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| - Not bad, but for being a "Bier Markt" their servers know absolutely nothing about serving beer, especially Belgian beer. Some of the food was very good, and some not so much.
They have a good European beer selection, including some of the top Belgians (in theory...they were out of 2 of the best, Rochefort 10 & St. Bernardus 12). Their American beer selection is abysmal, but other international beers are okay. You would think that a place with "Bier" in the name would train their servers on how to serve beer! Several of us ordered Belgian beers included a few Trappists. These are bottle-conditioned and have lots of yeast / trub on the bottom, and you should basically never pour this into your glass unless it's a wit / wheat.
Sadly I noticed too late that our server already poured my beer (Rochefort 8), proceeded to swirl the hell out of the last 2", and dumped it into the glass. If you don't know anything about beer, please note: never do this. Ever. To a beer nerd, this is the equivalent of ordering Kobe beef extra-well done, with a side of ketchup & Tabasco. If you had an old bottle of wine, would you swirl it first, to make sure your wine was extra chunky? Of course not, you'd decant it first. Same goes for bottle-conditioned beer. This ain't rocket science, it's your job.
For food, I had mussels; $21 for a kilo. Not horribly overpriced, but way overcooked. the right way to cook mussels is to take them out as soon as the shells pop open. The wrong way to cook them, a la Bier Markt way, is to continue cooking them for at least 10 more minutes, so that they shrivel up into tiny balls of overcooked mussel. It's a shame, because their broth was tasty.
Lessons learned here folks: if you order a bottle of beer, POUR IT YOURSELF. When ordering mussels, specify that they're brought out immediately after opening. With those instructions, this is a 4 to 5 star joint.
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