[NewChief]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

Menu looks real nice. For a place called "Brasserie" (French for "brewery") it really skimps out on the beer list. It would be shameful if the few bottles they do carry didn't match up reasonably well with the majority of their menu. They could get away with just Matilda, Dupont, Tripel Karmeliet and Chimay Blue, but I'd like to see a much wider variety if you are going to call your place "Brewery."

Yeah, I think they're going with the more common usage of the word than its literal meaning.

http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2010-...art-on-sleeve/

By tradition, a brasserie is a modest restaurant, a place where you can enjoy a good, unpretentious meal at almost any time of day. As Alan Davidson writes in The Oxford Companion to Food, "Drawing a line between a brasserie and a bistro is no easy matter." Of course, here in America, where anything other than a strip club can call itself a bistro and not raise eyebrows, the question might be moot.

One distinction is that originally "brasserie" was synonymous with "brewery." Brasserie by Niche doesn't make its own beer, but it does pay more attention to craft beer than most area restaurants. The list is curated by Mike Sweeney, author of the beer blog STL Hops (www.stlhops.com) and (full disclosure) a personal acquaintance of mine. His selection offers a range of styles and price points both on draft and in the bottle, with emphasis on Belgian and Belgian-style beers. The staff seems well versed in both the list and the nuances of pairing beer with food. When a friend expressed curiosity in a glass of Duchesse de Bourgogne, a tart Flemish ale, our server brought him a sample and noted that its quenching qualities would pair well with the menu's hearty fare.