Novare Res First Impressions
Just got back from the soft opening… A great draft selection, about 20 or so beers, no locals, closest is a Suttynose. They have Beamish! The bottle menu is about 5 pages long, divided up by style. There is a limited menu of plates of appetizers…no hot wings or anything like that, more like cheese plates and tasty olives. The staff is new to the bar scene (it seems)…my pal Jeff ordered a $5 beer, paid with a $20, and got a $5 and $10 bill as change; he wasn’t able to leave a tip since he didn’t have anything small. Overheard friends of the bar who claimed the problems with the taps were due to the person who ran the keg lines doing a bad job. A shout out to my friends at the Maine Beer Writers Guild: I overheard a few people who, like me, learned of the early opening through your blogs. Thanks for keeping us all informed! So far the second room and outdoor seating aren’t licensed, but should be open by next week. Everyone was very friendly. The owner gave a little speech at one point, telling everyone that it was his and his wife’s dream to open a place like this. To make up for the taps pouring poorly and the staff not being quite prepared to handle all of the customers, he bought a round for the house. It was quite generous. Overall, I’m not going to say it’s my new favorite Portland bar, but it is very nice, certainly in the top 3, and has strong potential to become number 1, once the few problems are sorted out. I’ll be back tomorrow so Nissa can try it out, and I expect to be back numerous times this summer. I’m very sure this is the first bar I’ve been to where there isn’t a single beer available I wouldn’t consider drinking. Congratulations Novare Res. Here’s to a long and successful run!
- beer , Nissa , Portland
- Comments(1)
Problems with the taps? The person who put in the tap system is probably the best draft technician in the State of Maine and the tap system at Novare is probably the most complex in the state. There are three different types of gases utilized in their tap system setup. The two Stout taps run on a 70% CO2/30% Nitrogen mix and the other 23 have the option of running either 100% CO2, or a 60% CO2/40% Nitrogen mix that can switched in seconds.
Bottom Line: the problem their beer was foamy during the “soft opening” and their first week is that the cooler wasn’t cold enough and this was stressed many times before the first beer was poured.
Fast forward two weeks……….. the beer is pouring perfectly as the cooler temperature has been turned down. The same hardware has been in the cooler since day one and it hasn’t been altered one iota.