Bell Street Farm: Charming Wine County Comfort Food Cafe

Gyutan: Japanese Beef Tongue Specialist Focuses on Costa Mesa

Kelly Liken is a Pittsburgh native who graduated at the top her class at the Culinary Institute of America and eventually moved west to Vail, opening Restaurant Kelly Liken in 2004. She and husband Rick Colowitz, who runs front of house and directs the wine program, have found considerable success with their Rocky Mountain-focused, regional American restaurant. I met Liken on April 6 at the Pebble Beach Food & Wine Lexus Grand Tasting, and the potential astrophysicist shared several culinary insights.

Was it a given that you would become a chef, or did you consider other careers?

No, I actually studied Astrophysics at the University of Colorado. It was not a given, but when I was in school I cooked to make money, because I was a terrible waitress, and I fell in love with it. From the moment I was in a professional kitchen, at the age of 19, I knew that’s what I wanted to do for a living. Growing up, I wanted to be more on the science end.

Astrophysics, how does that help you cook?

Math is very helpful. People think that’s a crazy answer, but we do so much math in the kitchen and being able to calculate things really quickly in my head helps. Other than that, it doesn’t really help.

What was that very first night like in a kitchen when you were 19?

I tell people this and they don’t believe me. Honestly, from the moment I put that knife in my hand, and I was just making green salads, my hands knew what to do. It’s like I was born to be in the kitchen. It was really an epiphany.

What was the restaurant?

It was the Monterey Bay Fish Grotto, which is a little seafood restaurant in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

I’ve heard good things about Pittsburgh, I’ve just never been.

It’s a great city. People are always surprised by it.

What does a dish have to be to go on your menu at Restaurant Kelly Liken?

INTERVIEW CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

Interview: chef Kelly Liken (Restaurant Kelly Liken)

Here are links to some interesting posts from L.A. food writers over the last week:

Eater LA

On June 14, Eater LA contributor Matthew Kang reported, Welcome Flores, an Ambitious New Sawtelle Restaurant from owner Amal Flores and GM Dagny Mendelsohn in the old Sawtelle Kitchen space.

On June 12, Eater LA editor Kat Odell reported, Laurent Quenioux Behind Menu at Etchea, Coming to Two Downtown Spaces This Summer.

The Huffington Post

On June 14, The Huffington Post associate editor Anna Almendrala shared, Dad’s Favorite Things: Coffee, Beer & Brunch in preparation for Father’s Day and the CollaBREWtive Brunch.

LA Times Food

On June 13, LA Times Food deputy editor Betty Hallock reported, For hardcore uni lovers, it’s Maruhide Uni Club in Torrance. Anybody up for an “all-night uni cram session?”

LA Weekly Squid Ink

On June 14, LA Weekly dining editor Amy Scattergood reported, Le Ka Update: David Feau Named Chef, Remi Lauvand Working on a New Project, which may be a sports bar.

OC Weekly

On June 10, OC Weekly contributor Dave Lieberman reported, Tacolandia to Display LA, OC, Baja’s Best Tacos on June 23.

Zagat LA

On June 10, Zagat LA editor Lesley Balla revealed, Gourmet Snacks: 10 Must-Try Bites Around LA, including cheesy churros at Petty Cash and chicken waffles at Sixth Street Tavern.

Favorite Posts from L.A. Food Writers: June 10 – 16, 2013

I’m no stranger to beer floats, but they’re far from an everyday thing, so when the magic words “Naughty Sauce” and “McConnell’s” rampaged my in box, it was inevitable I’d end up at The Surly Goat on June 13. Ryan Sweeney, Gus Da Goat and the rest of the Surly crew invited McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams to come scoop. Third generation ice cream man Michael Palmer, who reclaimed the family business in 2011 with chef-wife Eva Ein, Kira Fay, and Barry Fay, was in the house. McConnell’s plans to open a flagship store on Santa Barbara’s State Street this summer, and expand to Los Angeles by 2014. In the meantime, they’re promoting the company’s high quality product at West Coast events like this, where McConnell’s contributed ice cream to four floats, including Naughty or Nice ($5).

