In the rush to identify the newest trends in hospitality it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that many restaurants are owned by passionate individuals who got into the business to share their interests with the public and to pass their culinary curiosity on to the community. Chef-owner Jason Bond is just such an individual, and he’s sharing his love of well-aged beer with the clientele at Bondir Concord via his new reserve beer list, which he introduced earlier this year.
With two restaurants to run (Bondir and Bondir Concord), Bond doesn’t get too much downtime with which to indulge his hobbies. “I don’t have time to go out that much,” he said. “So I have to have my fun here.” He got the idea for the reserve program while attending wine and beer auctions. “We started out just looking for wines,” he said. But he soon realized auction houses provide a particularly beneficial situation for someone looking for aged beers. Traditional distributors have neither the space, nor the desire to hold onto their inventory for prolonged periods. But with the private collections available for purchase at auction, he was able to find beers that have received the proper care and are reaching peak maturity.
The practice of aging beers has been around for centuries but it’s only recently that the concept has gained traction in modern beer culture. As with wine, some types of beer benefit from extra time in the bottle, which allows the flavors to develop and transform in wonderful and unpredictable ways. While most beer is designed to be consumed fresh, those with higher alcohol content and wild yeasts (Belgian strong ales, imperial stouts and saisons, for example) can sit in storage for years, continually improving.
“There are so many styles,” Bond explained. “Some are thick, rich and flat while others are super effervescent, lemony and herby. There’s a huge variety of sensations, flavors and textures.” These variations can make for really interesting pairings with food and one can apply the same principles with aged beer pairing as with wine pairing. It’s a whole new way for Bond to explore his culinary options when creating dishes. “Just like with pairing wine, we want to pay attention to what’s going on,” Bond said. “It’s exactly the same concept. You can improve upon both the food and drink with a good pairing.”
For the moment, Bond is happy to let his experiment play out in Concord, though he does see a reserve beer list popping up at his Cambridge location at some point. Beyond that, Bond appears to enjoy following his passions and seeing the concept take off with his guests.
