The Great L.A. Beer Run: April 2007 Archives

Number three in an ongoing roll call of L.A.'s best beer buying bodegas. This, for the record, was our first home away from home: our first beer store in California.

On York and Ave. 57 there is a modest Mecca where over 450 types of beer have a regularly stocked home. Inside, past 500 different types of soda pop and tonics, past a now defunct set of produce bins filled with retro candies, there are is a long row of shelves brimming with brew from every conceivable country of origin. Mexican craft beer, authentic German Rauchbeir, and a daunting array of 750's from Belgium stand as a quieting gauntlet to the would-be-buyer. Shoppers slowly step down the aisles, silent in thought, contemplating their inevitable purchase... purchases.

Galco’s Soda Pop Shop has an arresting amount of beer. The specialty grocer is L.A.’s oldest and has been heralded all over the country as the place to buy specialty pop. We've known it as a soda oasis for the seven years we’ve been Angelenos. These are the floors where we've spent hundreds of dollars, discovering some of our favorite beers.

We've even made friends in the beer aisles of Galco's. In 2002, Alex was lugging a shopping basket full of high ABV bombers when he ran into this guy. Mike Meanstreetz and Mr. Brown babbled about beer for fifteen minutes and parted ways - only to meet up again at Evan's house a month later. (Look out for Meanstreetz's write up of Wine House in Culver City in the next two weeks.)

Recently we paid Galco's a visit to pick the owner's brain about L.A. and suds. John Nese has been in love with carbonated beverages since childhood when he used to daydream about piping soda pop into his elementary school's drinking fountains.

Galco's has been around for over 100 years, but the move towards strict soda and beer sales has been policy for about 11. John saw large soda and beer companies completely dominating the shelves and robbing customers of the variety of choices he remembers as a child. “40 years ago, if you walked into a grocery store and they didn’t have 30 to 40 different kinds of soda; you’d walk out the door and shop somewhere else.” So he stopped selling Coke and Pepsi, and started buying direct from a litany of pop producers. Then he did the same thing with beer.

Talking with John led to some simple but astounding realizations: namely that store owners from Albertsons franchisers to Whole foods specialty reps have visited his store to take notes and pick his brain about how to stock their shelves. “They all ask the same thing,” he says with a knowing grin, “what are your top sellers?” Not surprisingly, John told us that essentially all of our familiar beer venders have been to his store seeking education. He never refuses advice, but he believes in Choice (note the capitalization), and offers the same answer to the ubiquitous top ten quandary: "Whichever ten you decide to sell."

According to John, the reason why L.A. isn’t a serious beer city is simply because “nobody has made it that way.” With the constraints that even the most forward thinking of beer store owners face, in terms of shelf real estate and the risky turnover of high priced specialty beers, its no surprise.

Stocking awesome beers can be stressful for a small business owner, unless it's all you sell. John's pretty relaxed. While beer might play second chair to soda in his store, you will find dozens of beers that you have never had and want. Each beer is priced by the each, which will be a little more expensive than some stores (probably because they price their bottles after visiting Galco's), but you can taste more each time you visit. If you make this store a regular stop when you forage for drink, the small selections at most other stores might make you want to walk out.

Staff: John knows his stock.
Refrigeration: Very limited in relation to the size of the inventory. No cold bombers might bum you out.
Split Six Packs: Absolutely. This dude invented it.
Belgians: Might be the best in the city.
Microbrews: Huge selection, but not super streamlined. Good source for seasonal releases.
Special Powers: Choice.
Achilles’ Heel: Equality: Not all of the 450 are really worth buying.

This is the next installment in an on-going series highlighting some of the best, and brightest, beer fridges in Los Angeles. Beer heads muttering “7-11…WTF Hot Knives?” please read on!

We’ve always known there was something strange about the 7-11 at Figueroa Street and Avenue 52 in the L.A. neighborhood of Highland Park. For one thing, there’s always extremely loud satellite radio being cranked from the stereo’s surround sound system. The loud music at all hours has earned it a moniker in the area as “The Rock ‘n’ Roll 7-11.” Rumor was, the owner just liked his classic rock playing whether he was there or not.

Well, in the last 2 months a much more promising abnormality has surfaced at this store — one that is starting to earn it another nickname and hopefully some regional fame. Our 7-11 is now a microbrew 7-11. We say “ours” because it lies both conveniently close to Evan’s casa and halfway on Alex’s bike commute from home to work. Needless to say, we’ve contributed a bit of business to the slowly growing beer section (about 100 bottles), but we honestly can’t take any credit for the trend. At all.

Charles is not your average 7-11 owner/manager. He’s a middle-aged, suave dude who wears all black all the time and routinely joins his employees behind the counter. His wife (we presume) often peruses the store stocking various aisles while burping their (we presume) small baby in a chest snuggle pack. This, set to an uncomfortably loud chorus of “Crimson and Clover,” you have to understand, is a sweet David Lynch shopping experience.

