Roeg's Picks for 2012: Best Regional Bar

Best Regional Bar: A regional bar has a great beer selection (duh!), but goes out of its way to highlight local beers.  These are the spots you seek out when you visit a new area.  This year I was lucky to be on the road to find three new favorite destinations.

Gold: Sheffield’s, Chicago, IL – A top pick of Draft Magazine, Sheffield’s (http://www.sheffieldschicago.com/) offers a slew of bottles, 38 taps and one beer engine feature American craft standards and local suds and great Bar-B-Q. When I visited it was Kalamazoo night, a great microbrewery from Michigan that brews Bell’s beers, and they were offering food specials to match.  I had the Bell’s fried chicken, using Bell’s Two Hearted IPA in the batter, with collard greens and red beans with rice.  More importantly I was able to try their Two Hearted IPA on draft AND on cask (awesome), as well as their Cherry Stout on draft.  It was a great dinner and a lot of fun. 

Silver: Prohibition Pig, Waterbury, VT – The Prohibition Pig (http://www.prohibitionpig.com/) offers a great selection of VT’s finest breweries.  Their tap menu was excellent, but I’d have to say that their food was even better.  Their specialty is bar-b-que, smoking their meets and offering their own sauces.  I went with their sliced brisket sandwich, to go with my VT beers, Lawson’s Finest Triple Play IPA and the Hill Farmstead George.  I can’t wait to bring Jenn back to stay overnight in Waterbury; Ben & Jerry’s, Cabot Cheese, the Alchemist and Prohibition Pig.

Bronze: Bridge End Inn, Ruabon, Wales – The Bridge End Inn in Wales was CAMRA’s 2011 Pub of the Year, the first pub in Wales ever to win the award.  A nice cozy pub, with a great landlord and quite a talkative clientele, I was really impressed with the diverse selection of Welsh beer.  They had Brains and Conwy beers, but I started with a McGivern (the house brewer) Code Breaker and wrapped up with a New Plossey Dusky Maiden Stout.  It was a shame that we were on our way to the airport, because I could have easily spent an evening here (http://www.mcgivernales.co.uk/page5.html).

Honorable Mention: I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the Great Lost Bear (http://www.greatlostbear.com/), a restaurant that gives ME brewers an opportunity to showcase their wares.  I mean, GLB offers 4 casks and has Allagash alley.  How great is that?

"The best beer is where the priests go to drink." – Anonymous