Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Best Bars in America, According to Esquire

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In the lastest issue of Esquire magazine, they list their choices for the “best bars in America,” 51 in all. There are some good places to be sure, but I must question any list of great bars that doesn’t include the Toronado — especially one that seems to favor dive bars. And perhaps more curious than that obvious oversight is the fact that last year’s list not only also overlooked the Toronado but contains none of the same bars as this year’s list.

And while there are certainly other quibbles with the list — Rick Lyke details quite a few — to me this is the crucial fact that makes it impossible to take seriously. Any bar worthy to be considered the best in America would undoubtedly have become so over time and would also be great year after year. You’d expect that a bar that made the list this year was probably pretty damn good last year and one on last year’s list still decent this year. The notion that none from last year are on this year’s list and vice versa makes this purely a literary exercise. Esquire explains it by saying that it’s not an “overhaul of last year’s list. Those bars are still great, and we still drink in them. Think of the list [from last year] as a Hall of Fame.”

So I understand that Esquire wants to have new places to write about each year and their readers likewise would want to read about new places to try, too. But then it can’t possibly be considered a list of the “best” bars, just a collection of good bars that they believe are praiseworthy. That’s not a bad thing, I looked over the list with considerable anticipation and interest. The sensational title did set me up for certain expectations that went largely unfulfilled. And I suspect I’m not alone. A quick Googling of Esquire’s best bars in America reveals that local community websites, forums, etc. all over the country are discussing it, lamenting omissions, bitching about whole cities missing and questioning the choices. And I think it’s that provocative rubric that sparks such a furor. It’s likely that Esquire not only counted on that but actively designed the list, at least in part, to be debated. Because it’s becoming increasingly obvious that getting people talking about your article, magazine or website is the real goal and anything that stifles that, such as accuracy, full disclosure, or calling it by a less volatile name would all not create the same amount of buzz. Personally, I loathe this trend. It creates a situation where it’s more advantageous to be outrageous than truthful or reasonable. Ann Coulter, for example, is a master of this technique. It’s a reminder that the goal of modern journalism is not informing the people, accurate reporting or even keeping an appearance of impartiality. It’s all about selling advertising and making money. And without standards, the easiest way to do that is simply by being provocative and outrageous. Of course, picking the best bars in America is an inconsequential exercise when compared to the many more important issues that the press misleads us about on any given day, but the technique and goal is the same — and the subject is my stock in trade, which is why I’m talking about it at all.

But even with all of that, the Esquire effort is rife with problems. Despite using several writers to compile the list even they admit there are issues with their method.

We haven’t patronized every bar in America, though we’re working on it. For the parts of the country we’ve never had the honor of drinking in, we asked our friends — the most knowledgeable and passionate of whom is Esquire drinks correspondent David Wondrich. Despite our connections, we’ve clearly shortchanged some great cities and have no doubt overlooked some great bars.

Obviously with a task as broad and large as trying to declare the best bars in America it’s going to be difficult to consider every bar, but not doing so, or even trying to be somewhat comprehensive, makes it largely a futile effort in the end. But all it really would have taken to make it a valid effort would have been to change the title of the article to “Our Favorite Bars in America for 2007.” But that wouldn’t have created the buzz that publishing a flawed article and declaring the choices to be “the best” has done. To me, that’s the worst kind of tabloid journalism.

Style Trends Through April 2007

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Here is a chart of the latest style trends broken out by the top 10 selling styles, based on a year’s worth of sales as of April 22, 2007, courtesy of DBBB, the Domestic Brewers Bottled Brands. They publish the book, “The Essential Reference of Domestic Brewers and Their Bottled Brands” and have a website, which offers monthly online updates of the book.

The chart is based on IRI Data showing sales of beer for the previous twelve months through April 22nd of this year by beer style. IRI is short for Information Resources, Inc., a company that surveys sales of beer (and everything else) from over 15,000 retailers (mostly groceries) in the U.S. As a result, their data is invariably skewed toward the national and regional brands since it doesn’t take into account direct sales and sales from small mom & pop stores. I used to get IRI data from almost every medium to large brewer who called on me when I was a beer buyer for BevMo. And while it’s not accurate for craft beer in specific, it does give you a general idea of certain trends, especially when you follow it over a period of time.

