WV Gourmet

Fathead’s is a great bar/restaurant on Pittsburgh’s South Side.  Not only does Fathead’s have an insane beerlist, their staff is knowledgeable about beer, AND they have great bar food.  It’s pretty much the greatest place in the world. 

The food:  They have an extensive menu of sandwiches (or headwiches, as they call them) and burgers, as well as generous sized appetizers and chicken wing flavors.  On my most recent trip, I went with an appetizer of five wings and the Double D.  For the wings I went with Fathead’s Original (their version of the classic Buffalo sauce).  They were very big and meaty with a crispy exterior and a good dose of very spicy Buffalo sauce.  My sandwich headwich was the Double D, which the menu describes as follows:   “Shaved Steak grilled with onions, mushrooms & hot peppers on top of hot sausage & pepperoni.  With tomato sauce, provolone and parmesan cheese.  Buy two, who wouldn’t want a pair of Double D’s.”  This sandwich was every bit as big, unhealthy and DELICIOUS as it sounds.  I did not capture a photo of it because it was so large that you couldn’t fit it into a single picture.  I’m not kidding, it was bigger than my oversized head.  It came with homemade chips, which were also very good. 

A delicious mug of Brutal Bitter

The beer:  Even if Fathead’s didn’t have exceptional bar food, it is well worth the visit for the beer.  They boast 42 beers on tap, many of which are rotating selections.  Forty of those taps are devoted to microbrews/imports, while one is for Lite Beer From Miller and the other Yeungling Lager.  They also always have one beer served on cask.  For those of you who don’t know about cask conditioned beers, they are a rare treat which you can learn about here.  On this particular visit, Rogue Brutal Bitter was on cask, so I started off with that.  It was slightly warm (as a cask beer should be), had a great full mouthfeel with assertive, yet somewhat mellow hops.  I followed this up with Great Divide Fresh Hop Ale - a very assertively hopped pale ale from Colorado.  The grapefruity bitterness of this beer paired well with the fatty Double D.  I then tried a sample of the Sierra Nevada Brown Saison, which had nice raisin and funky flavor.  I closed out with the Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Imperial Stout.  Why is this beer called “Ten Fidy”?  Because it is 10.5% alcohol by volume.  This is one hell of a strong and tasty beer, with strong roasted coffee and dried fruit flavors, but also a strong hop character, in other words a damn fine beer.  

A lilliputian selection of taphandles.

After finishing the Ten Fidy, I went back to my hotel, turned on the TV and was asleep before 8 p.m.  The combination of a long day, some good football, the Double D, and some damn fine beers had worn me out.  I awoke the next morning, refreshed and ready to go to Pamela’s Diner for pancakes, but that is another story.

An update on the WV beer bill (which would amend state code to allow the selling of craft beer up to 12%, instead of the current 6% cap).

It hasn’t been shot down yet!

In fact, it’s been sent off to the finance committee. Notorious pessimist and beer lover Chris Workman called this a “good sign”. Make of that what you will. I’m trying to avoid getting my hopes up, but it’s looking encouraging.

Rich Ireland, the Charleston Gazette’s beer expert, brings us word of the latest attempt to legalize beer with an alcohol-by-volume level greater than 6%.

House Bill 2719 has been introduced and is sitting idle in the House Judiciary Committee. This year’s bill is very simplified and to the point; West Virginia should raise the permissible alcohol limit to 12%ABV on “non-intoxicating” beer…West Virginia stands only with Mississippi in proclaiming our utter ignorance when it comes to modernization of our beer laws. We can change this very easily and with absolutely nothing but a positive effect on consumer choice.

As Rich says in his post, please call or write your delegates and ask them to support this bill. A similar effort last year was stifled for fear of arousing the ire of neo-prohibitionists conservative voters. Now the election’s behind us, perhaps this is the year where we can finally get this pointless loophole closed.

There is quite a lot of garlic on this burger.

Although Fat Patty’s, a relatively new burgers-and-beers joint on the corner of 20th St. and 3rd Ave. in Huntington, conjures up images of vast, dripping, slabs of meat, it’s the imaginative toppings that really make the place memorable. The garlic-slathered meatslab to the right is the “Vampire Killer,” but other offerings include a Hawaiian-themed pineapple creation, a pepper-packed patty, and a delectable cajun-blue-cheese-bacon combination.

Despite the appetizing appearance of the sandwich, it’s a shame that the garlic seemed to be of the pre-prepared, out-of-a-jar variety rather than fresh: it has none of the sharpness and aggression that characterizes quickly cooked garlic. There’s still plenty of body, but it’s lacking the bite. It’s not going to worry any vampires.

