I had a work dinner last night at Riva in St Kilda, here in Melbourne.
Food was fantastic, venue was great, beer choice was absolutely woeful.
Here's what I remember: BUL Heineken and Beck's on tap and in bottles, various takes on the "blonde" theme, Crown Lager. There were various other beers along the same lines i.e. crap, tasteless lagers. They probably had VB stubbies, but I would have blocked that from my memory. Get the picture?
I drank real Italian Peroni (which sadly didn't taste as fresh as it might have) and James Squire Amber Ale, which is not my favourite beer but was the best of a bad bunch. They also had Guinness in cans. And that's as good as it got on the beer front. So let's say they had 15 beers. That means 12 were rubbish lagers. Not good enough, methinks.
There was a bottle of Craft Brewery Athens Lager from Greece in the fridge, but apparently that was not for sale and was given to the bar by a rep to see if they liked it and were interested stocking it. I've had it before and it's actually not a bad beer. So don't expect to see it on the Riva beer list.
I have now been there four years running for the Chrismas work do and it's been the same sea of beer blandness appealing to the bogan masses every time.
It's a real shame because the quality of the beer offerings lets down what was otherwise a fabulous night.
Wow, I think I'm morphing into lob from over on
this thread Rant over.
Oliver