Cal game wrap-up

Thanks to all who made it out for the Cal game last night. Many of our affordable $15 Miller Lite/High Life buckets were sold, many Cal cheers went up in the middle of Brooklyn, and many sturdy Golden Bears were pleased with our performance in beating a tough Michigan State team 38-31 (in my opinion, it wasn't really as close as the final score suggests). We apologize for having to use an Internet feed to show the game, but ABC (the devil, by the way) pulled a fast one in announcing its blackout of the game too late for us to get a DirecTV package that would include it. Don't worry--we vow to have all the other Cal games on actual TV. (I've checked, and the next several are on Comcast Sports Net or ESPN, both of which we already have). See you all again soon, and Go Bears!

T-shirt sales

by the way, are now open to the public. We have Pacific Standard t-shirts available in all kinds of sizes, as well as the official NYC Cal alumni club t-shirt available. Observe the samples on our walls and ask our bartenders if you're interested.

And a few more photos.

Je. Sus. Christ.

We thought our Obama convention speech night would be busy, but we were not prepared for this ridiculousness. Thank you, all who showed up. And sorry we had to start turning people away at the door, but our bartenders were about to combust, our bar was about to collapse, and (most saliently) people would have most likely incurred serious injuries if we let anyone else in. Anyway, all the people who came by had a fun and raucous time watching one of the best speeches I've ever seen. Photos:

Amazing poetry reading on Sept. 11!

Find details below on our first Chin Music reading of the fall season. It's ridiculously good, with one of the best poets in America, Phil Levine, headlining, and Tracy K. Smith to boot! Phil reading, for free, in a small venue, is a very rare event; if you like poetry at all, this is a must-be-here deal.

Chin Music Poetry at Pacific Standard, Tuesday, September 11, 7 pm: Philip Levine and Tracy K. Smith

Philip Levine, one of America’s most celebrated poets, is the author of sixteen books of verse, most recently Breath (2004). His other poetry collections include The Mercy (1999); The Simple Truth (1994), which won the Pulitzer Prize; What Work Is (1991), which won the National Book Award; New Selected Poems (1991); Ashes: Poems New and Old (1979), which received the National Book Critics Circle Award and the first American Book Award for Poetry; 7 Years From Somewhere (1979), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award; and The Names of the Lost (1975), which won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize.

Tracy K. Smith received degrees in English and Creative Writing from Harvard College and Columbia University, and was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in poetry at Stanford University from 1997-99. Her book The Body's Question was awarded the 2002 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, and published in 2003 by Graywolf Press. She teaches Creative Writing at Princeton University.

New bottles, and old favorites back in stock.

We finally got another long-awaited bottle delivery today. Below is our current bottle menu. A notable new bottle is the Anderson Valley Poleeko Gold, a genre-defining California pale ale. And we've got Deschutes Bachelor ESB back, giving us a full complement of three Deschutes beers. More hard-to-find bottles will continue to come, and any suggestions are welcome.

AleSmith Old Numbskull (San Diego, CA; $20/25.4 oz). An amazing West Coast style barleywine, with a huge malt profile and a very aggressive dose of premium domestic hops. 11.0%.
Anderson Valley Poleeko Gold Pale Ale (Boonville, CA; $7/12 oz). Poleeko Gold is synonymous with California-style pale ale; its golden color and generous use of Pacific Northwest hops create an unusual lightness and dryness for such a full-flavored ale. 5.5%.
Deschutes Bachelor ESB (Bend, OR; $7/12 oz). An English-style extra special bitter. 5.3%.
Deschutes Black Butte Porter (Bend, OR; $7/12 oz). Black Butte Porter uses chocolate and crystal malts, crafting a rich yet easy-to-drink dark beer. 5.2%.
Deschutes Inversion IPA (Bend, OR; $7/12 oz). A phenomenal Northwestern IPA, dry-hopped for a week. 6.8%.
Full Sail Session Lager (Hood River, OR; $7/11 oz). A pre-Prohibition-style American lager. 5.1%.
Hair of the Dog Ruth (Portland, OR; $8/12 oz). A light and refreshing American ale. 5.6%.
Harviestoun Ola Dubh (Alva, Scotland; $14/11.2 oz). This limited release is Harviestoun’s famous Old Engine Oil matured in 16-year old Highland Park whisky casks. 8.0%.
Midnight Sun Sockeye Red IPA (Anchorage, AK; $12/22 oz). Outlandish portions of Centennial, Cascade, and Simcoe hops give this beer tremendous citrus and floral aroma and flavor. 5.7%.

Slight Clarification on the Baraffle Schedule

Though our evening of festivities begins at 8 pm on Thursday, Obama won't be speaking until 10 pm. We'll be raffling off prizes throughout the whole evening, and watching the other speeches (Al Gore and so on), culminating with raffling off our grand prize after the end of Obama's speech (around 10:30 or so). See you here on Thursday.

