A few weeks back my girlfriend Nikki and I decided we were in need a of a serious girl’s night. We decided to try a classic tapas joint on 31st Street and then see where the night took us. While the tapas joint had great service, passable Spanish wine, and complimentary house infused brandy, we wanted a little more something—more food, more booze, somewhere we could be a little louder and the lights were a little darker. We wandered in to Rest.au.Rant and were hooked—they had fabulous cheese plates and the bartender poured us the delectable Badiola Super Tuscan. Somewhere through my wine addled haze I remember thinking “I must come back and blog about this place” and that’s about all I remember. I came home to my slightly bemused boyfriend and when I tried to act normal he said “your teeth are purple have been out with Nikki?" Busted.
Labor Day turned out to be balls to the wall crazy at my bar and after turning it out for hours I was ready for a beer. Nikki had come in for a quick wine and we decided to venture back to Rest.au.Rant and try and remember it this time. Inside the bar it is inviting and rustic, with small wooden tables and two chandlers made out of wine glasses. An old grappa press, giant wine rack and old fishing nets overhead add to the ambiance while chalkboards display the beer list and specials.
Rest.au. boasts a ton of specials, by the way: happy hour on weekdays from 4-7 includes $4 house wines and drafts, every night couples (including platonic) get a free desert with a bottle of wine, and every Wednesday you get 20% off bottles of wine. They also boast a pretty great beer selection and even offer up flights to help you decide. The “American Mixers” Flight brings you 3 ounces each of Sierra Nevada, J.K.Skrumpy’s Organic Hard Cider, and Brooklyn Lager while the “Acquired Tastes” serves up J.K. Skrumpy’s, Delirium Tremens, and Franziskaner Weissbiere. I’ll admit flights of beer are a fun novelty, but their beer list is too good to settle on the select few they have singled out for tastings. The bartender seemed happy to give small tastes of the draft selections and also was able to make good recommendations, turned out he was the same one who had helped us down a good bottle and a half of vino a few weeks prior.
Nikki decided to go with the Super Tuscan we had so enjoyed on our first visit, I went for the Castelain Blond Biere De Garde from France. The Blond was malty and herbal, reminded me of a lot of the beers I had had in Paris a few years back and it went quite nicely with our shrimp in pesto. Steve the bartender poured me a taste of the “beer of the moment” which happened to be the Aecht Schlenkerla Helles, a smoked beer from Bamberg, Germany. It smelled like a campfire, Steve ran some drinks to a table on the patio and yelled over his shoulder that the darker Schlenkerla tastes “like bacon” , a fact I simply had to write down before I forgot but while reaching for the pen I managed to knock my smoky beer all over my drink date, her phone, and my notes. Sigh, you really can’t take this Wench anywhere.
Aecht Schlenkerla is a traditional German Rauchbier, the word “schlenkerla” comes from an expression which translates roughly into an inability to walk straight (possibly due to drunkenness). The smoky flavor of the beer is a result of the malt being exposed to the aromatic smoke from burning beech wood before it is aged in 700-year-old cellars. While several varieties are available at different times of the year (they even make a “Lentbeer”), Rest.au.Rant is currently selling the Helles which is brewed with Bavarian aroma hops, boiled in copper kettles, and lagered (aged) in century old caves underneath the brewery.
I plan on continuing my love affair with Rest.au.Rant and working my way through the beer list as well as the food menu. I am still dreaming about the truffles that came complimentary with our bottle of wine and am thoroughly intrigued by the Steinlager from New Zealand. At only $8 a bottle the Koningshoeven Quadruple and the Delirium Tremens could get this Wench in some serious trouble, but hey, I’ve already spilled one drink at this bar why stop now?
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