Latest news with #LongLiveBeerworks
Boston Globe
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
A guide to Rhode Island's 7 best breweries
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up A craft beer enthusiast could easily spend a long weekend in Rhode Island and drink nothing but outstanding local brews. To help you choose, here is a guide to seven of the best. Advertisement Screaming in the Woods Vol. 1, a roggenbier, or German rye beer, at Buttonwoods. Steve Greenlee Buttonwoods Brewery You'll often find owner and head brewer Morgan Snyder hanging around, inconspicuously pulling tap handles on the 14 or so beers he keeps on tap. While a lot of breweries devote half or more of their taps to IPAs these days, Buttonwoods keeps the mix lively — a Belgian witbier, a dark mild English ale, an Italian pilsner. I was pleasantly shocked to find a roggenbier (when was the last time you had a German rye beer?) on tap recently. Advertisement Try: Hip Hop Is Dead, a perfectly cloudy double IPA, or something less mainstream, like the delicious Screaming in the Woods Vol. 1 roggenbier. Buttonwoods Brewery, 50 Sims Ave., Providence The Long Live Beerworks tasting room in Providence. Steve Greenlee Long Live Beerworks The two-story tasting room with exposed brick and modern decor, sited in a rehabbed factory complex in Providence's West End, is bohemian yet classy. If you belly up to the bar, be prepared to chat, because the bartenders love to engage visitors in conversation. Settle in with one of Long Live's higher-octane offerings. You'll find a bunch of double IPAs on tap, along with an off-the-charts pastry stout or two and possibly a barleywine. There's simply too much to choose from here. Chewy Bites imperial stout with coconut, caramel, and vanilla at Long Live Beerworks. Steve Greenlee Try: Black Cat Sees All, a luscious and juicy double IPA, or Nanaimo Bites (when it's available), an over-the-top imperial stout made with graham cracker, pecan, cacao nibs and coconut. If the latter is not available, any of Long Live's pastry stouts demand attention. Long Live Beerworks, 40R Sprague St., Providence Advertisement A flight of four beers at Moniker Brewery. Steve Greenlee Moniker Brewery The small tasting room gets crowded and loud on weekend evenings, but it's a fun and lively place. In warm weather they open the garage bay doors to let in the fresh air, and outside there are tables under heaters where you can gather as well. Try: Gerauchert, a German smoked Helles, or Debut Single, an uncommonly good cream ale. Moniker Brewery, 432 West Fountain St., Providence Obsidian Currants, an imperial stout brewed with currants and raspberries, at Proclamation Ale Co. Steve Greenlee Proclamation Ale Company Rhode Island's most daring brewery, with an enormous range of styles and a huge tap list. If you're tired of IPAs and brown ales, you can get an imperial stout with black currants and raspberries, a Belgian quad with red wine must or an oak-aged ale with cherries, juniper berries, lime leaves, and orange peel. Try: For Keeps, a dark, woody biere de garde, or Obsidian Currants, a tart, berry-flavored imperial stout. Advertisement Proclamation Ale Company, 298 Kilvert St., Warwick A flight of four beers at Pivotal Brewing Co.'s tasting room in Bristol. Steve Greenlee Pivotal Brewing Co. Pivotal's locally renowned dry-hopped double IPA, Hello My Name Is Pivotal, is among the dankest beers I've had and a gold standard of the DIPA style. Unfortunately it wasn't on tap when I visited recently, but plenty else was. Fourteen beers were offered in this gigantic two-story former factory that has been rehabbed and filled with funky artwork and shabby chic decor. One can easily imagine corporate events and weddings in this room. Try: Hello My Name Is Pivotal, or whichever IPAs happen to be on tap. Pivotal Brewing Co., 500 Wood St., Building 111, Bristol An ESB and a smoked dark lager at Ragged Island Brewing Co. Steve Greenlee Ragged Island Brewing Co. This may be There are lots of beers on tap here, and they're all good, from IPAs and stouts to more niche offerings like an ESB (extra special bitter), a schwarzbier, a Vienna lager, and a smoked dark lager. Try: The ESB and the Smoked Dark Lager — too many smoked beers are either far too subtle or choke you with barbecue fumes. This smooth, delicious one gets the balance right. Advertisement Ragged Island Brewing Co., 54 Bristol Ferry Road, Portsmouth Tilted Barn is Rhode Island's first farm brewery. Tilted Barn Brewery Tilted Barn Brewery The prettiest setting of any brewery on this list is I didn't think any brewery in Rhode Island would ever match the quality of the IPAs made by the likes of Tree House, Trillium, or Maine's best breweries until I tried Tilted Barn's. Every IPA made here is best in class — and there are a lot of them. If IPAs aren't your thing, there's usually a great lager, porter, or Belgian on tap as well. Try: Cactus, a soft and earthy IPA, or The Chosen One, a juicy double IPA that explodes with notes of mango and pineapple. Tilted Barn Brewery, 1 Helmsley Place, Exeter Steve Greenlee is a journalism professor at Boston University. He can be reached at . Tilted Barn beers.