Oh, and

we also have the full NFL package, so you'll be able to watch any game you want on Sundays, and we'll do the same pitcher and bucket specials for those games. Fans with out-of-market favorite teams, rejoice!

First Cal Game on Saturday!

I can't believe it's true, but college football is back in six days! We'll have all the Cal games we can possibly show at the Standard, and we're now an official Cal alumni bar, which means we're donating 10% of proceeds during the games to the alumni association. So if you come here to watch the games, you can support Cal in more than one way. We've also got official NYC Cal Alumni Club t-shirts for sale, and t-shirts and pint glasses to give away, and so on and so forth. It will be festive, we vow.

And if all that's not enough we're doing bucket specials during the games, where you'll be able to buy 5 Miller Lites or High Lifes (mix and match) on ice in a bucket for $15. And we'll pour pitchers of microbrews for $2 off the cost of 4 pints of the beer.

Basically, get yourself here. Plus, the team looks to be pretty good this year (cross your fingers). The first game is a huge one, at home against Michigan State. The details:

Cal vs. Michigan State
Saturday, August 30
8 pm
ABC

If you're not a Cal fan, you can still expect us to show lots of the games you're interested in on our two big projection screens. Just ask.

The full Cal schedule:

Schedule (all times Eastern)

08/30/08 vs. Michigan State Berkeley, CA 8:00 p.m.
09/06/08 at Washington State Pullman, WA 6:30 p.m.
09/13/08 at Maryland College Park, MD 12:00 p.m.
09/27/08 vs. Colorado State Berkeley, CA 6:00 p.m.
10/04/08 vs. Arizona State Berkeley, CA TBA
10/18/08 at Arizona Tucson, AZ 10:00 p.m.
10/25/08 vs. UCLA Berkeley, CA TBA
11/01/08 vs. Oregon Berkeley, CA TBA
11/08/08 at USC Los Angeles, CA 8:00 p.m.
11/15/08 at Oregon State Corvallis, OR TBA
11/22/08 vs. Stanford Berkeley, CA TBA
12/06/08 vs. Washington Berkeley, CA TBA

Information on NYC Craft Beer Week

in which Pacific Standard will take part! We encourage you to sign up and try different beers at different beer bars all over the city. Go here:

http://www.nycbeerweek.com/

for all the info and to purchase tickets. The press release:

From September 12th through the 21st, New York's unique beer culture will be on display through the New York Craft Beer Week, a festival spanning ten full days touting libation education, neighborhood bar crawls and beer dinners throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn. An estimated 30,000 participants will stamp their beer passports at over 50 of Gotham's favorite watering holes throughout nine neighborhoods.

The week kicks off at 5:00 p.m. on September 12th, with the Third Annual New York Brewfest at South Street Seaport. The festivities continue with one-of-a-kind beer dinners, bridging the gap between beer geeks and foodies, providing the chance to enjoy their beers alongside the brewers with top-notch food to match; and neighborhood crawls for those looking to discover the best of the city's beer bars and the regional beer selections that they feature.

Every night features events in each of the following neighborhoods: Manhattan's East Village, Lower East Side, West Village, Midtown and Upper West Side; and Brooklyn's Downtown, Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Park Slope. Many area breweries are planning special events at bars throughout the week. The ironically named ten day event concludes with the 2nd Annual Manhattan Cask Ale Festival at the Chelsea Brewing Company.

The NYC Beer passport, freely distributed at all festival venues, contains information on all events taking place. Participants will have the opportunity to stamp their passport at each bar as they partake in the neighborhood beer bar crawls. The fun can continue post-festival, as passport holders can continue to collect stamps and become experts on New York's best craft beer bars. The ten days of events have been scheduled to provide non-stop craft beer appreciation. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit http://www.nycbeerweek.com/.

Probably, fery few will ever be here

at 11 am, like I am now (refrigeration problems; don't ask). But I think it's the nicest time at the Standard. Look at the late summer light:

T-shirt Ordering.

While our t-shirts won't be available to the general public until our anniversary party on September 5, Frequent Drinkers can get theirs now (using either $20 or 300 Frequent Drinker Yards), and those in remote areas who want them shipped can order them now, by printing, filling out, and sending to us c/o 82 4th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217 the form here:

www.pacificstandardbrooklyn.com/orderform.pdf

You also might be able to win one at our Baraffle on August 28.

Pictures of our newly arrived t-shirts!

Models include Pacific Standard owner John Rauschenberg, trying on his "Off-White Steel" look, and Pacific Standard bartender Ashley Stubblefield. I've also given you pictures of the shirts by themselves, in case the models are too distracting.

Women's:

Men's:

Robot update.

