Lyon Hall: Tapping into Northern Virginia’s Thirst for Great Beer

Clarendon has fast become an upwardly mobile food and drink playground where beer fans can go to any number of local eateries and pubs to try exotic brews. Even better news is that there are good deals to be found while on your beer safaris.

With the revolution of establishments serving good beers within the Ballston-Rosslyn corridor, Clarendon's Lyon Hall has made many friends with its Euro-centric beer menu, since opening in April 2010.

It wasn't that long ago that beer aficionados who wanted to try new beers beyond the fuzzy yellow stuff had no choice but to go to a themed restaurant -- say, German or Belgian -- to enjoy unfamiliar ales, or hit the Brickskeller's temple to beer in DC. 

As more good people try good beers – IPA's, English ales, fruity sweet Lambics, and fine German lagers and Belgian ales – the movement is to expect more from a restaurant's beer selection, especially in the laid-back neighborhood spots in craft beer-crazy Northern Virginia.

Beer lovers will find a treat waiting at Lyon Hall, the French-German-Belgian inspired brasserie, located at 3100 Washington Blvd., just down the road from Arlington's Clarendon Metro stop. It is part of the Liberty Tavern Restaurant Group, owners of Clarendon's Liberty Tavern and Northside Social.

Chef Liam LaCivita's charming "dinner only" menu includes great pork schnitzel, salads, raw bar, artesian fromage, burgers, steaks, salmon, homemade charcuterie, spaetzle, a variety of sausages and three different types of sauerkraut -- complimenting 20 drafts -- with three revolving taps -- and three times as many Euro, Canadian and American bottled choices!

The tap menu is divided into "Session" beers and high-alcohol "Drink Well" beers, but beer director David McGregor is soon introducing a new beer list rearranging the grouping by styles.

"We want to make it easier for the customers whom we have gotten our hooks into over the past five or six months to continue to bring in new people to try our exceptional offerings," he said.

From 4 to 7 p.m., Monday to Sunday, the ten offerings of 16-oz pint "session" beers are a great deal at $3 each. If you are a first time guest, try pairing them with one of the three homemade $5 franks while you are nosing around the beer lists. The Classic Shortrib Frankfurter on a poppy seed roll topped with the house classic crunchy sauerkraut and homemade pub mustard will sure wet your appetite for more.

For a great way to sample the "sessions" without having to imbibe a full 16-oz pour, one can't forget Lyon Hall beer flights, which consist of four 5-oz pours of four themed selections, including: "Old School," "The Belgian," "The Fall Flight," and the "Red Top" Set – priced between $10 and $14 per flight.

Of the ten $3 happy hour drinkables on the draft "session" list, from Germany come the Weihenstephaner (wheat), Hofbrau Dunkle (dark from burnt malts) and Köstritzer Schwarzbier (a black lager upstaging them both.)

"All I know is because we serve six different kinds of sausages, if we didn't always have a Hofbrau, we'd be shooting ourselves in the foot," said McGregor

The draft Belgiums are best represented in the "Drink Well" section of the beer menu.  Among the line-up is strong ale -- the likes of Kapittel Prior Ale (9%) or Delirium Tremens (8.5%). For a Belgium style triple ale try a Goudan Carlos (9%), or the famous supermarket shelf Chimay Blanche (8% ), for plenty of kick.

Among the three rotating tap lines, Lyon Hall has a standout featured keg, (which just last week) was California brewery Anderson Valley's Winter Solstice; a Québécois, which is a seasonal gift from our neighbors to the North; and a Joyeux Noël – a revolving selection of Christmas holiday brews.

Regional beer lovers get in the act with the hoppy Yard's IPA from Philly (another "session" beer), and Allagash's Curieux, a triple aged in bourbon barrels to make the wait to get it to room temperature go down sweeter and stronger. New to the happy hour line up is Fullers London Porter (5.4%).

The global 60 bottled beers list leave one gasping for air, as does their presentation, which is in style appropriate glassware -- from large goblets for big sipping beers-- to snifters -- ideal for capturing the volatiles of aromatic beers, such as Belgian ales.

Jocelyn Cambier (www.jcambierimports.com) is an importer distributor that has found a nitch with Liberty Tavern Restaurant Group. 

"I am a new beer frontier kind of guy looking for beers that no one else is looking for, whether they are produced in too small batches or were formerly out of the envelope and are better known now," Cambier said. 

With a twelve year background in wine exporting (now devoted to craft beer), Cambier looks for brews aged in all kinds of barrels – from bourbon whiskey – to sweet wine – even to apple brandy - to sell locally on his monthly runs from Québec. 

"I find most American craft beers either incipid (tasteless) or a punch in the face – lacking a certain balance and harmony overall and that is where I come in," Cambier said.

Lyon Hall management hires servers with exceptional beer knowledge to help navigate the frothy waters. Personally, I always ask for server Autumn Cline and we do an impressive dance in reviewing the bottled list with her brewing background and time worked at the Brickskeller in DC.  She even writes a blog entitled, "Adventures in Staff Beers."

Saturday and Sunday, Lyon Hall sports a full brunch from 10 to 2 p.m. with both traditional offerings and a full French breakfast; along with mainstream and Euro lunch entrees like burgers, skirt steak, scallop salad, trout beurre noisette, and chicken salad tartine. From 2 to 5 p.m. you're on with the bar menu, which includes mussels, oysters, shrimp, skirt steak, burgers, frankfurters, charcuterie and artesian cheeses (remember happy hour starts at 4 p.m.) and dinner begins at 5 p.m..

After having enjoyed the dinner menu over a dozen times since the beginning of summer, what keeps me coming back to Lyon Hall for a night cap is its ultra unique beer dessert menu. A favorite of my guests is the selection of Beer Flight Floats, with couplings like Southern Tier Pumpking and ginger ice cream; Duck Rabbit Chocolate Stout and chocolate stout ice cream; JK Scrumpys Apple Cider with smoked vanilla ice cream and caramelized puff pastry (a standout); each at $10 and the ice cream is homemade!

Just alone the draft and bottled dessert beer menu can do the trick including: Charles Wells Banana Bread (an English fruit beer) and the ladies favorite - Lambic - fit for royalty - available in both cherry and raspberry from Lindeman's.

The 18-seat marble bar scene is hectic on the weekends and split between beer drinkers and those enjoying French by-the-glass wine. I always enjoyed the cacophony of sounds from such an exciting brasserie, but due to customer requests management has installed noise dampening ceiling tiles and curtains in the windows that help to diffuse the sound and apparently there are more plans in the works to improve the acoustics.

The kitchen at Lyon Hall is now open seven days a week: Monday - Thursday from 4 to 10:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday the kitchen opens for brunch from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and closes at 11:30 p.m. for dinner; Sunday at 10 p.m.. The bar (with bar menu) stays open until "last call" seven days a week. For holiday gatherings they have semi-private dining in the "Trophy Room."

Whether toasting the holiday season in English: Cheers! – French: Santé! (health) – German: Prost! (cheers) – or Irish: Sláinte! (to my friends and family's health) – enjoying the right beer with delicious food pairings can be exceptionally rewarding and Lyon Hall is just the place to do it in Northern Virginia!