The brains — and boys — behind Beermenus.com
By Noah Davis • Jan 28th, 2009 • Category: beer people
By Lilit Marcus
Some parents teach their children a love for music. Some teach their kids to appreciate hiking through nature. Brothers Eric and Will Stephens, however, spent their childhoods in the New York City suburbs learning admiration for the fine art of beer-brewing.
They both admit to spending their college years drinking less-than-stellar beers at keg parties, but as their palates matured they developed tastes for more interesting brews. By his senior year of college, Will, now 24, was helping his father make “strong, hoppy beers” at their family home. Eric, 27, also got in on the fun. “We brewed a clone of Arrogant Bastard that was unlike any beer I had tried,” Eric recalls. “I wanted to compare our clone to the real thing and became obsessed with tracking down a bottle of Arrogant Bastard. It proved quite difficult and required lots of online searching and phone calls, but eventually I tracked one down.”
It was that same beer, Arrogant Bastard, which sparked an idea a few years later. Eric and Will were trying to locate a bar in New York where they could drink the brew. “Neither of us could believe that in 2007 there was no way to find out which bars served your favorite beer, and the light bulb went off,” the elder brother says. “After discussing the idea for a few minutes the name BeerMenus hit us, and I raced to see if the domain name was available.” It was, and the bar trip was immediately forgotten as Eric, who had experience with user interfaces and product development, immediately got to work on the site. Over the next few months, he worked with Web developers and designers to create a look for the site. Inspirations for BeerMenus’s streamlined, utilitarian design came from Menupages, Craigslist, and other similar service-oriented sites. The simple but easily understood logo — the word “BeerMenus” with a glass of beer for the “U” — was the brainchild of designer Jillian Danziger.
Conviently, at the same time, “I was managing databases of electronic documents for big cases at a law firm and thought databasing beer would actually be useful,” says Will. “I quit my paralegal job and spent a month adding over 150 bars and restaurants [to our index] before we launched the site. It was difficult to convince people to participate in the beginning… but the best beer bars recognized the potential and helped get it started.”
BeerMenus.com officially launched in April 2008, serving the New York City area (including the boy’s native Westchester County). The initial list of 150 drinking establishments has grown to more than three times that many. Many of the bars, including Manhattan’s Blind Tiger and Rattle ‘N Hum, have hosted BeerMenus events or offered drink specials to site visitors. “The biggest criticism we received when we launched was that it would be impossible to keep the menus up to date,” says Eric, but they quickly developed a way to solve the problem. Now, bars whose menus are listed on the site have the ability to update their listings themselves, giving BeerMenus readers a heads-up about new specials and offerings. Another recently added feature is an index of beer stores, in case you’d rather grab a six-pack. There’s also a new user-focused “List” area, similar to the one on Amazon.com, that lets users recommend beer tasting menus or suggest what other beers to try if you really like, say, Blue Moon.
For the brothers Stephens, the site was the perfect outgrowth of their lifelong relationship with beer. One of the best perks of the site has been taking what Eric calls “beer evangelism” to a wider audience. “I would consider myself a discerning beer drinker who looks for inspired beer,” Will says about his approach to the art of imbibing. “I have no problem with people drinking boring beer, but my passion for more interesting beer tends to rub off on those around me.” Those around him now include BeerMenus’ readers and subscribers, some of whom choose to sign up on the site for special offers and exclusive “free beer” coupons. After all, what better way to be a beer evangelist than to spread the word via comped drinks?
Will and Eric have big goals for 2009, namely expanding to additional cities to serve more ale and lager-loving populations. They’re currently keeping mum on exactly what those cities might be, but a strong contender is Los Angeles, where Eric now lives. No matter what happens to BeerMenus in the year to come, the Stephens kids are getting to live out their beer-flavored dream.
Lilit Marcus is the editor-in-chief of SaveTheAssistants.com.
