Attention Beer Geeks:

Monday, February 8th, 2010

We have doubled the size of our walk in beer cooler to 1200 ft2 ! This may mean more aimless wandering and potential hypothermia. Not to fear a staff member is always present to help you navigate your way through the towers of delectable brews. This also means more room for MORE beer! Keep your eye out for new additions to our selection.  If this is all too overwhelming for you, Matt, our beer expert, is teaching an introductory beer  class March 9th. Come learn the fundamentals of brewing while enjoying some new suds.

Posted in News | No Comments »

Ames Farm and their Busy Bees

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

BeeThe current bout of summer-like weather has us thinking about honeybees, flowers, songbirds, and (of course) honey! When we think of these things, our minds naturally drift toward the folks at Ames Farm and their horde of busy bees.

Liesa Helfen from Ames Farm Single Source Honey will be here to sample
out their various sweet nectars. Ames honey is collected over one specific time period, from one unique geographic location and from one single hive. They have some 300 hives in 18 different locations! All Ames single-source honey is raw and unfiltered, which means it has not been exposed to any heat outside of the hive and has not been blended or heavily processed.

If you’ve never experienced honey the way the bees do, then you’re missing out on one of the planet’s last unspoiled treats. Come on by our Minneapolis location on Saturday, January 30th from 2pm to 5pm. As always, the tasting is free of charge and open to the public. You’ll be able to taste the difference single-sourcing makes for honey. Caveat: We will not have any of the honey in the bear-shaped bottle, so if you want to compare, you’ll have to bring your own!

Posted in News | No Comments »

Cheese Shop Wins Award

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

Kathie Jenkins of the St. Paul Pioneer Press honored us by her selection of our Fennel Salami Sandwich as one of the “10 Best Dishes of 2009″. Here is a link to the article. Thanks, for the shout-out, Kathie!

Posted in News | No Comments »

New Year's Resolution for 2010

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

NewYearIn the spirit of the season, we’ve resolved to further expand our selection of products in the coming year. And unlike most New Year resolutions, we won’t abandon it two weeks into the year! Here are a few things we plan on doing this year:

1. Further expand our beer selection. We already carry over 1300 different beers, but still we hear that someone else has “more”. Huh? Well, fine. We’re channeling our “inner Jan” and working even harder to impress the beer intelligentsia out there. Be on the lookout for changes to our beer cooler to accommodate the wider selection.

2. Improve the flow of our check-out lanes. Most of the time, we have no problem handling our customers at check-out time. But when it’s REALLY busy, the lines can get long. Now, we know that this is pretty standard in retail. Nevertheless, we know how much WE hate standing in long lines, so we’re going to do something about it. Look for some changes in the arrangement of our check-out lanes which will (hopefully) make them more efficient.

3. Raise the profile of organic and sustainable items in our store. Our selection of organic and sustainable products will beat anybody else’s in town. Of this I have no doubt. The problem is that our tags do not always “pop” on the shelf or our staff do not always know all the items that fit in this category. So, we’ll work even harder to make our organic and sustainable items easier to locate.

Like all resolutions, these will take some time to get implemented. However, we are confident that we’ll get them done over the next several weeks. Happy 2010!

Posted in News | No Comments »

Yes! We have no Rogue chocolate!

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

ColinIt seems that Colin’s segment on KARE 11 literally sucked ever remaining bar of his chocolate from store shelves just before Christmas.

Good for him! It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

Unfortunately, this means that he’s been spending his holidays slaving away with the Oompa Loompas in the chocolate factory instead of doing whatever else Colin might liked to have done during the last couple weeks.

We’ll be sure to let you know when we get our order of fresh, delicious, single-source Rogue chocolates. Until then, keep up with those resolutions to cut down on chocolate and bulk up on rice cakes!

Posted in News | No Comments »

Le Nouveau Est Arrive!

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

BN2009It’s that time of the year again. Santa’s getting ready to take his chances with a long line of wiggly hopefuls. The big box retailers have all their sound systems cranked up with yuletide ditties. And the French happily send out their peculiar variety of “instant wine.” All we need now is an early snow and some decked-out sleighs!

Just like the swallows returning to Capestrano, the arrival of Beaujolais Nouveau is a sure sign of the changing seasons.

Like it or not, the holidays are officially in full swing. The French government said so.

The Nouveau selections this year include the following producers: Bouchard, Chatelus, Drouhin,  Georges Duboeuf, Matray, and Mommessin. In addition the Alexander Valley Vineyards New Gewurztraminer from California joins the annual Nouveau reunion.

If you want some, you better hurry up and get it, because (fingers crossed… this is retail after all!) it won’t last long.

Posted in News | No Comments »

Jefferson Presidential Select Bourbon

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Just arived and we have limited quanities! This bourbon is bold with roasted toasty note, vanilla, and spice.  Aged 17 years allows this bourbon to have deep complexity, with raisin, sherry, and chocolate notes on the finish. This is not shy bourbon with its 94 proof. You will fine it to be soft and elegant with good balance. At $100 a bottle you will see why it superior. Limited quantities are available. Stop in and have one of our friendly staff build a custom bourbon basket for the holidays.

Cheers,
- Jeff

Posted in News | No Comments »

Welcome Heavy Table Readers!

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

heavyTableWelcome to France 44′s website! We’re glad you came. You can check back here often to see what new items are in store. Matt (“the beer guy”) featured in the Heavy Table article, is practically as religious about posting new arrivals here as he is about getting them on the shelf. So if you want to stay up on what’s new in beer, check back often (or better yet, RSS us).

Another thing you can do is to follow us on Twitter. You can find the link near the top of our navigation panel on the left-hand side.

Finally, you can always check out our free tasting schedule, posted to the right of this column. We have free tastings of beer on Fridays and of wine on Fridays and Saturdays. You certainly can’t beat the price!

Posted in News | No Comments »

Mad River brewing Co. and limited seasonals

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

mad rivervan tweeNew to the shelves at France 44 this week we have the Mad River Brewing Company.  This highly touted brewery sent us their Jamaican Red Ale, Extra Pale Ale, Double India Pale Ale, Scotch Porter and the John Barleycorn Barleywine.

As for the new limited seasonals we recieved Moylans Winter Lager, St. Bernardus Christmas Ale, Corsendonk Christmas Ale and finally in a brewmaster’s colaboration between John Mallet of Bell’s Brewery in Michigan and Dirk Naudts of the De Proef Brouwerij in Belgium we have the Van Twee, a dark Belgian ale brewed with cherry juice.

Posted in News | No Comments »

More new beers. Limited release.

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

First off  Founder’s has released their Backwoods Bastard,  a bourbon barrel aged scotch ale, as well as their dry hopped Pale Ale.

Next in is the Killer Penguin from Boulder brewing company.  A very limited barleywine, only five cases of this stuff came into the state.

For all of you who have been asking, the Bells Christmas Ale is finally here!

foundersbells xmaskiller p

Posted in News | No Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »