But then Crest went away; and Good Microbrew Restaurant appeared. The food at Good, I have discovered, is Not. But they get points for $3 “Mystery Beer Night.”
It’s a pretty cool premise: on Wednesdays, three bucks buys you a glass of beer, which is served in a nondescript plastic cup—and therefore “mysterious”—marked only with a number. You order Mystery Beer, the bartender pours you whatever the heck he/she wants, and, should you actually want to know what you’ve ended up with, that little number indicates one of 12 beer selections, which your waitress will decode for you.
On a recent Wednesday night, my date and I hoofed it over to the restaurant for an evening of intrepid beer-sampling.
After chicken wings and chili nachos, our first Mystery Beer arrived. It went like this: the bartender swished past our table, unceremoniously plonked a bottle down on our table, cracked it open with a bottle opener and crowed, “Mystery Beer!” loudly, then vanished into the crowd. We looked at the bottle. The bottle looked at us. It was very clearly factory-labeled SUPREMA CERVEZA, with a little picture of a seaside and big red lettering. My date eyed it suspiciously.
Our waitress looked at the bottle in confusion. “That’s strange. It’s supposed to be in a glass with a number on it,” she said, apologetically. She returned in a few minutes with two real Mystery Beers (number 11, for those interested, which turned out to be Good’s own “Lazy Amber,” and number 2, Good’s own “Sunset IPA”). Both were light and crisp, with a slow-finishing bitter aftertaste—“good,” but not great.
So the regrettable transformation of Crest into Good culminates in Okay beer and not-so-great food. But they have a huge selection of microbrews from around the world (over 150, actually). And on Wednesdays, if you drink enough of those $3 beers, the mediocre food won't really bother you as much.
