Friday, February 20, 2009

MAYBE BETTER THAN THE HOUSE ITSELF

After six years of agony, torture, frustration, pain and far worse, the wife & I finally have bought a house in San Francisco. We didn't come to the market, "the market came to us". But here's the best part - well, my best part, maybe not hers - this morning I drove by the soon-to-be-our house just for fun, and out of the corner of my eye I spotted a DOGFISH HEAD sign on an otherwise nondescript corner store called MONTEREY DELI - you know, the sort of place that stocks Doritos and smokes and Miller Lite, and always has a 49ers game on a the 10-inch black & white TV. A store selling Dogfish Head - and perhaps beers of that ilk??!? Two blocks from my new house?

Naturally I went in and was blown away. Owner "Johnny" and I had a nice talk about how he and I would be spending a lot of time together in the months to come. Big bottles of URTHEL, ST. BERNARDUS, ROCHEFORT, DOGFISH HEAD, RUSSIAN RIVER, STONE etc. - the sort of beer you never see in corner stores, unless there's a beer fiend working in one of them. Like there appears to be at MONTEREY DELI. Wow. Also a great sandwich counter with meats & cheeses and all sorts of other stuff we love here at HBJ. The store is located in the "up and coming" Sunnyside neighborhood, at 499 Monterey Blvd., right at the corner of Edna. You can walk there from the Glen Park BART station. See you there once we close on this place.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the house AND the available selection! I have been carefully making a mental map of Mission liquor stores with my favorites. I know where I can usually find some Dogfish Head, Avery, Alesmith and others. Good luck closing!

Unknown said...

I found you, boss. I plan on combing through your blog to find some winners, the types of beers my MGD drinking friends turn their noses up at. Tonight, pre-blog, it's Scape Goat Pale Ale. Wish me luck and see you in a few weeks!

Anonymous said...

My wife and I moved to Northern NJ about a year and half ago. It took me a few weeks to find my "go to" beer place, but now I walk in there and everyone says "hey" like I am Norm from Cheers. The owners have started to ask my advice on what funky beers they should be on the lookout for. My wife calls the store my happy place.

Anonymous said...

I don't live quite as close to the Deli as you, but I was equally excited when I moved in a little over a year ago and noticed it. Johnny's a great guy who sells good food and good beer. Welcome to the neighborhood.

Anonymous said...

Word to Monterey Deli. Johnny homebrews, too. His store is under the radar and his prices cant be beat - seriously. He's always got at least a couple weekly specials on the Belgians, etc,... great spot