Siren
I went a new bar in Iowa City, Siren. It is in the downtown pedmall, next to the new library. You’ll remember that this is where Burger King used to be, if your a long time Iowa City resident.
Inside it is a very cool place, with faux 30’s area feel. A pianist was playing while I was there (there was a 5$ cover to help pay for him.) He played for quite a long time and it really added to the overall feel of the place, along with the lighting and baroque metal railing on the stairs. The upstairs is very elegant and has a good size stage.
It is primarily a wine bar. I was there with my friend Larry, who is a wine distributor. We surveyed the wine list and found some nice reds, definately better than what you will find in a typical restaurant. The beer list though, was a catastrophe. I dare say the Chile’s at the mall has a better selection. There was only a few domestic micro’s and the ones they had were beers such as Boulevard Wheat and Redhook ESB. Probably two of the blandest Micro’s I can think of. The only exotic thing was Kirin on tap.. the budweiser of Japan. Its sort of shocking, that with 8 taps, and an exotic wine list, that this was all there was.
I got to meet the owner, Jackie, who was incredibly nice and a very generous. She was very receptive to the possiblity of carrying our products. She explained that during the rush to open, the beers were pretty much left up to the distributors choice. I tried to recommend getting some exotic belgians on her bottle beer list, but she was completely focused on wine (and I don’t want to be pushy!). *Sigh* We have a long way to go to make people understand that beer can be just as refined as wine.
I do recommend the place. It has a nice menu, lots of appetizers and fondue (though no main courses). Please go there and tell them that you would like too see some Millstream on the ‘beer list’, and maybe ask for a bottle of Duvel rather than Chardonnay.