All photos by Brian Addison.
When Congregation Ale House opened two years ago, I—like many others—was ecstatic because at the time there was nothing else like it. With a rotating tap list, 100+ bottle list and a wide selection of beers from around the world, massive amounts of good beer had finally come to Long Beach—a town more known then for its stiff rum and cokes and pitchers of Shock Top.
But then Seal Beach’s Beachwood BBQ opened a new location and brewery just a few doors down on the Promenade and I thought that Downtown was it—a part of a Long Beach neighborhood dedicated to good beer. Much better than a single location, but sadly relegated to one area.
So where, oh where, did Simmzy’s in Belmont Shore come from? And since when has their mostly local tap list and simple-but-stellar bottle selection start dragging Long Beach beer fans east a few miles.
Don’t get me wrong, of course I’ve been to Simmzy’s. We’ve written a review of their food. And while they had good beer on draft, it was—at least upon opening—in the realm of Yardhouse: accessible styles and recognizable breweries that wouldn’t be worth a drive from L.A.
Upon International IPA Day last week (an underrated, sadly small holiday), however, I stopped in to try their eight or so IPAs on tap for the day. I was expecting your usual hop-heavy brewery suspects: Stone (maybe Ruination), Dogfish Head (most likely the 90-Minute), and the like.
But then I had a chat with Greg Bechtel, the manager, and a pour of Black Market’s Rye IPA—a beautifully balanced, spicy IPA from the Temecula craft brewery.
Bechtel is, through and through, a beer geek—proof of this lies in his brilliantly constructed list of bottles, a relatively new addition to the Simmzy’s family of beer offerings. However, he lacks the pretentiousness many associate with beer geeks in one key way: he wants people to be able to actually enjoy the experience through rare bottles that don’t gouge one’s pocket.
Unlike Beachwood BBQ and Brewing’s similarly hand-curated bottle list—which is undoubtedly epic, but is cost-wise, better suited for birthdays and special events (its rare lambics can cost you upwards of $50 a bottle)—Simmzy’s list of 20 bottles rarely peaks over $15 and features some breweries and bottles that are hard to find anywhere in the L.A. region let alone in Long Beach.
The list—which will be rotating as new beers become available—includes such bottled rarities like Jester King’s Wytchmaker Rye (of which they are sadly already sold out), Nogne Ø of Norway and 8 Wired of New Zealand’s collaboration ale, Dogfish Head’s Bitches Brew (a cellered version of the first batch, mind you) and a barleywine from Pretty Things Brewing in Massachusetts. Did we mention that most of these bottles are under $20?
“The point is to simultaneously be an ‘everyone’s place’ while giving people the experience of some good beer,” explains Bechtel, whose down-to-earth attitude about beer is refreshing when it is easy to find beer snobs who are, well, snobby. While I can say with utmost honesty that I truly love great beer, I am by no means at the sophistication level of Bechtel or our Executive Editor Sarah Bennett—these people are beer gurus.
“I mean, I feel so self-indulgent when I am offering a list of what I like, but I truly believe—just like our food, just like our wine—that our beer should be outstanding.”
It is that self-indulgence paired without the condescending attitude that makes Simmzy’s so inviting. It is a place where someone who knows absolutely nothing about beer could walk in and, instead of being dismissed, find a beer that suits them. And he even uses this approach on his employees.
“It’s a simple logic: if my employees are having the best night ever, then the customer is having the best night ever,” he said with a wide grin. “And you can’t do that by hounding everyone—you have to educate them.”
From nowhere, he offers me my own education: a bottle from gypsy brewery Evil Twin (created by Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø, who also happens to be the twin brother of Mikkeller founder Mikkel Borg Bjergsø). Called Yin & Yang, this amped up black abd tan mixes the brewery’s Yin Imperial Stout and Yang Imperial Double IPA.
To say it was good was an understatement. Aromatic notes of malt and caramel create a soft hit to the mouth that starts with a heavy sweetness and finishes with a dry fruitiness. It was even better than Stone’s 15th Anniversary Black IPA (at least for me—don’t throw your bottle at me).
Not even on the list yet, he was clearly excited about the bottle—and his excitement was contagious as he segued into the restaurant’s first tap-takeover which will feature Redlands’ Hangar 24 Brewery this upcoming Monday.
Featuring the brewery’s Orange Wheat, Belgian Summer Ale, Polycot, Palmero, Double IPA, Chocolate Porter and—the highlight given it will be a gravity pour of a special cask of their Columbus IPA, dry hopped with Mt. Hood hops and flavored with Redlands honey. It is something that, as I sipped Dogfish Head’s beautiful Positive Contact off tap, made me feel giddy.
I am a foodie, I am a progressing beer geek, and I am a coffee snob; these things I admit with ease. The difficulty is that I am not (or at least try not to be) pretentious about such things since sharing the gastronomical wonders of the world should be a communal experience, one open to the widest array of palates, from the unlearned to the learning to the learned.
And Simmzy’s offers that. It is becoming easier and easier to have good beer on hand. But it’s far more difficult to make one feel welcome at the round table.
Simmzy’s is located at 5271 E 2nd Street. The Hangar 24 takeover will occur Monday, August 13, from 5PM to 11PM.