Fort Level Beer Firm in San Francisco, CA, has all the time wowed us with their eye for fashion, architectural branding, clear ideas, and equally balanced, easy-drinking beers.
Based by Dina Dobkin (Chief Model Officer) and her husband Justin Catalana (CEO), Fort Level Beer Co. is a San Francisco brewery by means of and thru. One centered on representing and symbolizing the distinctive elements of this iconic West Coast metropolis.
You possibly can see nods to San Francisco woven all over the place. From the identify—impressed by historic Fort Level masonry under the Golden Gate—to the branding and advertising and marketing, the place easy illustrations and sketches evoke town of their subtlety.
For instance, on their cans of Sfizio Italian pilsner, you’ll discover outlines of frequent San Francisco landmarks like The Sentinel Constructing (aka Columbus Tower).
Or KSA, the brewery’s best-selling basic kölsch, which options illustrations of the Grace Cathedral.
That very same terroir, if you’ll, winds its manner into the beers.
That mild crisp kölsch-style ale? Fort Level considers it “a contemporary SF basic,” that includes a mix of German malts and American hops.
Whereas Villager is a San Francisco-style IPA “impressed by SF’s love of nice meals.”
Accordingly, Fort Level has now channeled that very same delight for its hometown into a brand new seafood-based menu.
One which has “just a little little bit of shock and delight,” says Dobkin, whereas staying true to a few of the iconic dishes of San Francisco. “Our energy is being this San Francisco brewery and actually repping our city. We’re going all in with…creating this legacy model that’s a part of town.”
Fort Level Introduces a New San Francisco-Impressed Meals Idea
Again in 2019, Fort Level opened a 3,000-sqft taproom on Valencia Avenue in San Francisco’s trendy Mission District. For that, together with the aforementioned causes, we named them one in all our “10 Hidden Gem Breweries to Watch in 2020.”
On the time, Fort Level’s earlier Culinary Director, Eric Ehler, had developed a menu very private to him stuffed with beer-friendly meals.
Little did anybody know that a few months later the worldwide pandemic would shut down breweries all throughout the nation.
Fort Level itself didn’t absolutely welcome folks again till February of this 12 months. And whereas they reopened with the identical menu, Ehler had moved on, opening up a brand new pizza idea referred to as Outta Sight Pizza.
So with the adjustments got here a chance for Dobkin and Catalana to reinvent their menu, crafting one that might actually deliver the material of San Francisco inside their kitchen.
“Typically you pair beer with burgers, wings, and fried issues,” says Dobkin. “We had that, but it surely didn’t inform a lot of a narrative.”
So after a number of considering, deliberating, and consuming at eating places throughout town, Dobkin and Catalana realized that they “wanted to attach the meals again to San Francisco as a result of all of our beers are very a lot impressed by town,” says Dobkin.
Armed with a brand new mission, Dobkin and Catalana got down to reply the query: What’s the basic meals of town? What dishes have been invented in San Francisco?
The reply overwhelmingly got here again to seafood.
Dishes like cioppino, Louie salad (a salad that includes crab), Dungeness crab rolls, and even inexperienced goddess dressing.
“The idea of SF seafood happened fairly seamlessly,” says Dobkin.
However in true Fort Level vogue, the brewery didn’t simply need to recreate the classics, they needed to refresh them.
Fort Level Refreshes Menu with New Culinary Director
To assist execute their imaginative and prescient Dobkin and Catalana employed a brand new culinary director. Cecile Macasero joined the crew again in Might after stints as Chef de Delicacies at The Whale Wins, a Seattle-based seafood restaurant run by James Beard award-winning Chef Renee Erickson.
Macasero’s love of seafood stretches all the best way again to his childhood rising up on a small island within the Philippines, the place his cousins and uncles used to cook dinner complete fish on the seashore.
It’s that previous fireplace for seafood that Macasero brings to Fort Level’s new idea with up to date twists.
“I needed to seize the spirit of basic dishes, whereas making them contemporary and new,” says Macasero in a press launch, who notes these “twists” may very well be by means of sustainable sourcing, artistic cooking, or clever plating. “It was additionally a very enjoyable problem to create meals that’s each approachable and actually thrilling.”
Basic San Francisco Seafood with Delicate Fort Level Prospers
Take a gander on the menu and also you’ll discover little Fort Level prospers all over the place.
