On Sunday night, we headed to Thai Basil for dinner and a little bar crawl with friends just before The Smashing Pumpkins show at the Orange Peel. After dinner, we hit-up Jack of The Wood and had a pint of John’s ESB. We walked the rest of the way towards the show and made a last stop at Hannah Flanagan’s. Admittedly, it has been some time since we’ve been there.

Just so you know where our priorities lie, here is the scene: We’ve already encroached on opening band time at this point, and knew we were keeping our pals from the show, so off they went while we hung back to peruse the beer list. The online beer list is not even close to the actual pub list. By our estimates, there were less than ten domestic macro bottles, followed by an impressive 25 microbrew list which included Allagash, Ommegang and Victory to name a few. Then, lo and behold—106 imported bottles along side 25 imported drafts. Wow.

Jason ordered a Corsendonk Abbey Brown on draft, which—hooray!—came served in its proper glassware. I stared blankly for about 30 seconds at these three words: Thomas Hardy Ale. Perhaps I read it wrong. Nope. There it is. 2003 vintage just sitting there. What a treat! Rich, creamy, warming and definitely headed toward whiskey-town.

We just love the little gems you (re)discover in Asheville.