Photo Courtesy of Tom Daly PhotographyÂ
While out walking the mintypup this evening I did a double-take passing the Carlton Center: although the table saws and lumber are still parked outside, the neon light was flashing “o-p-e-n”. I ventured in for a looky-loo, and was pleasantly surprised at what lay behind those brown kraft-papered windows.
First and foremost, it’s a bottle shop. An entire wall of full-size refrigerators conceal sundry six-packs and 22 oz. singles of your favorite domestic and imported beers. You can find many of these brands at Teeter, but the prices are competitive and there is a nice selection. The Belgians are impressively diverse (Leffe, Duvel, Chimay, Petrus, Kwak) plus there is separate case with 750 ml bottles of what appeared to be the special shit (Il Piraat was but one that I noticed). There is also a wide repertoire of respected domestic microbrews that includes Dogfish Head, Bell’s, Mad River Brewing and Brooklyn Brewing, plus the full line of Starr Hill and Dominion beers.
The wines were still being organized but I was told that sixty percent of their wines are either organic or biodynamically made (huh?) I saw three different Marlborough whites chilling in the refrigerator, plus German and Californian wines that looked interesting. The rest of the retail area is a work in progress, but there will be cheeses, crackers, chocolate and other snacks that taste good with complex beers and wines.
As for the service area, there is a bar with about eight draft beers to choose from. You can slum it and drink PBR, or flaunt your refined taste with Bear Republic’s Racer X IPA or Jefferson Reserve’s Bourbon Stout. Yum! Best of all is the choice of 12, 16, or 20 oz. pours. Why not super-size it when the beer is that tasty? Beer Run also has an ambitious menu, with breakfast, lunch and dinner items. I scanned the lunch list and saw some pretty appealing sandwiches to choose from. They do have an espresso bar, but I did not see which brand of coffee they are using.
The store as a whole looks very promising. So, we Woolen Millers can rejoice in having a new gourmet outpost to save us the trouble of going downtown. And, with Crush set to open their doors this weekend too, Belmont is primed for more attention.
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Tagged as: Bars, Belmont, Charlottesville, Local Business, Restaurants/Bars
Nice!
I might actually walk into a store that could be labeled “ABC ON OFF”.
Minty… I’m still sulking because you bitched at me.
Did you know online-sulking is the new black.
Floozy, my comment was intended to be a gentle chiding, not a full-on reaming. So chin up, buttercup - we’re still cool! (P.S. I like the “old” black better. . .)
Oh I am so relieved it wasn’t a full-on reaming since I didn’t feel a thing.
Where, exactly is this place?
Right across the train tracks on the left if you were coming from Monticello
I love the idea of it and the folks I met on my first visit seem very nice. My one SLIGHT complaint is that they seem to be playing it safe on the beer choices. Like minty says, there’s not really too much at Beer Run you can’t find at Harris Teeter or Whole Paycheck and they have some stuff Beer Run doesn’t. Of course they’re limited to what beer is distributed in this region, but if you put beer on your store front, you do raise expectations.
The idea of sitting in the middle of a retail establishment and having a tall cold one is bit strange and perverse (which is to say I love it the concept). A place in NOVA that pulls off this concept well, the Lost Dog Cafe, had the bar off to the side, not in the middle of aisle 5 next to the floor cleaners. We’ll see if the bar stays but the thought of having Racer X on tap (picture Homer S, thinking of donuts )…
I guess the real question we should ask is:
How does their beer selection compare with Main Street Market Wine Shop?
as far as a “cold” beer selection goes, Beer Run blows Market St Wine Shop outta the water
And as far as just plain beer selection, leaving “cold” out of the picture?
Thanks Minty. I never would have thought to got to a place named “Beer Run.” It sounds like a discount shop for the NASCAR-set.
Great write-up! KCB, how many kinds of beers do you need to be impressed, pray tell?
I’m imagining Swahili fermented Tse Tse Fly Berry-Infused Stout.
Is this a place where I can stop in after work and get a meal to go, do you reckon?
Superb review, minty. I, for one, am psyched at the idea of enjoying a beer while I’m at the store to buy beer.
Minty.. oh ya this goes without saying, but you ROCK.. thanks for doing a review
Awesome! I can’t wait to check this out; thanks for the heads-up.
This is what an “ABC On-Off” is. Basically, they have an ABC permit to both sell beer and serve it. It’s not too common. The only place I’ve seen is at the beach and it’s sketchy as hell.
We’re excited because we’ve learned Beer Run has Bell’s Beer on tap. We lived in Kalamazoo when my husband was in grad school and it’s the first microbrew we were exposed to.
The Wine shop has a great selection. Every store in town has the same selection of beer they can stock. All of them deal with local dist. companies. Also, you can use the wine chiller at the wine shop for beer , too. I do it all the time.
Rev soup is an “abc on-off”. So is Enoteca.
lilith, I didn’t say I wasn’t impressed. It’s just that I really didn’t see many beers that I hadn’t heard of and I’m not close to having the comprehensive knowledge of beer varieties I’m sure some people in this dicussion possess. Like I said, it’s early. I can see the owners just waiting and seeing a bit to see what kind of beers do sell and going more in that direction. I plan on making IPAs a priority in buying for them.
Will they sell me bud light? Because I want to review it for my private cheap beer review blog, and Im having a hard timeordering it in bars in town anymore.
B-Yo… how do I become a member? I can pay dues with humor…
What’s the similarity between Bud Light and doing it doggy style in a kayak?
too funny, byo
Hmmm, floozy lemme think….