 

Welcome to the Bulletin’s New Home

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Welcome to the Brookston Beer Bulletin’s new home on the web. Please change your bookmark, rss feed or link to reflect the new address, which is https://brookstonbeerbulletin.com. If you’ve linked to a specific page on the old Bulletin, such as http://www.brookston.org/beer/specific-page/, please simply replace the “”brookston.org/beer” portion of the code with “brookstonbeerbulletin.com” and it should work just fine, since all the old posts have been moved here to the new server unchanged.

There are a few things left to do here to get us back to full strength, so to speak, so please bear with us as I tend to those. All of the links, for example, have not yet been put back due to a change in the way the newest version of WordPress — my blogging software — treats categories. Also, the calendar function needs to be updated so that will take me a few more days to complete, too.

Mainstream Beer Still Suffering

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According to yet another business article in Forbes, the reason for Anheuser-Busch‘s sales declines are the result of a lack of focus on their core brands, principably Budweiser and Bud Light. And while wine, spirits and craft beer’s rise has been credited with A-B’s decline, this AP article also claims Molson Coors — the #3 American brewer — has also gained ground against their nemesis, largely because they’ve continue to push their core brands. A-B has already suggested they’ll be increasing marketing by at least 8% and the details of this and a renewed focus on their flagships are expected to be revealed at A-B’s bi-annual Investor Day this Tuesday.

Goldman Sachs analyst Judy Hong further advised that what A-B needs to do to remain competitive is “either purchase a large craft brewer or work with distiller Fortune Brands Inc. to buy the Swedish state-owned liquor group that makes Absolut vodka, V&S Vin & Spirit AB, to gain access to the growing spirits market.” On the other hand, William Pecoriello, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, thinks A-B is on the right track, spending more marketing dollars on their core brands. In a memo to clients, he stated “[i]t seems unlikely that Anheuser-Busch can overcome the challenges for its core brands without significant increases in marketing, distribution and administrative spending.”

The troubling pronouncement in of all of this is Hong’s suggestion that A-B “purchase a large craft brewer.” It’s not like they haven’t been trying to do just that for some time now, but when Wall Street raises the spectre of it as a worthwhile idea, people tend to sit up and take notice.

Bud Sales Still Slipping

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With August Busch IV poised to deliver his first big “State of the Company” address to investors next week, he may have to do a little dancing to satisfy the concerns of shareholders and the financial analysts. According to Wall Street, profits from beer over the past two years have fallen an average of 1%, while Anheuser-Busch‘s profits have dipped around 12% during the same period.

Despite efforts to get the numbers on core brands up, sales did not rebound as hoped, with revenue up only 5%. Goldman Sachs analyst Judy Hong laid the blame on imports and craft beers, though recent reports have indicated that import sales are suffering the same declines and slowing as mainstream beer, leaving the craft segment as the only shining star in an otherwise dismal beer industry snapshot.

Hong also said that “Anheuser-Busch largely sat on the sidelines as the global brewing industry underwent a massive consolidation, and prospects of capturing significant growth abroad appear limited,” which seems strange since they appointed Bob Lachky last fall to specifically manage their international business and snapped up new import brands for their portfolio — including beers from international brewing giant InBev — yet a Forbes article echoed similar worries, suggesting that “the company has focused on operations abroad, though the chance to gain real exposure to international beer markets may have passed.”

A separate Forbes article, meanwhile, placed the blame for A-B’s woes on a “shift in consumer tastes to wine, spirits and microbrews” — there’s the craft beer segment again figuring heavily in business analysis. Staff writer Tom Van Riper also indicated A-B was struggling to overcome its “passé image” by spending wildly to reach a younger customer, presumably on such projects as Here’s to Beer, Bud.TV and Mingle Now.