Build Pizzeria brings another beer option to Berkeley

Build (the official name is BUILD Pizzeria Roma but I don’t like shouting) opened in April in downtown Berkeley, a stone’s throw from BART, Triple Rock, and plenty of other things I love. I don’t get out much so I first got around to investigating last night. You may have heard about the pizza and fancy cocktails, but you’ll be shocked — shocked! — that I’m going to talk about the beer.

Build me a glass of beer, please

Build is hitting the Meet the Brewer concept hard, especially for a place that isn’t a dedicated beer bar. Firestone Walker kicked it off in June,  Speakeasy showed up last week, Bison last night, and 21st Amendment will be there next Wednesday. It’s not a big beer geek scene and brewery employees are actively encouraged to work the crowd (perhaps someone at Build read this blog post). This bodes well for new faces exploring local beer. The events are listed as running from 5-7pm but I doubt any of them will end at 7 on the dot. The early start time gives you ample time to hit Build and then a second spot if there are multiple events you’d like to attend that night.

There’s no beer board, which threw me off for a minute when I walked in. The taps are discreetly labeled. The printed menu I looked at listed all California beers except for an Allagash, with prices in the $5.50-$6.50 range for what looked like a 12-ish ounce pour. Here’s the list: 21st Amendment Bitter American, Ale Industries Rye’d Piper, Allagash White, Almanac Honey Saison, Bison Chocolate Stout, Calicraft Oaktown Brown, Drake’s Denogginizer, Firestone Walker Union Jack, Heretic Evil Twin, Linden Street Urban People’s Common Lager, North Coast Pranqster, Speakeasy Big Daddy, Payback Porter, and Tallulah, Sierra Nevada Kellerweis, and Trumer Pils. This was slightly different on my visit due to the extra three Bison beers on tap (Honey Basil, Hop Cuvee, and Belgian Tramp).

Time will tell how often the taps rotate — my guess is not that often except on Meet the Brewer night, since there’s a list in the bound, permanent-looking full Build menu — but either way it’ll be nice to have a beer option right next door to the movie theater. More importantly, I suspect Build will be able to broaden the beer horizons of people who aren’t already huge dorks wondering about things like tap rotation.

Happy hour is Monday-Friday from 4-6pm, with a sub-menu of $3 beers and selected cocktails closer to $5 than $10. The $3 beers may not include your favorites on the 16-beer draft list, but then again they may: North Cost Scrimshaw, Sierra Nevada Kellerweis, Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye, and Heretic Evil Twin.

There are also 12 wines on tap and, for those that can hold their liquor, the bar staff and cocktail menu conjure up phrases like “mixologist” and “bar program.” I’ll let someone who knows something about hard stuff tell you about that, but I can attest that the beer cocktail I sampled was quite delicious.

now if only I could make those TVs disappear

The space is bigger than I thought it would be, and on the swankier side. It also supposedly has a huge basement that is going to be turned into a club later on. The only drawback to the layout is that there isn’t a lot of space between the bar and the tables, so if you’re more than one-deep at the bar you’re always in a server’s way. If you’ve got a group, get a table.

Obviously the main reason for normal people to go to a pizza place is the pizza, and I haven’t tried much of that yet. The little Mediterranean slices (whole olives!) getting passed around indicates that the menu of wood-fired Italian-style pies is promising. The schtick is that you get to build your own pizza, hence the name, but the East Bay Express’ review suggests that maybe chefs are better at this than you are. Further, um, “research” will be required. At the bar.

Details:

2286 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, near Downtown Berkeley BART

http://buildpizzeria.tumblr.com/

https://www.facebook.com/buildpizzeria

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