Wednesday 6th of February 2013 01:47:23 PM

link

This person needs 3 or more reviews on the site for their scores to start counting.

After a trip to Italy early on in his career, what struck Howard Schultz was that Italians lived incredibly balanced lives. Shultz lamented that, unlike the Italians and their 100s of thousands of coffee bars, Americans had no place to gather that wasn't work and wasn't home: a third place.

Shulltz brought that notion back to the US, built Starbucks into a worldwide coffee empire, bought the Seattle Supersonics, drove them into the ground, sold them to a rich oil baron, and now Kevin Durant plays in Oklahoma City for the Thunder. But, I digress.

What I'm trying to say is: these guys at ABW got it right! This is our new "third place." ABW is a place where white collar, blue collar, hipster, the opposite of hipster, moms, dads, grandparents, the opposite of grandparents.... ok. you get the picture. It's all inclusive. They have a tremendous craft beer selection for tasting (there are always six kegs flowing), as well as a monster selection of bottled beer to take home. Mix and match your favorites if you want because it's all priced by the bottle. No kidding.

They are very principled about what beers they will carry -- they recently informed me that my favorite west coast brew which I thought was "craft" turned out to be owned by a larger syndicate, hence they won't be carrying it. Did I mention these guys know their beer?

You should get to ABW now -- not just to sit and talk with the owners or a neighbor, but because you'll be able to say you sat in the original location when in 20 years they've achieved world domination. Let's just make sure they don't end up selling the Sabres.