Nichols was trying to emphasize was that the kids drinking outside, who were drinking wine, fit the mold of the miller light/budweiser drinking crowd that Manayunk has gotten a bad wrap for….they did not appear to be the type that you would expect to be drinking a bottle of wine, you’d picture them pounding car bombs down the street at Kildaires. Mr. Nichols does not talk down on or frown upon craft beer drinkers….However, he does neglect to mention the selection of about two dozen craft and european brews that Cooper’s proudly boasts in addition to its 30 wines by the glass.
Thanks for jumping in, Owen. Understand that not a word I wrote was critical of Cooper’s, not about Cooper’s at all really, but about Rick Nichols’ attitude and I definitely disagree with you on what that point was.
No, he didn’t “talk down or frown on craft beer drinkers,” he essentially attacked all beer drinkers because the impression he set up was that, as you suggest, the “type that you would expect…[to] picture pounding car bombs” were the real beer drinkers.
[...] general manager and beverage director at Cooper’s in Manayunk just posted some thoughts in the Comments section to this [...]
By the way FYI, here are the beers we are currently pouring for those interested in checking us out….
Draft: Sly Fox Oktoberfest, Troegs Rugged Trail, Gaffel Kolsch, Atomium Grand Cru, PBC Walt Wit, Mojo IPA.
Domestic Bottle: Yards ESA, Eel River Organic Pale, Stone IPA, Yeungling, Brooklyn Brown, Dogfish IBA, Stoudts Fat Dog.
Imported Bottle: Saison Dupont, Hitachino Nest Japanese Classic, Chouffe Houblon, Franziskaner Hefe Weisse, Chimay Blue, Sammy Smith Taddy Porter, Lindemans Lambic Framboise.
WE ARE 100% BEER DRINKER FRIENDLY! (you will not be laughed at, I promise) so, come on in & pair some cheese & pizza with your brews.
-Evan
Stop in I will. And I note that my fellow beer blogger (bloggeress?) Suzie Woods gives your beer list some props today. Up a bit higher in this Comments thread so does loyal reader Richard Ruch.