With bud , the faster you drink the more you get tipsy. With a kayack, the more you get tipsy the faster you end up in the drink?
/best guess
Can someone please write a review of bud light? I’m not well versed in the beer tasting arts.
KCB I gotcha. It’s part of my shtick to pull the proverbial, occasional chain
Nice try….
The answer is……….. they are both fucking close to water.
Sure can:
That’ll be $10
Thor,
Here is your review:
Bud Lite tastes like your own urine that has been stored in the refrigerator overnight. Save yourself a load of cash and just drink your own chilled piss.
Your breath may get you some funny looks, but this can easily be covered up with a dash of cologne or a tic tac.
Needs work?
i dont think you guys get the joke
LMAO… SS I swear we were both typing at the same time. Am I you or could you possibly be me? Should we try each others ‘bud lite’ and see if it tastes the same?
Well I’m Bud-Lite-ing myself laughing so I’m happy Thor.
we get it. we just didn’t want to pass up a chance to be witty.
floozy: as usual, you outwit.
The bottle cap showed some scratching, and when it was popped off on the bumper of my F-150, it showed that there was a contest, but I had not won. The beer itself initially showed aromas of my uncles dingey studio apartment and not much in the way of anything beer is actually made of. A tentative pour and a vigorous swig or six, however, and I started to open up to the fact that I had hit bottom. This beer was remarkably cold, powerful labeled, showing incredibly bright colors and backed by heavely breasted marketing campaigns. A really long finish was impossible as I was drinking to get drunk. The alcohol, which had to have been over 8%, was the reason I was drinking it. I know this beer is 100% NASCAR–itself more and more a rarity in the Charlottesville area–but it presented more like a dubious home brew from Greene County. I enjoyed mine with cheese doodles, which was an apt pairing. While I will no doubt continue to age and develop over the next 2-3 years, I’m not convinced I will gain much more complexity or that the window for really enjoying getting drunk will stay open for more than 5 years after that. I’ll drink many many cases over the next 5-7 years and consider myself lucky to do escape liver disease.
I have nothing to add, I just wanted to spread around a link to the Best. Headline. Evar!
OMG Thank you Oy. I now love the Post
Does anyone know what “biodynamically” means? From what I gather it’s spiritual organics….or maybe organic spirits?
Also, I would think such a classy place would have a classier name than “Beer Run”…and (please forgive me) a dress code.
A tip o’ the trucker cap and swig o’ the Hamm’s to you, Oy, for digging up the Headline Of The Year for 2007. I laughed so hard the the beer came out my nose. BTW, anyone know what was the last year for pop-top cans?
B-yo, that’s terrific. You know, I just might pay up to read similar reviews on your exclusive Charlottesville Beer-Like Substance Guild’s blog!
You guys DO get that they aren’t charging so people can look at a website, right? People pay the (large) fee to buy at a discount. The website is what folks call a
value added”
Biodynamic growing is like ultra organic, with a dash of voodoo and hippy silliness. For those not familiar with the Google, I will bring to you what sayeth Food & Wine Magazine:
At its most basic, the biodynamic approach to grape-growing sees the vineyard as an ecological whole: not just rows of grapevines, but the soil beneath them—an organism in its own right—and the other flora and fauna in the area, growing together interdependently.
Where biodynamics differs from other forms of organic or sustainable agriculture is in its idea that farming can be attuned to the spiritual forces of the cosmos. This might mean linking sowing and harvesting to the phases of the moon or the positions of the planets; it also might mean burying cow manure in a cow’s horn over the winter, unearthing it in the spring, diluting a minute amount of the substance in 34 liters of water, “dynamizing” it by stirring it by hand in alternating directions for an hour or so and then spraying the mixture over one’s vineyard.
Bruce You DO get that I WILL be charging so people can look at my website, right? Its impossible to discount the beer I will review any further than it already is, without giving it away for free. So the website I will run, ironically, for beer money. Hey. Folks pay alot to look at cans on the intereweb.
/Next Week: Steel Reserve 211, as adapted from the Wine Guild of Charlottesville’s review of that snooty little Pinot Grigio that’s been tramping around local bistros lately.
//You’re a towel.
whoops, dropped a tag somewheres….
Oh yeah I get it. I’m already signed up.
Oh and by the way… “you’re a towel” just means Im being silly, and has no actual bearing on the terry cloth content of your actual physical being. There’s been some veiled animosity on this site as late and I wouldn’t want to start any family fueds.
oh man, i have no idea what’s goin’ on right now
That’s it! Thats the melody to funkytown!
i just don’t understand why somebody won’t grow a sack and open “meth lab.” it would be an exclusive club for skinny people with scabs who itch alot and talk way too fast. so fun!
every last one of you is a towel.
I agree the name is lacking something…. now if it was a curry house then Curry Run would have been perfect.
i checked it out last night. didn’t get anything on draught or to eat, but picked up a couple 6-packs. so my review isn’t worth much i guess, but i liked what i saw and plan to return to check out the other stuff the place has to offer.
Magic Rat… turn off your cellphone, unplug your home phone and move in with friends for a month or so, because you are going to be inundated with job offers and people clamoring for a piece of your literary ass after that phenomenally insightful and edgy review. You Go Boy! Christ this site has such damn talent.
great store, awesome selection, and i have no affiliation with the store itself
replaced fuel with a much more approachable staff and pricing!!
i have a feeling i’ll be there every week, more often than my trips to tractor supply or lowes!
floozy, i don’t know why you are so agitated, but it’s ok, i am sure you are a genuine person with a lot to offer.
magic rat
nope.
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