Beer prejudice at restaurants?

I always have to bit my tongue when you ask the wait staff what beers they have and they reply something like "everything" or "too many to list" then rattle off 20 different types of American Standard or Light Lager.

I always want to answer the "everything" with "GREAT! I'll have a Westvleteren 12 please and I'll pay extra to keep the bottle and cap."

My wife would kill me, though.

mmb said:

I always have to bit my tongue when you ask the wait staff what beers they have and they reply something like "everything" or "too many to list" then rattle off 20 different types of American Standard or Light Lager.

I always want to answer the "everything" with "GREAT! I'll have a Westvleteren 12 please and I'll pay extra to keep the bottle and cap."

My wife would kill me, though.

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I try not to be a dick and I have the choice of where I eat but I have a hard time with this too. Often they will say something like "What do you want, we probably have it" and really that approach is not going to work. Rather than answering with what I want I answer with a few things I think they might have that I wouldn't mind.

My wife and I both like beer though so we eat like 90% at places with a good selection.

What's so unromantic and wrong about dinner at pubs? I'd rather go spend $30+ for a meal for 2 and a pitcher at Boones Treasury, then head up to fancier places and drink soda, cause lets face it wines nasty and inferior

Great beer is showing up at a lot of wine restaurants. I just had my anniversary dinner; the place is noted as a wine bar, but there were at least 20 Belgians on the beer menu (along with tons of other stuff, but I was in the mood for a Belgian--I noticed Dogfish 120 was the priciest at $20/bottle).

I wound up drinking a St Bernardus Abt 12 and a Rochefort #10 with dinner. They had Arrogant Bastard on tap along with at least a half-dozen other intriguing selections; I'll definitely be going back: Bilbo Baggins Global Restaurant 208 Queen Street, Old Towne, Alexandria, VA 22314 703-683-0300

Probably more than half of our favorite restaurants have at least 10 micro/craft options either in bottles or on tap.

It's an uphill battle at some places. We were in an old, very highly regarded local restaurant last night...but one I never happen to have been in in the 40 years we've lived here. Great food, awesome wine list......and no beer listed on any menu. When we ask the waitress about beer, she said "We've got some great beer.....but bottles only." Right there, I had a good idea of what was coming. The usual BMC pisswater, three or four Euros (Heineken, Peroni, Stella- the BMC of Europe), and Sam, Goose Island, Anchor Steam. My wife had the Goose Island Oatmeal Stout, I had the Anchor Steam. Everybody else I could see in the room we were in was drinking wine.

I think you just have to ask, and make diplomatic suggestions that they really need to broaden their beverage horizons.

Anchor sounds like a awesome choice to me. It's deffinatly up there on my list of beers I enjoy. I just found out about a local place in Salem that lets its customers suggest its beers. The owner doesn't drink, so he has no clue what tastes good, therefor he relies on everyone else. He runs a rotating tap, and usually doent run a beer for more then three kegs, and I think the average price is around $5 a pint. He also has an awesome selection of bombers to choose from although they tend to all be 9% apv and up.