A young woman who works for McConnell’s scooped silky vanilla ice cream into a glass and a Surly Goat bartender added Noble Ale Works Naughty Sauce, a Golden Milk Stout infused with Portola coffee that impressed me at TAPS Craft Brew Festival. The result was like a frothy coffee creamsicle that I finished with swift swipes of my spoon and a few quick sips through a straw. Hopefully the float collaboration continues in the future.

Drink of the Week: Naughty or Nice Beer Float

Angela Köehler is a scientist who heads an eco-toxicology research group for the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany, analyzing the effects of chemicals on marine organisms. She became business partners with Deborah Keane, a caviar industry veteran and longtime marketing professional, on a humane caviar company called Vivace Caviar, which sources caviar from farms around the world. They were at Pebble Beach Food & Wine to promote Vivace Caviar and shared several caviar insights.

How did you start working with Deborah on Vivace Caviar?

Köehler: The question should be, when did you start working with sturgeon?…The history starts in 2005. Colleagues of mine persuaded me to go to Iran, to the Caspian Sea, because, as you know, the Caspian Sea is highly polluted by human activities. Also, the rivers draining into the Caspian Sea are highly industrialized, so they asked me to come to a sturgeon conference, because the pollutants affect the sturgeon stocks in the Caspian Sea. The key experience, which brought me to get involved in caviar, was that there was an event for the amusement of the participants of the conference, to look at Iranian caviar making in a factory. At that time, it was still allowed to catch wild sturgeon, which now is totally prohibited. Do you know that?

I wouldn’t know that.

Köehler: Nowadays, sturgeons belong to endangered species, which are protected by the Convention of the Trade with Endangered Species. The shorthand is CITES. Every gram of caviar crossing a border is controlled by this convention. So strictly that you can even go to jail if you export or import illegal caviar from wild catches. What happened there in Iran was the following: they had this event of Iranian caviar manufacturing, and they brought this huge sturgeon over there, slammed it on the head, live, to anaesthetize it, cut it open and opened it, and said, “My god, it’s too mature, it’s too advanced in spawning, we can’t use it for caviar making.” Until now, it is only possible to make caviar from immature eggs…When I saw this process, the CITES people were standing beside me, and I said to them, “This can’t be the truth, to spoil such a resource.” They just carried away the 7 to 10 kilos of caviar, which you can use for making small fish. So it was a total waste. Then I started to think. The idea was created just to mimic nature, just to look at what is happening to the egg when sperm is coming to fertilize.

This is an old law in evolution, that an egg – from plants to us humans – has to avoid the entry of the second sperm. The entry of the second sperm would mean the embryo would die. We looked at the mechanisms. The first sperm enters the cell. A calcium wave is running through the eggs, and is triggering a cascade of enzymes, which are activated in between seconds. You have millions of sperms attacking the eggs. This is in fact the fastest biological process ever observed. The skin closes, and shuts off every other sperm. We observed this process in key detail and identified the key players, which are causing the signal and causing the activation of enzymes, which drill around the proteins, to stabilize the membrane. I started off with secret trials in my lab, on the weekend, using sea urchin eggs. Then it worked fine just applying this signal from the outside, just applying calcium ions from the outside, to induce this reaction, which is caused by sperm. We couldn’t use sperm due to ethical reasons, and in these trials, it hardens the egg so you can’t chew it.

A meshwork of blood vessels and cells are surround the egg, stabilizing it. You can massage it, and force it, and rub it through the sieve. You rub it through a sieve to get rid of the connective tissue, to get rid of the fat, and then you have the single eggs, which are small to large eggs, more progressed eggs, so you always have a mix of sizes in the slaughtered fish. If the egg is a mature egg, so you can strip it out of the body of the fish without killing the fish – this relates to the normal process – fish are migrating up the streams, they get the signals, it’s the right place to give birth to a new generation, then they lay their eggs in portions. To do that, the eggs are squeezed out of the ovaries by small muscle cells, so they fall into the body cavity, and they fish can let it out. We wanted not to kill the fish. That was our aim.

