A Taste of Worldly Drinks

The Blue Nile bar features a worldly list of wines, as well as an exotic, unique collection of signature cocktails. But our main focus is the beer. While we may not have the largest number of taps around, or the most staggering number of bottles, the beers we offer have been carefully chosen to express a wide variety of styles, showcasing the work of dedicated, independent craft brewers, locally based and far away.

Perhaps you're asking, as many have and often do, why? Why Belgian ales and barleywines at an African restaurant, of all things? And our answer is, because. Or, to put it another way: Why not? Beer goes great with our food, the heartier and more flavorful the better. Come to think of it, beer goes great with everything. And there are so many great brews available for our imbibement, it seems foolish not to explore them.

On tap, we are proud to host three brews from local mavericks Surly Brewing Company - Furious, Bender, and a current seasonal. There's always something from Bell's, Summit, Rush River and August Schell (brewer of our light lager of choice, Grain Belt Premium), and one of our rotating tap lines will always feature a great offering from an American craft brewer, either local or from across the continent. For a great, smooth, rich, delicious dark ale, we offer Lion Stout, and another rotating line is open to one of the many great draft options from among the excellent breweries of Beer Paradise, Belgium.

Our bottle list is divided among styles, and here's a brief explanation. Lagers are the most popular style of beer, the kind you mean when you just ask for a "beer."

Bottom fermented with particular yeast at colder temperatures, the name coming from the German verb for "lay down", as they are brewed longer than ales. Most are light bodied, golden hued, and easy to drink.

Ales are top-fermented, with ale yeast, at warmer temperatures and brewed for shorter time periods. There are more styles of ale than lager, and a greater diversity of flavors, ranging from bitter to sweet, sour, funky, deep, dark, spicy, fruity, malty, hoppy, and on and on. Some of these bottles are 22 or 25 ounces, same as a wine bottle, with alcohol percentage as high as 11%. You may want to share these, or at least be sure someone else is driving! Stouts are also ales, but are so different that we've set them apart.