The Beer Guy

Arlington Tavern’s Diego Barbieri

If you ever have a chance to sit down and talk beer with diego Barbieri, owner and bar manager at the Arlington Tavern downtown, plan on spending several hours…oh, and bring your appetite, too. over his restaurant career, Barbieri sampled thousands of beers from all over the globe. “how many?” he laughs. “That’s like asking how many grains of sand are on the beach. I don’t know…I’ve lost track.” Although fun, it is nevertheless his job to find a unique tasting character in a beer that will be welcomed by most palates and pair well with co-owner Chef Ron True’s Arlington Tavern menus. And at this, he has become a master.

“Pairing beer with food is a lot like wine and food, except for the carbonation,” he says. “You want to play off the same variables…texture, body, flavor hints and intensity.” one example of this is Baba Black Lager from Uinta Brewing Company in Utah. “It has a light body just like a regular lager, but because they roast the malts a lot longer it gives Baba a roasted, nutty, mouthful flavor which is just fantastic,” says Barbieri. “I stock the beer because it’s a perfect pair to our short ribs and our house cheese burger.”

Barbieri also looks for draft beers that the Tavern can use when making their popular house mustards. he says they currently use firestone 805 Blond, figueroa mountain hoppy Poppy IPA and Guinness. out of that mix, mustards and mustard sauces are made and subsequently those three beers become excellent pairs to the house pork belly and the Kobe hot dog, both mainstay menu items. on the other side of the tasting scale, Barbieri says two of the white ales, einstok from Iceland and hitachino from Japan, are extremely well crafted, crisp tasting and balanced with very subtle hints of coriander and orange peel, which make for an excellent match to their seafood dishes, particularly the black cod and bouillabaisse. “There is no shortage of flavors here. We pretty much have something for every palate.”

Although Barbieri has been in the restaurant industry for 14 years, and worked every position possible, from dish washer in Brazil to line cook in Australia to his present position at the Tavern, he says he’s just getting started with what he feels is his true calling as “the Beer Guy” at the front of the house. “I enjoy welcoming our guests and watching them have a great experience with our menu, especially when they’ve chosen a beer that compliments and actually improves on the flavors.”

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Beer pairing dinners have become a regular feature at the Tavern with local brews like firestone and figueroa mountain taking the stage to explain the details of their products, and of course Barbieri and Chef True were there to plan and pair the menu. “These dinners have been off the hook and we definitely have plans for more,” he says. ”We’ll be looking for some up and coming brew masters, maybe from oregon. There are lots of talented brewers in oregon, plus they have all that fantastic rainwater which makes for great beer!”

As for crafting his own brew Barbieri says he’d love to some day, but the opportunity and timing just aren’t there right now. Instead, he prefers to hone his tasting and pairing skills at the Tavern, all the while looking for that perfect brew and anyone who wants to sit at his bar and share it with him.

–By Raymond Bloom

For details on up coming beer dinners and seasonal menus visit www.arlingtontavern.com or call 805770-2626 with over