
And the good people in Sonoma would likely agree...
Welcome Hopmonk Tavern Sonoma—a temple of 100 beers on draft and by the bottle that’s like a German biergarten dropped in the heart of wine country—opening this Wednesday.
You might like to know that this part of wine country was once beer territory—home to the country’s first microbrewery dating back to 1979 (a particularly good year for beer, apparently). Only Hopmonk is strictly a tavern, a gathering spot and mecca for beer, where you can start off with 16 taps’ worth of brews like Pliny the Elder and Moonlight Brewing’s Black Beer.
The beer garden out front—with three long wood tables and a fire pit—is strategically placed to lure you in even before you make it to the door. If you manage to make your way inside the restored 1888 Sonoma farmhouse, you can grab a table or a seat at the bar made out of vintage bleacher seats from an old Michigan gym, complete with the original seat assignments (just in case a random pickup game arises).
And since you can only drink so much, there’s beer for eating too, like the Bodega Bay Mussels cooked in their proprietary unfiltered pilsner or the super-hearty Stout-Braised Short Ribs.
Then raise your glasses to intersecting enterprises.