Are there any caviar companies who are not killing the fish?

Köehler: There are some attempts. The Russians tried, and spent 50 years, but what they do, they just heat up the caviar to stabilize it, and it’s a very strange taste. Like flour. Like a boiled egg. It doesn’t produce the sensation, so it’s not very popular. The idea to use live fish, and to re-use it for several spawning times, is old, but nobody proceeded to do the right thing.

Where are these fish that are giving their eggs to your company?

Köehler: They are located now in Poland, in Germany, and they are waiting to come to our aquaculture facility, which we are just constructing.

Where is that?

Köehler: This is in Bremerhaven, close to Bremen, in Germany. We are building an aquaculture facility. We have seven tons of sturgeons, and the plan is to produce 8 to 10 tons of caviar in the coming years, per year.

How did you start working with Deborah?

Köehler: Deborah and I met through a contact who was interested to sell our caviar to the U.S. market. This man brought us together. I’m very grateful for that. What convinced me to join Deborah is that she’s the only person I met who has a lot of experience in aquaculture. She has done sturgeon aquaculture herself and manufactured and produced caviar. She’s trained in caviar, and she is an excellent marketing person. During the past two years, we have developed a mutual confidence. We found out we are the right women to do this.

What is your background, Deborah?

Keane: My background is very detailed. BSN in nursing, to publishing, to luxury goods, and really what she’s referring to is I was part owner in the very first farm in the United States. That was in 2004. In 2004, all wild caviar was legal. In 2005, that was banned. Since then, slowly, everything is controlled, and all wild caviar in the U.S. and around the world was banned in 2011. Within those six years, everything was banned, and aquaculture and farming has exploded. When I started, there were six farms around the world producing caviar. Now there must be at least 40 producing caviar, and another 30 to 40 growing the sturgeon. It takes so long to grow the sturgeons. There was no wild available, and not a lot of farms available.

What are the different varietals of caviar you’re producing?

INTERVIEW CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

Interview: Angela Köehler + Deborah Keane (Vivace Caviar)

The L.A. Beer Blast lets Food GPS readers know what’s new at select L.A. bars and restaurants with great beer selections. You’ll also discover beer-related events in the area.

FATHER’S DAY COLLABREWTIVE BRUNCH

Firestone Walker Brewing Co. & Food GPS are presenting a unique Father’s Day “CollaBREWtive” Brunch at Lot 613 in the downtown L.A. Arts District on Sunday, June 16, from 11:30 am – 2:30 pm. Expect 6 great chefs, 6 special coffee beers, and one epic event.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE AND BUY TICKETS.

READ BREW & YOU

Eureka Burger! opened a tasting kitchen and R&D department at Hawthorne’s Jet Center. Our Beers of the Week were all a (Samuel Adams) longshot. Finally, track Ziggy the Beer Yeast’s adventures in fermentation.

CRAFT BEER PRO OF THE WEEK

Food GPS beer editor Sean Inman caught up with Cigar City Brewing brewmaster Wayne Wambles after his efforts earned a Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Fest People’s Choice award.

Numbered establishments on the map correspond to information below for easy reference:

1. Beachwood BBQ (Long Beach)

Beers of the Week:
1. Beachwood Rubia Belgian style Strong Pale ale
2. 50/50 Charlie Brown ale
3. Beachwood Hop Drops Hoppy Belgian style ale
4. Licher Hefeweizen
5. Beachwood Hopular Mechanics West Coast IPA

Upcoming Event:
On June 29th Beachwood BBQ & Brewing 2nd Anniversary Celebration
Hard to believe it’s almost already two years ago now that the Long Beach location opened its doors. Come celebrate with us and try some of the 25+ Beachwood beers available (not to mention stellar local guest beers on tap too) and food specials. Fun goes all day. More details coming soon.

