Fitgers Brewhouse. I really like it again.

For those of us not lucky enough to live in Duluth, Fitger's Brewhouse beer was a treat. Whenever someone was going up there, they offered to bring back growlers, and they usually had a bunch of friends willing to take them up on the offer.

Duluth, early fall.

Maybe a couple of years ago, there was some grumbling that maybe Fitger's had lost a step. True? I don't know. Maybe they really lost some degree of wonderfulness. Maybe people just got jaded. Who knows.

Duluth, later fall.

This fall we were lucky enough to get up there twice. And I got to hang out at the Brewhouse, actually for the first time. Don't know why it took me so long, except that we've always just been though Duluth on the way to somewhere else.

Anyway, I don't know if it was just that I was so glad to be out of the Cities, or hanging out by the lake or what.  But I really, really liked the beer, and I got to try pretty much everything. Here's what we had -- or at least what I took notes on -- during the last trip:

The wife and I were clearly born in the
wrong era.

• Mariner's Mild (3.6%).  Really nice -- I wish more brewpubs did a mild.  This one is estery, with hints of chocolate.  It has just the right mouthfeel: light, soft, almost watery but with complex flavor to back it up.  Immensely drinkable.  The esters in the aroma got a bit too much as it warmed up for me.  But one of the best commercial mild's I've had.
• Ely's Peak Pale Ale (Don't know abv).  Served on cask.  Low hop aroma, but big spicy hop flavor.  Nice.  Highish carbonation for cask ale.  Juicy malt, with a touch of crystal malt sweetness.  Hops not over the top -- fresh, "green" and firmly bitter.
• Starfire Pale (6.0%).  My favorite of the beers.  Less bitter, but with a lot more hop flavor and aroma than the Ely's Peak.  American hops, not sure of the variety but I'd love to know.  Relatively big, but it doesn't seem like 6%, nicely attenuated.

Along the way we also had a bunch of the other beers.  The Lighthouse Golden Ale (4.4%) was really nice -- these beers get a bad rap as "starter beers" for people who don't like beer, but this was crisp and clean, with a delicate malt flavor.  The  El Nino Double Hopped IPA (7.0%) was good, but I liked the Starfire better.  There was a porter and a stout as well. 

On finding great things when you don't expect them

Sometimes the nicest things come when you don't expect them.  Like driving all day and ending up at a motel pretty much in the middle of nowhere,  hungry and tired and ready to murder your family.  And then getting a beer and a pork sandwich that are so good they bring a tear to your eye.

Could this just be the result of low expectations?  Maybe, but for whatever reason, the starts aligned this night.  We're in Lebabon, Indiana.  That's just past Indianapolis for most of you that care.  We've driven all day, starting out in DC, and making it this far by 8:30 pm, when we can't go further.  We've also taken a wrong turn, argued, and battled traffic in a construction zone for the last half hour.  Nicole books a Holiday Inn Express room via iPhone, exit 40 off Highway 65.  We check in.  I'm very hungry and in need of a beer.  Kids are teetering on the fine edge between humanity and what happens when you don't feed them.

Nicole asks the desk clerk about the barbecue place we see down the street. (There's also a KFC, a White Castle, and a Taco Bell.  Expectations sink lower.  To be fair, there's also a Subway and a pancake place.)  The guy at the desk says that the barbecue place is alright, but we should go to the bar and grill just down the way.  Perfect.

Is it a warehouse?

Wait, is that it?  Looks like a warehouse.  We pass it, go to a rundown old downtown.  Nope.  Turn around -- and yep, that's it.  The sign is only visible from the other side.  It's called "The Warehouse."  They can't get a lot of highway traffic this far from the exit, but it is a huge open room, almost empty.  Spirits revive at the thought of food, but expectations aren't much higher.  But there is a booth open, and the waitress is about the nicest person in the world.  And they have the Cardinals game on.  (Also, puzzle placemats for the kids, with a thing asking what the nine planets are.   Bit out of date....)

The waitress asks us for drinks order first. They don't have Stella despite the table tents touting their $2 Stella drafts.  But they've got Bud....Oh, and also Hoegaarden and Guinness on draft, she says. Nicole has a Hoegaarden, I get the Guinness. Guinness comes in a proper 20 oz glass.  Hoegaarden comes in half liters for God's sake, and I'm jealous. It isn't till later that I learn that the Hoegaarden is also $4.  Both are fresh. To review: Four dollar half liters of Hoegaarden at the local bar and grill in Lebanon, Indiana.  Things are looking up.

The food is slow.  But the menu is much better than I dared to hope for.  And when the food comes, it's fantastic.  Charlie gets the chicken fingers off the kids menu.  They actually look like bits of chicken.  I get the pork tenderloin sandwich, with lettuce, tomato, onion and pickles.  It's not the breaded/frozen/fried thing that you usually find, but a fresh, grilled tenderloin.  It's really good.  Nicole has the catfish hoagie.  The catfish is light, flaky, and very peppery.  Sam gets the pulled pork sandwich which I usually avoid on principle.  But this is the surprise of the day.  It's a heaping bunch of pork, nicely smoky, not dry but not greasy, sauced very lightly.  It's not up to NC pork standards but it is not far off.  Nice bit of coleslaw on top.  

Dark bar, big beer, flaky catfish, happy wife.

This place is a gem.