Lagunitas Pint Night January 28.

Here's the official lineup for our Lagunitas night on January 28:

Lagunitas IPA
Lagunitas Censored
Lagunitas PILS
Lagunitas Hairy Eyeball
Lagunitas Pale Ale
Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout

As you can see, we've got some interesting/rarely seen styles. We'll also have brewery folks, giveaways, and so on. See you here in late January. (And don't forget we have a Bear Republic event in two weeks, on January 15).

Cal basketball.

After a very successful non-conference slate, Cal enters Pac-10 play beginning Friday against Arizona. We'll have all the Cal basketball games that are televised here at the Standard, beginning with that aforementioned Arizona game, and including nearly all of Cal's conference games. The current schedule is here:

http://calbears.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/sched/cal-m-baskbl-sched.html

and will tell you if a game is on TV or not, and thus, whether we'll have it here or not. The televised games may change during the course of the season, so be sure to check before coming by. Here's looking forward to a Cal basketball renaissance this year!

Gift certificates available.

We've never officially announced it until now, but, yes, we do sell gift certificates, which make great presents. You can get them in any amount; just come by and ask a bartender. You'll get a handsome computer printout which will entitle the bearer to X amount of anything we sell.

Bear Republic Event January 15, 7 pm.

We've tentatively rescheduled our Bear Republic event for January 15, by which time we'll have an even better selection of kegs and casks. More details to come.

Two Rogue rums now in stock.

We've long known that Rogue, in addition to being a great brewery, has a nice line of spirits. We finally got around to trying a few of their rums, and were very impressed. So we've added Rogue Dark and Rogue Light rum to our liquor shelf. Come by and try them with a mixer, or by themselves. They stand up really well either way. Here are the official descriptions:

Rogue Spirits - Dark Rum
Deep amber in color. Toffee, stemmy oak, and nutmeg aromas... sweet and sour medium-bodied palate with toffee, roasted nuts, and spice. Finishes with a nutty, spicy fade and peppery alcohol.

Rogue Spirits - White Rum
Clear with a faint straw cast. Jumbled cotton candy and lower alcohol aromas are prosecco-like. A soft brisk entry leads to a dryish light-to medium-bodied palate with butter cream and peppery spice flavors. Finishes quickly with a hot, peppery, vanilla fudge fade. An unusual assortment of flavors that might add a radical twist to conventional cocktails.

Goose Island Bourbon County Stout on tap.

We managed to get our hands on one of the most talked-about beers of the last year, Goose Island's Bourbon County Stout. The 1000th batch of beer made at the original Goose Island brewpub in Chicago, this massive stout has been aged in bourbon barrels for 100 days. It's a dense, dark beer with aromas of charred oak, chocolate, vanilla, and smoke. Come by soon if you want to get a taste of what Beer Advocate is raving about.

Inauguration Day January 20.

Just a heads-up that, yes, we will be opening early on Tuesday, January 20 to show the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President of the United States. Play hooky from work and witness history with us!

We don't have all the details yet, but we'll be opening early, probably at 11 am or so, so people can get situated and watch some of the parade before the swearing-in ceremony at noon. We have some nice folks bringing decorations, and we'll have fresh Bloody Mary mix ready. We'll also inaugurate some beer specials for the event. More to come closer to the event date; for now, just start getting your excuses ready. (In our opinion, nothing works like clammy hands. It's a good, non-specific symptom.)

New Year's Eve.

We'll be open as usual on New Year's Eve, from 4 pm-4 am. There will be no admission fee, so you can come by any time, have a few beers, and engage in general revelry. We'll have the ball drop on our two big projection screens, and we'll probably cook up a few New Year's specials. But rest assured we won't become one of those awful, crazy, overwhelming New Year's bars. We'll be the same old Standard you know and passionately love, or at least have a Platonic relationship with.

Wordle's depiction of our Yelp reviews.

Pretty cool:

http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/376242/Pacific_Standard

A Brief Notice.

We've had to delay our Bear Republic event. We'll let you know the new date for the event as soon as we know. Thanks for your patience.

Cal football update.

Today, a solid crew of Cal faithful watched us decimate poor Washington 48-7, as Jahvid Best set the all-time Cal record for rushing yards in a game. Cal ends the regular season 8-4, and will go to the Emerald Bowl to face, in all likelihood, Miami. We'll have it on TV at 8 pm on Saturday, December 27.

We want to extend our heartiest Pacific Standard thanks to everyone who came out for the games this year--you were great to have around, and we hope you agree that it was a lot of fun, even if we didn't realize our loftiest dreams. If you're around, we'll see you for the swan song on the 27th, but if not, happy holidays, and see you next year for what should be a very exciting Cal season, with all the talent that we'll have returning, plus some new faces. Go Bears!

Bear Republic Event December 16, 7 pm.

Sorry for the late notice, folks, but we just found out Bear Republic is coming to town in force in mid-December. There will be several kegs of Bear Republic beers that are almost never available in New York on tap, and the usual giveaways and specials. This is a really rare opportunity to sample a whole range of beers from one of the best breweries in America. More details to come.

Ace Perry Cider

is back. That's right. See you cider lovers soon.

Astounding reading December 11.

Chin Music at Pacific Standard – Yusef Komunyakaa, Idra Novey, Rick Benjamin -- Thursday, December 11th at 7:00pm

Yusef Komunyakaa's most recent book of poems, WARHORSES, was released in September 2008; he is the author of many books of poetry and criticism including NEON VERNACULAR, which won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize. Idra Novey's first book, THE NEXT COUNTRY, received the Kinereth Gensler Award and was published in November 2008 by Alice James Book. Rick Benjamin teaches poetry at Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design, and in the Interdisciplinary Arts in the MFA Program at Goddard College.