2. Beachwood BBQ (Seal Beach)

Beers of the Week:
1. Beachwood Amalgamator IPA
2. Port Brewing Board Meeting Brown ale
3. Firestone Walker Pale 31
4. Alaskan Brewing Tropplebock
5. Upright Brewing Chocolate Stout

Upcoming Event:
On June 13th at 5pm
Beachwood Crawfish Boil

3. Beer Belly (Koreatown)

Beers of the Week:
1. The Bruery x Beer Belly FUBRue (For Us, By Us)
2. Ohana Saison Soto
3. The Brewery At Abigaile Analog
4. Ladyface Chesebro
5. Beachwood Hopular Mechanics

Upcoming Event:
On Wednesday – 6/19 A One Night Stand w/ The Bruery. Taplist includes: Chocolate Rain, Sour In The Rye w/ Kumquats, Melange #3, Old Richland, and maybe a few more rare surprises!

4. Blue Palms Brewhouse (Hollywood)

Beers of the Week:
1. Brau Union Osterreich Gosser
2. Russian River Pliny IPA
3. Russian River Blind Pig IPA
4. Beachwood Hopular Mechanics West Coast IPA
5. Petrus Oud Bruin

Upcoming Event:
Hangar 24 Total Tap Take Over on June 29 @ 2pm

As all craft breweries begin, Hanger 24 started with a love for brewing, but also the absolute love of flying and the pure enjoyment of being around great friends. Founder and Master Brewer Ben Cook and his buddies used to meet at hangar 2…4 after an afternoon of flying to trade stories, talk aviation, play music and share a few cold ones that Ben just finished brewing at home. These days, the location of where these fine beers are brewed has changed, but the quality time spent enjoying a delicious, handcrafted beer and conversation with friends is the same as ever.

Orange Wheat • Amarillo Pale Ale • Alt-Bier Ale • Columbus IPA • Chocolate Porter • Helles Lager • Double IPA • Belgian Summer Ale • Essence DIPA • Belgian-Style Coffee Ale (American Craft Beer Week Beer) • 5th Anniversary Bourbon Barrel Belgian Golden • Experimental IPA • Palmero Dubbel with dates • Polycot Wheatwine • Warmer Strong Ale • Vinaceous-Old Ale with grapes • Russian Imperial Stout • 4th Anniversary Rye Double Alt Bier • Pro-Am 2012 Belgian Dark • Small Stout Nitro • Hammerhead Barrel Aged Barleywine • Pugachev’s Cobra RIS Bourbon Barrel

5. The Bottle Room (Whittier)

Beers of the Week:(starting Friday)
1. Stone Enjoy by 070413
2. Epic Hopulent
3. Speakeasy Accomplice Belgian Strong
4. Rogue Hazelnut Brown
5. Monkish Anomaly

Upcoming Event:
This Friday is our Van Steenberg keep the glass night. Featured beers are Gulden Draak 9000 Quad, Tripel Van de Garre, Piraat and Monks Cafe. Starts at 7pm and goes until the last glass is “sold”

This Sunday is Fathers Day and that means steaks!!! Chef Tony will be preparing a few different cuts for Dads as well as beers by the Pitcher. WooHoo!!

6. Daily Pint (Santa Monica)

Beers of the Week:(starting Friday)
1. Deschutes Black Butte 24
2. Green Flash Saison Diego
3. Hangar 24 Double IPA
4. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
5. On cask: Stone Pale Ale w/Golding Hops

7. Four Points LAX (LAX Airport)

Beers of the Week:
1. Pretty Things Jack D’Or
2. Bear Republic Black Racer IPA
3. El Segundo Blue House Citra Pale Ale
4. Stone Ruination IPA
5. North Coast Old Rasputin

Upcoming Event:
On Friday June 14, Hoppy Daze of Summer IPA Fest and Poolside Beer Dinner starts at 6:30 pm
Price $40 (2 extra tasting chips with the Twitter Code)
Tastes of 12 Hoppy Beers – Sessionable, Big, & Huge

Draft: Alesmith Summer Yulesmith Double IPA • Avery Twenty XX India Pale Ale • Flying Dog Imperial Citra • Anderson Valley Heelch O’ Hops • Clown Shoes Muffin Top Trippel IPA • Mystery – You’re going to love this one!

