New Rochelle Gets Down to the Beer Necessities — 415 Crafted Brews, Gourmet Foods and BBQ Brisket
The trickle down of the phenomenon that Joshua M. Bernstein terms the “Brewed Awakening” (in his book of that title) is that the craft beer revolution is coming to a town near you.
In that vein, The Grape Exchange (31 Quaker Ridge Rd, 914-576-3936) — a neighborhood wine and liquor store in New Rochelle—has branched out with a beer-focused venue located in the same shopping center. The Beer Necessities (11 Quaker Ridge Rd, 914-278-9050), offers 1,440 square feet devoted to boutique beers. New Rochelle is about to become a mecca for beer aficionados throughout Westchester County!
Whether you are a beer drinker or not it is just a fun store and a nice place to be and the store offers some great food as well.
"I want people to come on in, have a visit and enjoy," said store owner, Michael Grossberg.
Aiming to challenge DeCicco’s Family Market for the title of Westchester’s largest in-store selection, The Beer Necessities opened on November 28th to offer 415 types of beer in bottles and cans. The bottles stretch in an almost dizzying array along one entire wall of the narrow, deep store. Yet, according to Adam Deutsch - who, along with Michael Grossberg and John Paulercio owns the enterprise - the shop is soon expected to offer still more, aiming for 600 labels. The hot news for beer geeks—who, concerned with freshness, may question the bottle turnover in such a vast bottle variety— is that The Beer Necessities also offers 15 taps with two Pegas canisters which is used to fill glass jugs known as "growlers" with draft beer.
The Pegas System, which Grossberg describes as a Russian Filling Station, is a "no waste" station, designed to prevent oxygen from getting into the beer so the growler can be filled from the bottom up without creating a large head of foam.
The Pegas system is an upgrade from the surgical-style tubing that you’ll see attached to the taps at Whole Foods (and other grocery stores). Like some wine storage systems, the Pegas replaces the air in the top of the filled growler with gases, prolonging the life of the unopened growler of beer for up to 45 days instead of the usual two weeks or so (according to the source http://www.westchestermagazine.com). The system’s producers also claim that it reduces the traditional keg waste of 25-30 percent, liquid that’s lost whenever servers overfill growlers to eliminate foam in the jug. The Pegas developers say that only 10 percent of the beer poured with this system is wasted in flushing the tap lines.
Growlers harken back to the late 19th century and the early 20th century when beer was sold and carried home in small galvanized pails. Today they offer customers a "green" reusable way to take home beer, many of which are best served in drafts rather than bottlers. Customers fill up, take the growler home where it can keep for up to two months until opened. Grossberg happily suggests drinking the entire contents that night once the growler is unsealed.
Deutsch says the idea for The Beer Necessities came from partner Michael Grossberg, who owns The Grape Exchange. In order to capitalize on the growing craft beer trend, Grossberg wanted to split his existing wine store to vend both beer and wine under the same roof. According to the New York State Liquor Authority, beer may not be sold in liquor stores, and currently, wine and liquor may not be sold by grocery stores in New York State.
The store is offering 415 beers from across the United States - like Purple Haze from Abita Springs, Louisiana to Otter Creek from Middlebury, Vermont to Dogfish Head from Milton, DE.
Grossberg can tell you a story about each and every one having personally tasted each of them.
"My philosophy is that I love doing what I am doing and my customers know it. I am just as excited about putting some new thing on the shelf as anybody could be," said Grossberg. "I love the way it looks, I love the way it tastes and I want to turn other people onto it."
With a wide selection of domestic beers from regions throughout the country, the store also offers an interesting and eclectic selection of beers from Europe and around the world.
"I love to educate people on wine, scotch, bourbon, things that you can't find everywhere, try it by tasting. I wanted to do the same with beer."
Grossberg attributes his success with the first store to focusing on matching the profile of the wine to the profile of the customer.
"With The Grape Exchange, I never want to just sell a wine to a customer I want the story behind the wine to suit the customer's style so the wine and the story behind it is appealing to people. I want to do the same now for beer."
With the beer store Grossberg says he was "looking to do something different, something that people were looking for" noting that there is nothing else like The Beer Necessities in the area.
Grossberg not only acquired a license to sell beer at the store but a grocery license as well.
"I thought, what goes with beer?", he said. "The fact is everything goes with beer — hot sauces, dips, chips, and more -- so we became a retail outlet for Great American BBQ and will offer foods from them and Chef Johnson who worked for Emeril, the famed chef, in Louisiana."
The store also offers an assortment of cheeses and other fine foods.
But, though foods and gifts are on offer, the main story at The Beer Necessities is beer — and, folks, there’s a lot of it.
The store itself is a work of art. The floor is custom made using reclaimed wood from a barn in Kentucky laid out by hand. There is a table brought over from Bali hewn from a 200 year old tree. The top is one piece from the tree, the two legs are from the stump which was cut in half.
It is hard to find anything in the store that doesn't come with a good story — and a good owner ready to tell it.
Sources:
http://www.westchestermagazine.com
http://www.newrochelletalk.com
PEGAS is a registered trademark of Novosibirskprodmash.