Boston Globe
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Watch for the changes: A jazz scene rises in Roxbury
Advertisement The Get Love Letters: The Newsletter A weekly dispatch with all the best relationship content and commentary – plus exclusive content for fans of Love Letters, Dinner With Cupid, weddings, therapy talk, and more. Enter Email Sign Up The Regattabar and Scullers once packed patrons into their hotel jazz clubs six nights a week. Like everything else, they closed when the pandemic hit, and they've never fully returned, hosting shows only two or three nights a week these days. Both clubs showcased local acts early in the week, but no more. Ryles Jazz Club, a popular spot for local jazz musicians, closed in 2018. That's not to say jazz has disappeared from Greater Boston. Wally's Jazz Cafe on Mass. Ave. is going strong after 78 years, providing Berklee College of Music students with a spot to workshop. But something special is happening in Roxbury, and it started because Michael Feldman wanted to see live jazz and bring new life to his neighborhood. 'Roxbury and jazz,' he says, 'they just go together.' Feldman is the CEO of Feldman Geospatial, a company that was founded by his grandfather in 1946 as a land surveyor and has grown into a high-tech construction engineering firm. Advertisement In 2016, Feldman Geospatial bought into the former home of the Boston Piano Co., a three-story brick factory in disrepair. Feldman rehabbed the 162-year-old building, moved into the top two floors, and now rents the bottom floor to Long Live Beerworks, a brewery that started in Providence and operates its second taproom here. Long Live Beerworks in Roxbury. Golden Age Collective Feldman, who grew up listening to the Brazilian and Afro-Cuban records his father played at home, says he dreamed of bringing music into the Hampden Street building and initially thought he would try to recruit Berklee students to perform. But it became apparent he could think bigger. In January 2024 he began hiring local jazz groups to play on Thursday nights — Feldman's firm pays the musicians, even though they bring business to the brewery — and started with a trio led by bassist John Lockwood. Three weeks later Lockwood was back with The Fringe, saxophonist George Garzone's trio that has been playing around Boston since 1971. 'Boston's in bad shape,' Lockwood says, referring to the jazz scene. 'When I first came here, there were all kinds of clubs here — stuff in Boston, stuff in Cambridge. It kind of fizzled out, and when the pandemic hit it got kind of weird.' The Long Live jazz series has 'snowballed,' he says, thanks to the strong lineup, free admission, easy parking, and great beer. 'Boston needs places like this,' says Lockwood, who is a bass professor at Berklee. Sue Auclair, the longtime Boston jazz publicist, happened to come to one of those first shows. Lockwood introduced her to Feldman, and soon she was marketing and promoting the series. Advertisement Feldman and Auclair say they have been pleasantly surprised by how easy it has been to lure musicians here. Puerto Rican saxophonist Edmar Colón will play Long Live Beerworks on April 24. Robert Torres 'We're booked for the year already,' says Auclair, who has done publicity over the years for Scullers, the Newport Jazz Festival, Miles Davis, and countless other jazz venues and artists. Long Live's 2025 lineup is a who's who of Boston jazz, with a particular focus on Latin jazz. The next shows feature singer-pianist Zahili Gonzalez Zamora (March 27), Brazilian mandolinist Ian Coury's quartet (April 3), Israeli pianist Alon Yavnai (April 10), keyboardist Matt Jenson (April 17) and Puerto Rican saxophonist Edmar Colón (April 24). The Fringe has more gigs here, the next one being May 22. Alex Alvear has three shows booked in May with different lineups, including his Boston-based Latin ensemble Mango Blue. Feldman saw that band years ago, became a fervent fan, and flies Alvear in from Ecuador to perform at Long Live. 'What Mike is doing is exceptional for a city that has lost its way when it comes to appreciation for live music culture,' says Alvear, who came to Boston in 1986 to study at Berklee and spent nearly 30 years here before moving back to Ecuador in 2015. Mango Blue performs at Long Live Beerworks in Roxbury. Eric Antoniou By organizing and funding the music series at Long Live, Feldman is doing 'something absolutely out of this world for the Boston music scene,' Alvear says. 'The scene was really literally dying in Boston,' he says from his home in Ecuador. 'I was heartbroken when I found out that all of these really emblematic music venues had been dying and closing. The city, when I arrived in the '80s, was full of music. Live music was an essential component of the city's identity.' Advertisement Feldman wants to make it part of Roxbury's identity. The potential effect on this part of town is as important to him as is the music. 'Kids who live in this neighborhood don't always feel good about their neighborhood because of the way people talk about Roxbury,' he says. 'I really hope that we impact this neighborhood.' Bailey lives in the neighborhood herself, just a few blocks down the street. She came to Boston from New York in 2000 to teach at Berklee, where she is assistant chair of the guitar department. She started coming to Long Live on Sundays for the beer and now performs in the room. 'Look at this space,' Bailey says. 'It's a beautiful space. There are cool people who come here, and the beer is great.' Most of the seats are occupied by the time her quartet launches into 'Old and Young Blues,' a medium-tempo bop tune she wrote. It's an appropriate song: A young couple, clearly on one of their first dates, chat near the back of the room, while an older couple pay strict attention to the musicians. A middle-age woman taps her toes alone to the rhythm, and a group of five professionally dressed women sip beers at a hightop. For two and a half hours on Thursday evenings, this is in fact a jazz club — a big, jolly room on the ground floor of a building that had sat derelict for years, used as storage for old vehicles and construction equipment, now alive with A-list music and friends. 'It's just good for our community,' Feldman says. 'It's good for our spirits. It's something that's needed.' Advertisement Steve Greenlee is a journalism professor at Boston University. Reach him at .