Bottles/Cans: Ballast Point Sculpin IPA • Uinta Hop Notch IPA • Shipyard Monkey Fist IPA • Clown Shoes Hoppy Feet • 2 more special bottles

Dinner Menu: Tomato, Watermelon, Cucumber & Jicama Salad with Mango Vinaigrette • Potato Salad with Grilled Red Onion & Basil Mayo • Chipotle Baked Beans • Grilled Zucchini with Balsamic & Parmesan • Bourbon Glazed Salmon with Roasted Pineapple • Grilled Skirt Steak with Chimichurri

RSVP Requested
Email: phil.baxter@fourpointslax.com

8. The LAB Brewing Co. (Agoura Hills)

Beers of the Week:
1. The Lab German Black Lager – last keg on tap now!
2. Firestone Walker Velvet Merlin on Nitro
3. Avery Maharaja
4. Bear Republic Black Racer
5. Enegren Shorts Day IPA

Upcoming Event:
Celebrate Fathers Day at The Lab with Brunch and Dinner Specials along with a Scotch and Cigar tasting event that evening at 5:30pm. Visit the LAB website  for more details!

9. Ladyface Ale Companie (Agoura Hills)

Beers of the Week:
1. Ladyface Blue-Belly Barleywine (last call)
2. 2012 Reyes Adobe Red
3. Eagle Rock Unionist
4. Stone Levitation
5. Cask of the Week: Borobudur (Ladyface IPA with Grains of Paradise)

Upcoming Event:
Music this Friday with favorite duo Pie, 8pm. Father’s Day is this Sunday, June 16th, and dads can enjoy Happy Hour-priced Ladyface ales all day. Jazz group Tetrachord will be entertaining from 5-8pm. Need something special for Dad – gift certificates, growlers and more make great Father’s Day gifts.

10. Larry’s Venice (Venice Beach)

Beers of the Week:
1. Stone 11/11/11 Vertical Epic Ale – 500ml Bottles
2. Summer Yulesmith Imperial IPA – 750ml Bottles
3. Maui Brewing / Lost Abbey Lemongrass Saison – 12oz Cans
4. Golden Road The Big Le”Brah”ski Imperial Stout
5. Eagle Tock Unionist Belgia Pale Ale

Upcoming Event:
Come down to Larrys on June 20th from 6-10pm for the Ballast Point Taking of the Taps!! We will have 7 Specialty beers on draft along with the guys from Ballast Point. Pint glasses given with your first beer until there gone! For more information check out our Facebook page.

The Beer: Sculpin IPA, Habanero Sculpin IPA, Fathom Lager, Long Fin Lager, 3 Sheets Barleywine, Barmy’s Apricot Honey Ale and Victory at Sea.

11. Library Alehouse (Santa Monica)

Beers of the Week:
1. Beachwood Street 3 Block 2
2. Trois Dames L’Amoreuse Rouge
3. Stone Enjoy By 07.04.13
4. AleSmith YuleSmith
5. Ladyface Picture City Porter

12. Little Bear (Downtown)

Beers of the Week:
1. Huyghe La Guillotine (Belgian Strong Pale Ale)
2. New Belgium/Dieu du Ciel! Heavenly Feijoa Tripel
3. Dupont Cuvee Dry Hopping (Saison)
4. Goose Island Sofie Paradisi (Oaked Saison with grapefruit)
5. Mikkeller Orange Yuzu Glad I Said Porter

Upcoming Event:
Tonight is Allagash Night at Little Bear! Beginning at 6pm we will be pouring 9 beers from Allagash Brewing. Taplist includes: Odyssey, Bourbon Barrel Black, Victor, Interlude, Confluence, Grand Cru, Curieux, Blonde, and White. Come hang with Allagash’s Hallie Beaune, and get an Allagash glass to take home if you arrive early!

