It’s time for another Brewpub Nation post, this time about a San Francisco craft beer institution—Magnolia Gastropub & Brewery on Haight Street—and its legendary founder, Dave McLean.
McLean came to San Francisco from Boston with a corporate finance degree, an affinity for the Grateful Dead, and a passion for the science of beer. “The culture surrounding the Grateful Dead was one of rejecting mass market anything so the individual nature of craft beer really caught on at the shows,” he told the indogpatch blog earlier this year. This wandering free spirit ended up smack in the middle of the revolutionary Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, and in 1997 (way ahead of the curve) created one of the United States’ first food and beer-savvy gastropubs.
Craft Beer & Brewing: Did Magnolia open with beer and food in mind?
Dave McLean: Food was central to the overall vision and concept. One of my earliest San Francisco friends in the early 1990s had recently finished his culinary degree at the Culinary Institute in New York and was cooking at some really great restaurants that had embraced the Alice Waters ethos and farm-to-table cooking even back then. Observing (and occasionally tasting) that world through osmosis, I had a context for what I wanted to do as a brewer. Beer is food, too, of course, and I understood that my brewing values and ideas were part of a larger community of people who feel that way about all food and drink. My friend became our opening chef and from the beginning we set out not so much to specifically pair our beer and food, item for item, but just to honor our culinary values throughout the building, whether in the kitchen or in the brewery.
CB&B: What beers do you specialize in?
DM: I’ve always had a deep love for English-style ales, specifically bitters and milds, and have turned that into a love for all well-balanced and session-able beers. That beer, which is a conversation of sorts between malt and hops with a huge assist from the yeast, is central to the Magnolia brewing aesthetic.
CB&B: What inspires the food at Magnolia?
DM: Magnolia Pub’s food is rustic, fresh, and comfortable. It’s very much an expression of good pub food, augmented by the Bay Area approach to sourcing and seasonality. It is intended to not just go well with our beer but also to fit well into the social institution of the pub and to pair with the kinds of occasions that attract people to their local establishments.
CB&B: And what about the food at your new brewpub, Smokestack?
DM: It is very much a barbecue restaurant. With no gas in the kitchen we are cooking everything over smoke or flame. We continue and extend the Magnolia approach with regard to local and sustainable sourcing and butchery. I partnered with one of my favorite chefs on the planet, Dennis Lee, of Namu Gaji in the Mission, for Smokestack BBQ, which is an honor and a treat in that we get to have a lot of fun developing our version of barbecue and making sure it dovetails perfectly with our beer.
CB&B: Are you formally trained as a chef?
DM: No, and I should clarify that I’m not the chef at Magnolia. Our chef, Kevin Clancy, was on the opening team seventeen years ago as a line cook, became head chef before leaving to pursue other culinary jobs over the past ten to twelve years, and has recently returned. As for me, and like many brewers I know, I love food as much as I love beer, and that makes me just as curious about cooking and coaxing flavors out of kitchen ingredients as I am about brewing. But, you wouldn’t want me working on the line in a commercial kitchen.
Visiting the Magnolia Pub? Try these pairings.
Brunch: Big Cypress Brown + Hangtown Fry
fried oysters, scrambled eggs, bacon, spinach, caramelized onions on grilled bread
A big breakfast like this calls for a big-flavored beer. Go for the complexity of the Big Cypress Brown, which drinks almost like a stout. Roast and chocolate aroma create the allusion of coffee with brunch, and its balanced malt and hop character will pair surprisingly well with most foods.
Lunch: Proving Ground IPA + Picnic Chicken Sandwich
pickled jalapeños, fennel cabbage slaw, onions, fennel honey, aioli on a torpedo roll
This earthy, often described as dank, IPA, will compliment the spiciness of the jalapeños and fennel in this dish, and contrast with the rich honey.
Dinner: Weekapaug Gruit + Beer Brined Pork Chop
served with heirloom runner beans, baby kale
Here’s a highly drinkable beer with molasses and herbal tea notes, which will play off both the sweet and savory nuances in this pork chop.