Gone are the days when a thirsty traveler would ease into a local tavern and simply say, “Give me a beer!” The continued growth of the craft beer movement since Jim Koch introduced Sam Adams in 1984 has brought forth a massive variety of porters, ales, stouts and lagers into the greedy hands of discerning beer drinkers worldwide. An entire industry of independent brewers have created delicious offerings with complex flavors, rich aromas and potent kicks, as well as a complete vocabulary for describing your brew, incorporating terms like hoppiness, finish and my favorite, mouthfeel.
In our ongoing quest to keep you the most informed periodical readers in Rhode Island, I sought out some of the finest places to enjoy such beer and found a stellar example on the site of the former Liquid Lounge, at 165 Angell Street Providence. The English Cellar Alehouse is home to over 200 beers in bottles an a dozen taps, and features not only traditional English-style ales and stouts, but a wide variety of brews from breweries worldwide, with a special focus on the many great beers made right here in New England. I spoke with Chad Halt, General Manager of the Alehouse about good beer, great food and the future of his bar.
RI Local: Tell us a little bit about the English Cellar Alehouse, and how business has been
Chad Halt: Business has been great. We’ve been here for a year-and-a-half as the Alehouse. The owner of Liquid Lounge was watching the trends in the beer business, and realized that as the wine boom was fading, a strong craft beer boom was beginning. They looked around, and realized there was no traditional English-style alehouse in the state, and that cemented their decision to make a change.
RI Local: While being right here on College Hill would seem to be a great spot to have a bar, you guys are not the type of place that the average college kids is going to go. Who’s coming in?
Chad Halt: We’re in a great location, and we get very good patronage by Brown and RISD professors who’ll stop in for a beer after classes, and we do very good midday business with soccer fans who come in to watch the matches. Fans of Barcelona, Man U, Tottenham and Arsenal all watch games here, among others. At night our clientele tends to be local folks who live in the neighborhood. We’re fortunate to have two bartenders who are among the most knowledgeable about craft beer anywhere in RI, and they’ve brought in a great crowd.
RI Local: What are some of the interesting events you guys offer?
Chad Halt: In addition to the regular soccer match schedule, we have a Sunday night trivia contest that’s very popular. Additionally, I’ve got a beer dinner planned for December 2nd that should be great. We’ve partnered with Shipyard to offer a five-course dinner paired with a different beer for each course. They’re rolling out a winter beer called Applehead that’ll be a complement to their popular Pumpkinhead October beer. Our bartenders have developed a treatment for the rim of the glass involving cinnamon sugar that should work great with the beer as it has an apple pie flavor to it.
RI Local: What are some of the other things you’d like folks to know about the Alehouse?
Chad Halt: We’ve got a full food menu, with staples like Shepherd’s Pie, Bangers and Mash and our famous Bond Burger. We testing our a new Guinness based stew this week as well. We think we offer the best seasonal beer selection in Rhode Island, we’ve currently got a great group of October and Fest Beers available, and we’ll be moving over to winter beers soon. At least three of our taps have seasonals at all times.
The English Cellar Alehouse offers a full liquor menu, wing specials for Monday night football, a pool table and for
the dedicated, The Cellar Dwellars Beer Club, affording frequent customers the chance to get special offers and deals.
Check them out online at www.englishcellaralehouse.com.
165 ANGELL STREET • PROVIDENCE
Written by Sir James Comer
Top Photo Caption
Phil Gendreau, Manager, Brett Malenfant, Bar Manager, Adam Latta, Bartender & Chad Halt, GM
Photo Credit
Photo by Jen Wallace