13. Maximilliano (Highland Park)

Beers of the Week:
1. Craftsman West Coast Wit
2. Craftsman Maximiliano House Beer aka Pizza Beer
3. Craftsman Cabernale
4. Craftsman Heavenly Hefeweizen
5. Craftsman Poppy Fields Pale Ale

Upcoming Event:
Every Monday is our Beer Flight Night. Build your own flight, pick any 5 draft pours from our list for just $12!

Follow us on Facebook & Twitter for up to the minute tap updates!

14. Mohawk Bend (Echo Park)

Beers of the Week:
1. Victory Brewing Golden Monkey Belgian tripel
2. Bruery/Beachwood Mrs. Stoutfire collaboration
3. TAPS Cali Gold XPA
4. Rubicon 25th Anniversary IPA
5. Monkish Dat Moi Belgian lager

Upcoming Event:
The Out-of-State brewery featured in June is Victory Brewing Company from Pennsylvania. Victory beers will be on tap all month!

15. Spirit House (Monterey Park)

Beers of the Week:
1. Avery Maharaja Imperial IPA
2. Saison Dupont
3. Weheinstephaner Hefeweissbier
4. Green Flash Palate Wrecker
5. The Bruery Loakal Red

Upcoming Event:
Lots of exciting things happening over in Atwater right now. Join us this Tonight as our friends at Golden Road invade the SGV with some rare brews for you to try! Featured Beers: Not Always Sunny in LA Black IPA, Cabrillo Kolsch, Wolf Among Weeds DIPA, Berliner Weiss, Hudson Imperial, Rye Porter, Aunt Sally’s Pale Ale and Citrus Bend.

16. The Surly Goat (West Hollywood)

Beers of the Week:

1. Stone Enjoy by 07.14 IPA
2. The Bruery Humulus
3. Craftsman Ursa Minor
4. Sierra Nevada (FOAM) Pils
5. On the Cask: Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine

Upcoming Event:
You’ll scream for ice cream when its surrounded by Naughty Sauce! Join us on Thursday, June 13th for an ice cream beer float as we welcome the crafty creators at McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams to our neighborhood. 6PM to 8PM.

17. Tony’s Darts Away (Burbank)

Beers of the Week:
1. Firestone Parabola Barrel-Aged Russian Imperial Stout
2. Ladyface La Grisette Saison
3. Eagle Rock Vanilla Solidarity Black Mild on Nitro
4. Golden Road Heal the Bay IPA.

Upcoming Event:
For this week’s Tuesday at Tony’s (6/18), we’re doing a beer and dessert pairing event. We’ll be tapping our super rare keg of Bourbon Barrel-Aged Old Rasputin, paired with a dessert made by our chef Randy St. Clair (both vegan and non-vegan options available). Cost is $12 for both the beer and dessert.

18. Tuning Fork (Studio City)

Beers of the Week:
1.Golden Road Kolsch
2.Ballast Point Schooner Dry Hopped
3.Coronado Golden
4.Stone Levitation
5.Bruery RugBrod

Upcoming Event:
Join us for daily happy hour 4-7pm.. $2 off drafts and $1 off our bottles (over 80 selections).

19. Venice Ale House (Venice)

Beers of the Week:
1. Ventura’s Surf Black IPA
2. Bison IPA
3. Noble Aleworks Big Whig IPA
4. Le Merle saison
5. Lagunitas Lil’ Sumpin’

20. Verdugo Bar (Glassell Park)

Beers of the Week:
1. Stiegl Grapefruit Radler
2. Craftsman Carbenale
3. Goose Island Sofia Paradise
4. Monks Tripel
5. Bottle: Avery 20th Anniversary

L.A. Beer Blast: The Best in Local Craft Beer

With so many great breweries at the recent Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Fest, there was bound to be some that I would miss while I was there.  Thanks to e-mail, I was able to catch up with Cigar City Brewing and Wayne Wambles after the festival and asked him some follow-up questions to the interview he gave Food GPS back in 2011.