On balance, though, it was a happy enough sandwich. I enjoyed the hefty chunk of red onion, and a generous helping of the other fixings, and the bun was generic but not too understated as to be overwhelmed or soggified by everything else. Decent, but I think I’ll opt for one of their blue cheese offerings next time. (Update: I did go back, and the “Black and Blue” is indeed absolutely delicious, removing my last reservation about this joint.)

But that’s not the best thing on that plate.

No, leave this place without ordering onion rings, and the Manson family will drive to your house and molest your cat. They’re that good. Just dark enough, with a pleasantly beery batter and a tasty core: some of the best around. Perhaps they’re frozen, but I’m inclined to doubt it.

(Hey, Patty’s, if you’re out there, how about doing BK’s “Mildly Upset Whopper” right?  I think you’ve got the ingredients and the attitude to make it work.)

If you go, go early. They were packed by 12pm on a Monday, and although their wait staff were obviously overstretched, they did a creditable job keeping up with our drink refills (no, not beer, although Patty’s full bar will doubtless be happy to satisfy any cravings you have in that direction). Despite the busy-ness and our onion-ring substitution, we were in and out in well under 45 minutes; just right for lunch. I’m already plotting an early evening return for beers, wings, and rings: Fat Patty’s is an easy recommendation.

A tip for out-of-state beer lovers: don’t come here. It sucks.

A bizarre reverse loophole in WV liquor legislation prevents the sale any beer greater than 6% alcohol by volume in West Virginia. Despite several recent efforts by pressure groups and state lawmakers, it looks as if the situation isn’t about to change, and this means that the bulk of the superb, delightful produce of the burgeoning American craft beer industry is just not sold here. The Charleston Gazette’s beer expert Rich Ireland has the full story of the collapse of the most recent attempt to fix this ridiculous situation, together with some pithy commentary with which I heartily agree.

What to do, then? Either head out of state and pick up beer at a store in the surrounding area or, if that’s not an option, get some shipped from one of the many on-line stores. Doing either of these things is probably illegal, although your chances of getting busted seem very small. (Or you can brew your own, but that’s a post for another day.)

This sad situation means many thousands of superb beers are out of the reach of many West Virginians who don’t live within easy reach of an out-of-state outlet, or can’t afford the high shipping rates of the online merchants.

Exhibit one: the American IPA, or India Pale Ale. To my mind, the finest of American beer styles, and one of the most popular creations at any craft brewery. But barring one Sierra Nevada seasonal (the delicious Anniversary, which appears in WV stores every fall and barely squeaks under the 6% line) and Harpoon IPA (which is entirely too shy and retiring for my taste) there’s nothing that qualifies as a real IPA to be found in WV; most mainstream examples fall in the 6.5% to 7.25% area.

And one of my favorite IPAs is from Bells, a brewery up in Michigan that’s among the larger of the many US microbreweries. Named Two Hearted Ale, it sports a handsome label with a picture of a trout; both the name and the imagery are owed to an Ernest Hemingway short story about a fishing trip on Michigan’s Two Hearted River.

If you’re used to the swill that passes for beer in most WV store coolers, it’ll raise your eyebrows. It’s full-bodied even for an IPA, and is towards the higher end of the ABV scale. But slosh it into a nice wide-mouthed glass — don’t, for the love of god(s), drink it from the bottle — and the hop aroma will practically fill the room. The floral, citrusy bouquet is unmistakable, and decidedly appetizing. Take a sip, and you’ll find it’s not as mouth-puckeringly bitter as some IPAs can be, despite the considerable hop flavor. Balance is the key here, and although I love the more off-the-wall IPAs many micros have developed, Two-Hearted is decidedly an easy beer to drink.

For a microbeer, it’s comparatively widely distributed in around the eastern US. My regular source is Ashland Beverage Center in Kentucky, but it should be available in good PA and VA stores too. If you know of a good supplier in other areas, let us know in the comments.

Rich Ireland test-drives chocolate cheddar

The excellent and learned Rich Ireland checked out Rogue Chocolate-Stout Cheddar recently, declaring it “one of the most buttery cheddars I have tasted”. Sounds like a winner to me, and you can find it at the Wine Shop at Charleston’s Capitol Market.

Although Rich opts for Sam Smith’s Oatmeal Stout to pair with the cheese, I happened to spot Rogue’s Chocolate Stout when I was out at Leo’s in South Point, OH. on Friday.