(Santa Rosa, CA) – Many in the beer community read about the Russian River Pliny the Younger story over on Ransacked Media with great interest.
Kupros Bistro allegedly tried to price up Pliny the Younger by pairing it with a burger and charging $45 a seat for an event it was planning. The event never happened due to outrage over perceived price gouging and the bar ended up offering the beer for $1 a glass instead. Ransacked Media also reported that Russian River was furious about the incident and planned to work with its wholesaler to make sure the bar never got anymore Russian River beer.
Well, that appears to have changed.
In response to a member of the beer community that was upset about the incident, Kupros posted this comment on its Facebook page last weekend…
Actually, Russian River apologized to us for their strident reaction. So please check the facts and enjoy the last day of beer week! Also please remember that we are talking about beer, which is a wonderful thing to share between friends and patrons, but it is not worth posting and saying derogatory things to a local business that was just trying to be creative.
Ransacked raised the question of whether Kupros’ move was actual miscommunication or backpedaling. We may never know but if you’re a patron of Kupros, it sounds like you will still find Russian River beers available there in the future.
I don’t think Russian River was out of line by trying to make sure this Kupros joint doesn’t get any more of their beer. They used RR beer and it’s exclusive availability, to make a buck – a BIG buck. To me, this is a classic example of price gouging. Quote: “Also please remember that we are talking about beer, which is a wonderful thing to share between friends and patrons, but it is not worth posting and saying derogatory things to a local business that was just trying to be creative.” – Trying to be creative?? They were ripping people off and they have the audacity to claim that they were “sharing beer between friends…” BS!
Come on guys, it just means they have a $44 burger! #fishy
If they were selling the beer and burger “deal” and donating the profit to charity, that’d be creative… Pocketing the money on the other hand…
It’s too bad Russian River is still sending beer their way. And jacking up the price on a burger beer combination is not “creative” in any way. Especially when one of your “mission statement” values is “affordable prices”.
Did you guys contact RR about this? Or are you going off the Facebook post?
Going strictly off of Facebook post. Didn’t seem contentious enough for me to need to contact RR. “Hi, I’m just calling to see if you apologized to Kupros as they said on their FB page.” Be my guest though. Cheers!
No worries, I was just wondering. That story was viewed 10,000 times. Crazy how it caught fire.
True! It’s unfortunate but the pettiest crap can get all the hits.
Unfortunately I see this happening more and more often the further food and beer “pairing” (or “wine-ification) goes mainstream.
Dave, I disagree.
This is not a case of beer being accepted as a fine beverage, but a case of rare beer being hyped by a growing audience that appreciates craft beer, an increase in electronic communication to facilitate such hyping and an influx of new, younger fans into this community.
The people I witness turning out for PtY and other rare beers are not sophisticated foodies looking to perfectly pair the beer with high quality food. They simply like beer and are curious to try more.