On our robot-building company, TellArt's, robot blog,

http://drinkingrobot.wordpress.com/

you can find an update from Alex, our previous robot worker, on the state of the robot. The update is pretty technical; the overall gist is that we're close, with several, but minor, remaining obstacles. The most important thing we need now is more labor in order to continue. Bottom line is, look for the robot in the winter. But there obviously can't be any guarantees, other than the one we have made, and will continue to make: the robot will be here, someday.

Star Trek pinball on its way soon.

After multiple headaches and delays, we decided to dump the incompetent entertainment companies we were dealing with and acquire a Star Trek: The Next Generation pinball machine ourselves. We've located one and are going to rent a cargo van and drive up to Rhode Island to fetch it either early this week or early next week, so it should be installed and ready for play by September 1, at the latest. We are excited, and you should be too. Resistance to this game will be futile.

More bar pictures!

These chronicle the debut of our latest canine friend, the Boston Terrier known as "Waffles".

Mystery fifth beer for our anniversary revealed!

For our first anniversary party on September 5, Sixpoint will be giving us a firkin of their Belgian IPA. (They temporarily thought casks of dry-hopped Sweet Action would be ready by then, but they and us have decided to play it safe and not go with a cask beer that isn't fully finished). Very good stuff. In short, on September 5, you should be here if you have legs and are thirsty.

Just a reminder

that on August 31, we'll be having a very special Big-Money Pub Quiz with approx. $600 for the winner, and $200 for 2nd. (Everyone participating will kick in $10, with 25% going to the second-place team and 75% going to the first-place team.) This quiz will be damn serious, and we have some damn serious and really good rounds prepared. It is not to be missed.

Our first anniversary party.

Good news! Sixpoint, our buddy brewery in Brooklyn, has been generous enough to offer to provide us with five (yes, five) IPAs for our anniversary event, including one brand-new beer and one special cask never seen before on our fair planet. The list follows. There will be specials. There will be Sixpoint personnel. There will be T-shirts. Is there any reason that you shouldn't be here on September 5?

Sixpoint Bengali Tiger IPA. The Bengali Tiger is Sixpoint’s tribute to the bounty of American hops—four different hop varieties grown in the Pacific Northwest provide this ale with a robust citrus flavor and aroma that is balanced by a generous amount of malt.

Sixpoint Gemini Double IPA. A full-frontal bouquet of lemon citrus zest and caramel candy. The flavor evolves into a full-bodied malt assault flanked by bitter and flavorful hops from the rear. It coats your tongue like cotton candy and wipes it clean with bitter citrus sorbet.

Sixpoint Belgian IPA. This Belgian-style ale pours a hazy amber color. Floral hops are present in the smell and on the tongue; sweet malts provide a nice support for the citric hops. A lighter bodied Belgian ale with a nice amount of carbonation.

Double Belgian IPA. No description is available yet, since this beer will be brand-new when we serve it on the 5th. Simply imagine the glory that this beer shall be, hold that hallowed image in your head, and then drink the damn thing, and be fruitful, and multiply.

Mystery Cask IPA. One of the four beers above will be altered in alchemical ways by Sixpoint staff and made into a completely unique firkin offering. We won't tell you what unearthly machinations are currently happening in Red Hook at the brewery, but you will be pleased to try this cask, trust us.

Look, people totally have fun at our bar.

See? See?

Grand Prize for the Baraffle.

Since voting between the bike, the lifetime $1 Sixpoint discount, and the keg of Hop Obama was so close, and we didn't want to stick the grand prize winner with something they didn't want, we've decided to make the grand prize a choice between the three. That's right, the winner of our Baraffle on August 28 at 8 pm will get to choose between:

1. A bike from a local store! We'll work with you based on your preferences, though of course we have to stay in a relatively modest budget (no fancy road racing bikes, folks).
2. A lifetime, any-time discount of $1 off any Sixpoint beer at Pacific Standard. (The usual caveats about this deal depending on the existence of Pacific Standard and Sixpoint, and the fact that you can't combine this with any other discount, or use it to buy beer for your friends, apply).
3. A keg of Hop Obama, which can either be consumed at the bar with your friends at a party (in which case we'll also spring for delivery food), or at your apartment (but you gotta leave us a keg deposit).

Cool? Keep collecting tickets and we'll see you all for the big speech and the raffle.

Two Brothers Oh, Brother! on tap

We managed to get our hands on a rare 1/6 keg of Two Brothers Oh, Brother!, a Belgian Tripel that has a really unique, fresh taste--in other words, not purely syrupy, like a lot of other Tripels. I don't often trumpet a single beer coming into stock, but this beer is amazing and unlikely to be available anywhere after the next few weeks. The official description:

Two Brothers Oh Brother! (Warrenville, IL; $8/12 oz). Oh Brother! is one of a series of limited-run beers in styles that are extreme or unusual. This crisp, straw-colored Tripel is blessed with a host of spicy and fruity aromas. It’s brewed from pilsner malt, candy sugar, and some untraditional hop choices. 8.5% ABV.