Here’s what it’s like to drink at the new brewery next to Fenway Park
Walk from Kenmore Square over the bridge recently named for retired Red Sox slugger David Ortiz and a billboard for the new Cheeky Monkey Brewing Co. beckons you to hang a left down Lansdowne Street.
The backside of the Green Monster has long been a place for Irish-ish pubs, music halls, and nightclubs, venues to grab a drink or a plate of nachos before or after a game.
“Lansdowne Street was the entertainment street 10 years ago,’’ says Kevin Troy, Cheeky Monkey’s owner. “Fifteen years ago it was the place to go. The layout of the city has changed a little bit.’’
Enter Cheeky Monkey, which takes over the former Tequila Rain space between Bill’s Bar & Lounge and Loretta’s Last Call and manages to retain some of the extinct dance club’s vibe.
On a recent Thursday night the Sox are out of town, and business at Cheeky Monkey, which opened the week before, is at a steady trickle. Behind the bar, liquor bottles are arranged by brand and backlit to create a kind of hard booze mosaic. Above, copper tanks hold 1,100 gallons of beer, brewed on the premises and then siphoned from tank to tap to your glass, to prevent air from getting to — and spoiling — the beer.
Cheeky Monkey doesn’t have a traditional brewer in house. Brian Watson, described by a restaurant rep as a “celebrity BrewMaster,’’ lives in New Zealand and has provided the recipes, brewed on site by someone else. Watson’s custom SmartBrew equipment is sold on his website, where a description assures restaurant owners “you’ll be brewing your own, fresh, world-class beers onsite with very little effort.’’
The beer is fine. Blood Orange is a fruit-forward, 3.9 percent ABV take on a wheat beer. Wild Blueberry’s (4.9 percent ABV) presentation is gimmicky — shriveled blueberries float in the glass — but it’s no worse than any blueberry ale you’ve ever had. Lansdowne #3 isn’t Tree House Julius, but the aromatics in the 6.7 percent ABV East Coast IPA distinctly recall tangerine, and there’s a pleasant toasty finish. We’re assured a double IPA, as well as a pale ale with Australian Galaxy hops, are coming.
Walk your house-made brew toward the back, past signs lit up to spell out “Stay Wild’’ and “Peace,’’ and pool and shuffleboard tables beckon. While the beer is changing, the space is still as distinctly Lansdowne as you remember it.