The shock comes in the beer locker. One side of the store is occupied by your average 7-11 fridges: energy drinks, Gatorade, bottled water and sparkling water, sodas followed by a trusty grouping of mediocre domestic and Mexican beers. The last rack has a couple flavors of Sparks. But look on the adjacent wall, between the large wine racks and the Hagen Daz ice cream sits two unpretentious but impeccable beer compartments.

The top shelf is entirely Belgians, including the regional hits (Russian River’s Damnation) and the domestic superstars (Three Philosophers) and the ubiquitous international celebrities (Delerium, all Chimays). This alone is unheard of even for most convenient liquor stores, let alone 7-11 chains, but Charles takes it a step further and offers specialty international bottles of St. Bernardus and Uni 15. He told me once that he wants to specialize in Belgians. He also sells proper Belgian glasses, which are prominently displayed next to the gum and the cigarettes.

The rest of his beer runs the gamut. Only a smattering of six packs, the vast majority is bombers. The six packs he does carry include Stone IPA, Downtown Brown, Indica IPA and Alaskan Amber. In bombers there’s always Alesmith Anvil Ale, Arrogant Bastard and Ruination Ale representing the San Diego scene. An extensive, even overboard, Rogue selection includes Shakespeare Stout, Dead Guy, Hazelnut Brown Ale and at least three others. Both Lagunitas and Anderson Valley are featured, but not the staples you’d expect.

According to Charles, his is the only store of the 40,000 American franchises that have included an extensive list of microbrews and he had to fight the chain of command to do so. Now, he’s proving them wrong with booming beer sales. Last time we spoke, Charles talked about abolishing all six packs in favor of bombers; starting a beer website and hand-producing a 50-foot sign for the side of his store with all of the microbrew logos on it. Thank heavens indeed. Watch this guy, he’s the future of convenient store beer. In fact, drive to our hood and buy from him. Or write and ask for your own microbrew 7-11.

Staff: Charles knows his stuff. And more than one of his seemingly underage staff has chimed in with opinions on rare Belgians.
Refrigeration: Everything.
Split Six Packs: Nope, but not many six packs at that.
Belgians: Proportionally a very strong showing, a little of everything, most geographies represented and some rare ones.
Microbrews: The place will always sell Natty Light, it’s a 7-11, but their microbrew section is as large as the domestic shelf.
Special Powers: Limited editions of regional breweries, Belgians, rotating specials.
Achilles’ Heel: Too much space dedicated to the typical Rogue fare.
Location: Here.

This post is the first in an on-going series we’ll be doing on some of our favorite beermongers in the L.A. area. These stores include everything from a 100-year-old mom and pop grocer to a high-end wine and spirit purveyor and even a diamond-in-the-rough 7-11. They service distant zip codes (that we plan on exploring by bicycle on our up-coming Great L.A. Beer Run 2007) but they all share a dedication to beer kulture.

Cap’n Cork has been a regular beer haunt of ours going on three years. They have a huge selection of beer ranging from the more than mundane to the rarely seen in L.A. When Alex was stupid drunk at the Moylans bar/brewery in Novato last summer, he demanded a talk with the manager who could tell him when the Hopsickle would be back in L.A. They had no idea that anyone was selling it so far south. We had discovered it at Cap’n Cork for a ridiculously cheap $4.99.

There are two walls of reachin refrigerators in this edifice of hooch. Not a single beer is uncooled, which is not the norm for stores with this many beers. The selection ranges from domestic favorites like Moylans, Stone and Avery, to immaculate Belgians like Brasserie De Rocs and Trappists Rochforts. You will find something you like here (we can’t leave without at least four bombers in tow).

While this place boasts a great number of brews that we love, they are not without flaw. All the glory of the aforementioned array of fridges is contained in three of about twelve cabinets. The rest are filled with industry regulars like Corona and Tecate, which any liquor store is obligated to carry. What’s disappointing is the amount of space dedicated to really boring English, German, and American Microbrews. None of these beers suck, they just aren’t very noteworthy, and it rarely seems like they move from their shelves. If this place revitalized their offering and sold individual 12 oz. bottles? We’d have to shop here with chaperones.

Staff: Awesome. Mike (pictured above) isn’t the beer geek that he could be, but he’s always super nice and when you buy something he thinks rules (Rogue Imperial IPA) he’ll let you know.
Refrigeration: Yes. Everything.
Split Six Packs: Yes, but only for small Belgians.
Belgians: Good mix of American styles and old world bombers.
Microbrews: Small selection for a place this size, but all the heavy hitters are here.
Special Powers: All the Alesmiths, all the time. Hopsickle: when available. Munchies.
Achilles’ Heel: Too much space dedicated to uninteresting beer. This place would be unparalleled if they redesigned their stocking practices.
Location: Here.