BELGIAN CAFÉ FOR DOWNTOWN OAKLAND (from Bill Brand's blog)
Downtown Oakland's beginning to rock. Clubs, restaurants and excellent pubs continue to open. For beer lovers like me, a pub slated to open in early fall is great news.
It's the Trappist Cafe, 460 8th St. in Old Oakland, just around the corner from Broadway. Owners Chuck Stilphen of Lafayette and Aaron Porter of Oakland, plan to specialize in Belgian beers -- including all the Belgian Trappist beers they can get, of course. Stilphen owns a chain of music rehearsal studios, Rehearse America; Porter's an architect in Berkeley.
But their real love is Belgian beer. They spend their holidays in Belgium, and although they have their Oakland and state ABC permits, Stilphen says they're not going to open until fall because they want to tour the many beer festivals in Belgium this summer.
Tough job, but someone has to do it.
The Trappist Cafe will be modeled on one of those tiny dives found all over the Lowlands, in Amsterdam and Bruges. "We've got this funky place, it's 10 feet wide and 50 feet long," Stilphen said.
They plan to stock from 120 to 150 Belgian bottled beers and 15 beers on tap, a mix of Belgian and American craft beer. Stilphen admits being fond of Russian River's Pliny the Elder.
They're certain of one thing: There will be no beer from InBev, the Belgian corporate giant. "There'll be no Stella Artois, no Leffe, no Hoegaarden, no corporate beer at all," he said.
Among their draft beers, he says, will be De Koninck (****), the malty, stony ale from Antwerp. Wow. I can hardly wait. Stay tuned.