Digital City

I hate to admit it but I've got a weakness for baby animals, shiny objects and pretty bottles. The bottle thing may be the worst of these. I've spent hours in the beer aisle of my grocery store examining bottles and wondering if the colors on the label and the shape of the glass were any indication of the flavor. Oftentimes, I've been disappointed when a bottle that promised flavor turned out to be less impressive than I'd hoped.

This was not the case on Friday night when I met a friend at DBA in Manhattan's East Village. This bar has a very impressive beer menu which they scrawl across a chalkboard overhead to allow for perpetual changes with each new beer they tap. This particular evening, my eyes were a bit tired and I wasn't feeling the chalkboard but two women sitting at a table next to ours had ordered something in a bottle I'd never seen before. This I had to try.

I hate being the person in the restaurant who points to the next table and says, "What is that? Can I have one?". But I did it and I'm glad!

What was it? It was a small champagne-like bottle with foil covering a cork-like top. The waitress brought it to us open and with two large sifters. Inside the bottle was a Lambic raspberry beer or a framboise -- a beer brewed with the addition of raspberries in a Belgium region near Brussels. This particular one was from Lindemans Brewery.

The flavor was very full and almost like a raspberry-ish cider. Plus, it was a nice rosy color that could go with any girls' outfit. The fizzy, fruitful brew truly surpassed any expectation I ever had for a baby animal, shiny object and especially for a pretty bottle. It was delicious.

However immediately after it was pointed out to me that this beer was a bit 'girly', I polished off the bottle and ordered myself a pint of Arrogant Bastard Ale -- another very good but less rosy beer.