Court Street Gets A Gastropub

Long before they’d identified a homey space, gutted and redone the woodwork, and dreamed up a name for New Haven’s newest gastropub and brew-centric venue, Craig Sklar and Taurean Davis were just two twenty-something dudes at a bottle share in New York City meeting each other while dipping into a limited-run, craft label of a sour beer.

Now the two have launched their first business venture together, a boozy classroom and watering hole on Court Street called The Beer Collective. The goal is to inform and delight patrons, from regulars to once-in-a-while beer sippers, about all that occurs under the great fermented, hoppy, and drinkable umbrella.

At a soft opening Wednesday night, close to 100 friends, family, business partners and community members packed the space and backyard patio to try free samples of the Beer Collective’s early fall offerings — crisp, end-of-summer flavors like Kent Falls’ Dry Hopped Farmhouse Ale (imagine dairy cows, green summer grass and clover honey), New England Cider Company’s Wild Fermented Cider, Hill Farmstead’s Earl Grey Tea American Blonde, and others, as well as more exotic sours and stouts that Sklar and Davis poured in small plastic glasses, showing off the heavy brown bottles like prize pigs.

The spot, which Sklar and Davis see as fitting into New Haven’s beer landscape without competing with existing craft venues like Cask Republic and Ordinary, will officially open on Saturday. Prices vary depending on the beer and size of pour (full, half, and quarter pours), but range from $5 – 13 for a full pour (14 ounces), from $8 – 13 for 32-ounce to-go growlers , and $15 – 25 for a 64-ounce growler.

The idea started in New York, where Sklar and Davis were living as transplants half a decade ago. Sklar, who hails from Guilford, was working for New York distributer S.K.I. and had found a temporary home in Brooklyn, where he was developing a love for growler fills and home-aged beers. Davis, originally from Denver, wanted to tap into the rich and funky craft brewing traditions of his home state.

One night in Manhattan, the two struck up a conversation at a friend’s bottle share, a gathering where each participant shares his or her beer with other attendees.

Sklar sang the praises of craft beer, recounting a transformative experience he’d had with a Rodenbach Grand Cru sour years before. Davis was keen to introduce his new friend to craft brews from his side of the country, hard to find on the East Coast. The two shared a few pours, and a lot of rapid-fire beer conversation. By the end of the night, they were talking like they had known each other for years, slipping into that hoppy foreign language with which each of them were intimately familiar. And they couldn’t imagine not continuing that dialogue.

“We developed this relationship hanging out, drinking beers, talking about what we tasted, talking about styles and breweries we were really into,” said Sklar. ​“It was really exciting.”

It was also the foundation of their business model. Even before they’d identified New Haven as a potential spot, the two knew they wanted to form a space for tasting craft beer with the intent of learning about its flavor profile and origins, and of expanding one’s palate and brewing vocabulary. There were for instance, Davis noted at the opening, stouts that tasted of cherry, bourbon and expresso — and people didn’t know about them. Or sours that left the flavor of dried Turkish apricots dancing on one’s tongue. Who was going to fill that knowledge gap?

It fell on them, they soon decided. During their time in New York, both had seen beer shed its unpopular shell. But they still found that people were hesitant to branch out from major brands or entry-level flavors to the beers that they loved — tart, boozy lambics, particularly ferocious barrel-aged stouts, barley wines, and the yeastier, funkier of the farmhouse ales.

If they could demystify craft labels at bottle shares, the two figured, why not try to on the business level too?

That’s what drew them to look closely at the 130 Court St. property in New Haven, which Sklar describes as having a little bit of a ​“Brooklyn vibe” with plenty of its own personality. After renovating the space, a ​“real fixer-upper” that now boasts long, wooden tables, a light-flooded bar with shiny new taps, gravel-filled patio and A‑Z beer library for patrons’ reading pleasure, the two sat down to plan a beer list that would educate beer novices and tickle aficionados.

Several months later, it’s here. To eight seasonal beers on tap, the owners plan to add a rotating cast of eight ​“wild, weird, unique” beers, and growlers that New Haveners can take home with them. To fill that teaching and sharing mission they hold so dear, they’ll also start hosting monthly beer seminars on everything from flavor notes and beer yeast to brewing practices around the state.

Wednesday night, that spirit of collaboration and education was in full force. Out on the patio, roommates Elizabeth Nearing and Henin Kaputkin leaned in over plates of brisket macaroni and cheese and crisp potato lattices to hear Sklar speak about — and pour generous portions of — Evil Twin’s Bozo Beer, an imperial stout whose flavor blooms from molasses and cocoa nibs to vanilla and hazelnut in one small sip.

“It feels instantly comfortable — the kind of space you can come and spend time,” said Nearing, community engagement manager at Long Wharf Theatre, as she tried a sip of the Bozo Beer.

“I was just realizing that I want to start this kind of education,” added Kaputkin, a costume designer and MFA student at the Yale School of Drama who grew up in Ithaca, itself a sort of craft beer haven. ​“So the fact that you can take home a growler is great.”

Those very aspects of the venture, Davis said, will make it unique. 

“We want people to experience the communal aspect of beer … to be able to have beers they haven’t had before,” he said at the opening. ​“There’s a lot of craft beer bars in New Haven already … We want to be part of that community, but we want to offer a different service around education.”

Sklar added that the educational side of The Beer Collective — what originally drew him to beer — is also a timely one.

“The way beer is going now, there are so many blurred lines between styles — new stuff is popping up all the time. It’s really cool to get a sense of what everybody’s doing.”