How does it feel to be the People’s Choice winner at the Firestone Walker Invitational?

It’s quite flattering considering that the event invites the best craft breweries in the U.S. and beyond. I think that the majority of attendees voted for us due to the lack of availability. I don’t view it as a quality centric issue. Look at all the incredible breweries in the region. Not to mention, all the other beers that are being shipped in for distribution. I appreciate it and am humbled by it overall, however.

How has the canning line been working? Was it a hard or easy decision to add that aspect to the brewery?

The canning line has been working well. We have fine tuned it and continue to do so. I enjoy having cans as a packaging option. When seamed correctly, the can is awesome at preventing oxygen ingress. It’s a great option for hoppy and low gravity beers.

We bought the canning line from New Belgium a couple of years ago. We were intimidated regarding getting the line reassembled and running correctly but managed to make it function and found the right person for the job as well.

It was a tough decision overall. There were some doubts regarding how our distributors, retail accounts and consumers were going to respond to the change. We knew that cans were a superior package for our core brands.

There was quite a bit of contention from our consumers in the beginning. Some were dissatisfied with the can as an alternative package and wanted us to put our beer back in the bottle. They claimed that there was a quality and/or flavor issue. We tested the canned beer in our lab and assembled sensory panels, determining that the beer in the can was actually better quality and also had heightened aroma and flavor. It held up better over time as well.

Some restaurants had their concerns and I don’t doubt that we lost some retail accounts there. We actually showed some of the higher end restaurants how to conduct table service with a canned product. Some listened and some never gave it chance, feeling that the package itself had somehow sullied the product inside. They didn’t have to take our word for it. All they had to do was a little research to realize that it was a better package for the product.

We eventually made a public statement on our website, backing our belief in cans as a superior package for our product. Since, we have received fewer complaints.

We currently package four core brands in cans and have plans for many more in the near future.

We aren’t moving away from glass. I still think that it has its place in certain situations.

Just to shed light on our packaging capabilities, our canning line runs at 3,600 cans an hour and our bottling line fills 1,000 bottles an hour.

You have used quite a few non-traditional ingredients like grapefruit and cucumber in your beers. Do you feel a need to continue to top yourself?

INTERVIEW CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

Interview: beer pro Wayne Wambles (Cigar City Brewing)

I was enjoying my Maharaja Double IPA from Avery Brewing when a helicopter touched down right outside the window.  Two men got out.  One had a box.  Thirty minutes later, they reboarded the craft and flew away.  Probably not Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy level intrigue, more likely they were coming to the new Eureka! Burger at the Jet Center in Hawthorne.

Just off the 105 freeway and near a Metro stop, this is the first new restaurant in the area in over 15 years.  There are eight other Eureka! locations spread across the state from San Luis Obispo to La Jolla with plans for more.  Each has their own beer list and some signature dishes that you will only find at that location.

And the first Los Angeles Eureka! has two other unique attributes.  1) it is the only one where you can also have breakfast and 2) it is where there tasting kitchen / R&D department is located.

Beer Wise, Eureka! has eight taps and plenty of bottles and cans (with an emphasis on the cans, I saw Sculpin from Ballast Point).  Bear Republic’s Racer 5 and Hangar 24′s Orange Wheat will always flow while the other six taps will rotate.  More than likely with beers from nearby Torrance and El Segundo.

Much like Pitfire is marrying quality pizza to craft beer, Eureka! is doing the same with burgers.  And that is a hard combination to resist.

Your Beers of the Week are the three winners of the latest Samuel Adams Longshot competition. This year there are two lighter options: a Strawberry lager (recipe by Dave Anderson) and Beerflower Wheat (recipe by James Schirmer) alongside an IPA by the name of Magnificent 7 (recipe by Zack Adams) with seven different hop varietals in it. You can look at the lucky brewers on each label and picture yourself there and think of what your winning beer would be.