For instance, the Dungeness Crab Roll piled excessive with 1 / 4 pound of fresh-picked crab on a butter-toasted bun.
“We need to have the very best crab roll within the metropolis,” says Dobkin. “And we predict we are able to do it!”
Accordingly, this fruit-of-the-Pacific-Ocean-packed sandwich will get a elevate from sustainable sourcing.
Dobkin and Catalana purchase their Dungeness crab (which you’ll solely discover within the Pacific Ocean) from a Fathom’s Seafood fisherman who travels from Bolinas, CA, as much as Alaska all year long.
The brewery can actually hint the crab proper again to the boat.
It’s an ethos you’ll discover throughout the board with Fort Level bringing wild-caught, sustainable seafood to the desk from native partnerships with notable SF-based corporations resembling TwoxSea, Aloha Seafood, and Water2Table.
One other dish that guarantees to be a prime contender: the New England-Fashion Clam Chowder Roll. Really a dish native to San Francisco, clam chowder can most frequently be discovered across the metropolis plopped into big bread bowls. So Fort Level zigzagged, turning this old school soup into a up to date sloppy joe. “It’s actually wealthy, very bacon-y, and tremendous satisfying,” says Dobkin. “It seems like a responsible pleasure.”
In fact, when contemplating iconic San Francisco dishes, cioppino all the time involves thoughts. The Italian American stew made with seafood, tomatoes, and wine represents San Francisco to a “C.”
Historically served in massive cauldrons, cioppino will get a contemporary refresh at Fort Level the place they carry the simmering stew to you in an enormous enamel mug so “you may double fist your cioppino and beer,” laughs Dobkin.
Different highlights embody:
● Swan-Fashion Sashimi — impressed by Swan Oyster Depot with yuzu-citronette, pink onion, and capers.
● Rice-a-Roni Arancini — impressed by the San Francisco deal with.
● “Not-Precisely-It” — based mostly on hometown favourite It’s-It with tahini oat cookies, vanilla bean ice cream, and Dandelion chocolate.
Every little thing goes again to the unique mission of Fort Level: to create beers that pair rather well with meals.
“Firstly, our areas are locations to take pleasure in our beer, so whereas the meals goes to be actually good, it’s additionally our tackle bar meals,” says Catalana in a press launch. “It’s meant to be enjoyable and playful.”
Loads of Beers to Pair With Fort Level’s New Fare
As Catalana mentioned, at Fort Level the whole lot begins with the beer.
And whereas the menu is designed to pair with most of the brewery’s beers, Dobkin has a couple of of her favourite suggestions.
For example, Sfizio, Fort Level’s model of an Italian pilsner, with one hundred pc home Pilsner malt and Hallertau Mittelfrüh and Aurora hops.
Sfizio’s mild, refreshing physique serves as a terrific praise to the brinier dishes. “It’s effervescent, so I can see it being a very nice selection,” says Dobkin.
Or Coven, a spritzy Japanese rice lager the ladies of Fort Level brewed with sage, lavender, and citrus peel to have a good time Worldwide Girls’s Day again in March. Though the beer isn’t at present accessible, Dobkin says the brewery has plans to deliver it again.
Coven general represents a brand new method on the Valencia taproom which is able to characteristic extra limited-series beer and pilot batches launched as part of Fort Level’s innovation program.
You too can take pleasure in a brand new beer cocktail listing that includes a Sfizio Italian-style Pilsner Spritz and a Cioppino-inspired Michelada that includes Yuzu KSA Radler, to call a couple of.
Backside line: In case you journey to Fort Level’s taproom*, you’ll have loads of alternatives to benefit from the fruits of the ocean with their new menu and the fruits of their labor with basic Fort Level beers and new limited-edition releases.
From the branding to the beers to the grub, Fort Level continues to impress us with its dedication to being a real San Francisco brewery
“We consider ourselves as SF’s hometown brewery,” says Dobkin. “I’m actually right here for people who find themselves excited to be right here and to take a look at the issues which might be distinctive about San Francisco; I hope we try this with Fort Level.”
Appears like a contemporary catch to us!
*Editor’s Notice: Fort Level has two taprooms—one on Valencia St. and a smaller location within the Ferry Constructing. The taproom within the Ferry Constructing will serve a extra concise model of the brand new menu, together with the Dungeness Crab Roll, Louie Salad, and a Ferry Constructing sizzling canine.
