The year was 1957. Sputnik was lauched, America’s favorite car was the Chevy Bel Air, and the Brickskellar Dining House and Down Home Saloon opened in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of DC. Although it exuded the ambiance of a Cold War bunker, the basement level nevertheless featured an amazing beer can collection.
The bottled beer menu selection ran into the triple digits, but actually finding something in stock was always a dicey proposition. “Give me about four or five selections,” said one waiter “and one of them is probably here.” While skunked beer was a concern, the chance to drink a little known Belgian abbey ale or obscure beer from the far-off country your ancestors came from made it worth the visit. Simply put, the Brickskeller made the capital of the free world the capital of the beer world.