Moving away from the hops, your Homework involves one of the other major players in your beer: yeast. All you need is to load up your app on your interwebs device of choice with Ziggy the Beer Yeast. A new game that was developed by brewer, blogger, soda maker and soon to be author Kip Barnes from LA Aleworks. You get to educationally follow Ziggy through the fermentation process and learn how the mighty yeast transforms the other ingredients into the craft beer that we love.

Find more of Sean Inman’s writing on his blog, Beer Search Party.

Eureka!, Samuel Adams Longshot + Ziggy the Beer Yeast

Khristian Bombeck is a longtime coffee pro and snowboarding junkie who ran a coffee roastery and café with wife Heather for over a decade in Bozeman, Montana. They relocated to Salt Lake City to launch Alpha Dominche, a company that aims to produce cutting-edge coffee brewing equipment. So far, so good. His invention, the sleek, multi-chambered Steampunk, earned 2012 SCAA Best New Product honors in Portland, and after approximately a year of fine-tuning, the machines hit select specialty coffee bars across the U.S., including LAMILL Coffee Boutique in Los Angeles, Portola Coffee Lab in Costa Mesa, and La Colombe Torrefaction in Philadelphia. On May 17, I stopped by Alpha Dominche headquarters to see the machine in action and to learn more from Bombeck and his team.

Why Salt Lake?

We moved to Salt Lake because they have really high tech manufacturing here. That, and they have awesome skiing.

Do you feel like Steampunk produces an improved cup?

I feel like it doesn’t sacrifice quality, which is what has happened in the past with these sort of automated brewers. They weren’t able to produce a consistent cup of coffee. This machine has no issue doing that.

Just because you worked in coffee for 10 years doesn’t necessarily mean you’re an inventor. How were you able to bridge that gap?

I worked in coffee. I owned a scooter shop. I love mechanical things. In coffee, I’d always take my own equipment apart and work on it. When I saw the single serve niche in coffee develop, and there was a market for it – ever since I started in coffee, I always thought that the way coffee was brewed, in a vat or a regular drip coffeemaker – seemed so archaic relative to everything else going into coffee preparation. You have the espresso machine. That’s a very nice piece of equipment that has a lot of thought and technology behind it. 99% of coffee in America is getting poured over with a drip machine. I had my eye on making a better cup of coffee. When the market opened to it, it looked like there was potential. At that point, I was really interested in siphon brewing. I wanted to see if I could brew siphon coffee for my customers in a timeframe that I knew they would work with. My customers wouldn’t be willing to wait five to ten minutes for a cup of coffee. I wanted to see if I could bring them that quality of coffee in a timeframe they were accustomed to. That’s how I came up with this.

So you did consider other careers before getting into coffee?

I went to school for economics. I love econ and I love snowboarding and I love coffee. Only one of those pays the bills for me. That’s coffee.

Can you imagine opening another café?

My wife, I imagine she’ll open one in the next couple years. I work 80 hours a week here, to keep us on track and to hit goals and that sort of thing. I love cafes. I love interacting with people and working with coffee. When she does that, to the extent that she’ll accept my help, I’ll be involved.

What about the name Alpha Dominche? How did you decide on that?

It roughly translates to “first of its kind.” In terms of brewing equipment, I thought that’s what we’re doing.

What does one of these machines sell for?

$15,000. We have a two-crucible one, it’s $9,995. We also have a couple different variations.

Are you targeting specific cafes and coffee roasting companies, or are they approaching you?

Both. Luckily most everyone has come to us so far, which has been very nice. Realistically, we need to reach out to people as well. At this point in time, we’ve been to two SCAA shows, which are the Specialty Coffee Association of America trade shows. The first time we went was about a year ago, and we won Best New Product. Since then we’ve had a ton of demand and interest, but we had quite a bit of work to do on the equipment to get it to the point where we wanted it to be, to actually release. We spent the last year doing that, and just in the last month, we started getting it out to the market. We were at SCAA again this year. Every time we go we meet with a lot of people in the industry, which leads to sales.

What were the biggest challenges in producing the equipment?

INTERVIEW CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

Interview: Khristian Bombeck (Alpha Dominche + Steampunk)