During this time, he experimented with beer brewing at his parent’s home in Yarmouth and, once he graduated, he took a job managing The Moan & Dove beer bar in Amherst, MA. Now he’s opened his own establishment for serious beer lovers.
“My original idea was to do a brewery,” Michaud says. “But after working there I realized it’s more fun to have hundreds of beers than to brew five.”
Called Novare Res Bier Café, the name means to start a revolution in Latin. Michaud says it refers to his desire to educate beer drinkers about the world of brewing that exists beyond the big brand names.
The bar is located behind Exchange Street, but requires beer pilgrims to duck down an obscure alley in order to find its subterranean digs. This gives the place the hidden feel of a speakeasy. (That is if you ignore the massive deck that sprawls in the sunlight just to the right of the entrance.) Inside, there are two rooms in which to enjoy a cold one.
But, the centerpiece of Novare Res is its menu.
The multiple page listing includes more than 200 bottled beers, an ever changing selection of 25 drafts and two hand-pumped cask finished beers. But don’t come here looking for PBRs or even your go-to local brew (unless it’s Allagash). Instead this menu reads like a beer connoisseur’s trip across the country and around the world.
“I hand-picked what I think are the best beers available in Maine,” Michaud says.
These include familiar names like Dogfish Head and Smuttynose, and less well-known brews, such as Kwak and Val Dieu. Prices range from $4 to $50, and there is a very select list of wine, scotch and tequila. All these drinks are complemented by a small but well-thought out menu of meats, cheeses and apps.
The meats and cheeses ($3-$4 for a 1 oz. serving) include prosciutto, Tuscan roasted ham, aged gouda and meunster. More substantial offerings include beef carpaccio ($9) and a lentil fennel salad ($5).
For the daring, Novare Res offers a sophisticated mug club called the Uprising. To become a member all you need to do is drink your way through 200 different beers. Then, after a short ceremony, you get a key to a locked VIP room and your own glass chalice.
That sounds like a bold concept for the city that brought America a different sort of beer revolution, namely prohibition.
— Avery Yale Kamila