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Suds & Grub

The Independent's guide to bellying-up to North Bay brewpubs

Edited by Gretchen Giles

THIS SEEMED LIKE a sweet deal: We each got a few bucks to take friends and family out to lunch and dinner; we were forced to drink copious amounts of the best housemade beer in the North Bay; we were darn near threatened if we didn't have a good time--even Amnesty International was beginning to get just a little curious. So what's to complain about?

It's over.

Our drab, hey-what's-in-your-brown-paper-bag lunches are back. We are suspiciously sober all the time. There have even been a few renegades talking about eating fruit.

Ah, well, all good things have to come to an end. But it's just the beginning for you, the reader, as you travel with writers Greg Cahill, Gretchen Giles, Paula Harris, David Templeton, and Marina Wolf to the back roads and the front roads of the booming microbrew pub scene in Sonoma and Marin counties and Calistoga, a scene that we've watched bubble up before our dazzled eyes. When we first reported on this fizzy phenomenon in February of '95, there were a modest two players on the local brewpub market. Today you're looking at the longest food feature we've ever run.

And before you legion of beermakers begin to write nasty letters, just calm down: We visited only those pubs that serve food and brew their own beer, we didn't scour Napa and Mendocino counties, and we didn't intend to leave you out. So sit back, pop a cold one, and let your mouth water.

Sonoma County
Bear Republic Brewing Company
Dempsey's Restaurant & Brewery
Korbel Delicatessen & Market
Powerhouse Brewing Company
Santa Rosa Brewing Company
Sonoma Mountain Brewery & Hopyards
The Southwest Corner Brewpub
Third Street Aleworks

Marin County
Marin Brewing Company
Moylan's Brewery & Restaurant
Willow Street

Mendocino County
Mendocino Brewing Company

Napa County
Napa Valley Brewing Company

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From the Oct. 16-22, 1997 issue of the Sonoma County Independent.

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