Alvarado Street Brewery & Grill

Tthe area’s newest – and arguably best – craft beer hall, Alvarado Street Brewery & Grill, arrived in May, but it entrenches itself in downtown Monterey more and more every month.

The food is interesting and different without straying into pretentious gastropub turf. The place itself is mostly open and welcoming without too much window dressing. The beer is modern, West Coast creative, but nothing too crazy exotic. Ultimately those basic ingredients – beer, eats and setting – are done with just enough accessibility and style. They show how far simple quality with a touch of clever can go – and how the sum can be greater than the individual parts.

The setting, naturally, strikes first.Ginormous reclaimed doors lead you onto a polished lattice tile floor, abutting glass-enshrined brewery tanks fermenting away. A long white marble bar runs alongside the tanks, past industrial chic table-chair combinations (with a few booths). Beneath understated black steel lighting fixtures hanging from 20-foot ceilings, 4,900 square feet of space can seat as many as 110, not counting the idyllic sidewalk patio waiting for an mild fall afternoon.

What was once an Elks Club and then a movie theater, then a sadly abandoned cathedral of blight is now reborn, with an altar-like wall of windows illuminating the space. The elements are clean, simple, even understated. Co-owner John Hill of Carmel designed it after decades of work on projects like Ritz Carltons and the InterContinental on Cannery Row.

Then comes the beer, done by his son and co-owner J.C. The “brewtenders” pour from unmarked taps into both pints ($5.50-$7) and flights (four for $8). They’ve got six to eight house beers at any given moment – tastes like the Proper English Pale Ale ($6), potent Duane’s World American IPA ($7), Night Rider Session Ale ($5.50) and popular Doc Brown Belgian Brown Ale ($6).

More creative options include the citrus-based Minesweeper Fresh Hop IPA ($7), a biscuity bubblegum flavored Belgian Table Beer ($5.50), as well as the cherry pie-nosed, tart-tasting, effervescently pink-tinted Kriek Sour Ale ($5.50). Don’t expect to see your favorites every time, though: J.C. blows through so many of his brews the offerings change weekly.

He uses farmers market jalapeños and fruit, but ultimately doesn’t get too complicated, just enthusiastic about good, earnest, well-made small-batch beer. His latest invention: a skunky wet-hops wonder.

A shifting plethora of guest draft and bottled beers, like Deschutes Black Butte Porter ($6) and Monks Cafe Flemish Sour Red ($12), refreshes the rest. There are 10-12 guest taps and more than 20 bottled beers in different formats all told.

A solid wine list ($7-$75) doesn’t rotate as much, by design, and cocktails are scheduled to come online in two weeks.

The food, like the beer, is built around familiar items – sandwiches, salads, pizzas and fries – elevated by international spices, execution and creativity. And beer.

“We use beer to cook everything that might call for water or wine,” says Executive Chef Aaron Haas.

This includes beer-fried Mexican street corn – sweet summer white corn covered in yogurt coriander dressing and Lamb Chopper cheese ($5). Adding IPA to coconut-curry smoked mussels with fries ($13) only enriches a standout dish. The grass fed harissa marinated steak kebabs get “drunk” in their own sauce ($12). (The kebabs are a tip of the hat to J.C. Hill’s restaurateur roots. He started off running a kebab shop before falling madly for beer.) The house ale-infused watermelon salad stars Nostrano salami, frisée greens and a charred honey vinaigrette ($10). Tricky to eat, but darn tasty.

The five flatbreads – pizzas done with North African technique, a thinner, more oblong crust and light sauce – star a must-try house-cured duck ham-pineapple-pickled chile pie ($16) and a butcher’s bacon and egg with Gruyere ($12).

The “big bites” section stars a redeeming coffee bean and black pepper crusted butcher’s steak sandwich with beer mustard fries ($16); market fish tacos with citrus slaw and fire-roasted beer salsa ($15); and the Monterey squid fettuccine in a beer-citrus-thyme-mushroom sauce ($14).

Dessert was the tastiest testament to the brewery’s take on the traditional, with beignets with a bitter chocolate ale dipping sauce ($8). The vegan cashew cheesecake ranks among the best in the county, no animal product needed ($9).

All in all, the tastes are both comfortingly familiar and done with enough zing to make you think. The only issue over several visits was consistency. Sometimes the brie mac ‘n’ cheese ($12) was mouth-watering and almost mind-blowing, other times it was just so-so. Other shortcomings are impressively absent.

“A lot of breweries have food, but we intend to make food and beer sing together,” Haas says.

It’s a simple enough philosophy, but difficult enough to execute that nobody has captured the same synergy of craft beer, drink and setting as these guys have. It’s a new landmark worth enjoying, one simple but stylish pleasure at a time.

ALVARADO STREET BREWERY & GRILL 426 Alvarado St., Monterey • 11:30am-10pm •655-2337, www.alvaradostreetbrewery.com