The Vine Restaurant in Coralville was totally decked out in Hawkeye gear. It was a huge space with very tall ceilings. All of the tables and floors were made of dark stained wood and there were televisions everywhere. The host sat us by the bar at a high top table, and when the waitress heard our challenge she didn’t seem very excited. After a few minutes and apparently without much thought, she delivered the first beer.
Her choice, Stella Artois the light lager from Leuven Belgium, was something Carl and I were both very familiar with. The head retention on the lager was good and the color was golden through and through. Overall the nose was pretty mild, sweet with the pleasant aroma of yeast; the sweetness was almost like cooked apples. Tasting, the beer started out as a flavourless body, provided by the malt. It then developed a yeasty tart flavor that soon gave way to a tart taste of hops and carbonation. Finally this composition moved to the back of the mouth and the tip of the tongue. It lingered with hints of yeast. Altogether Stella was quaffable and nice to drink but it was nothing special.
Next the waitress brought a 312 Urban Wheat from the Goose Island Brewery in Chicago. The head retention in the wheat beer was very poor, it disappeared almost immediately. The color was straw yellow with a slight yeast cloud. The aroma was light but had undertones of rich citrus, tangerines, with a slight hint of hops. We also smelled a slightly chemical odor that we decided was sanitizer left over on the glass. The flavor had very little movement it was yeasty from the beginning to the finish and sort of watery with a bit of quickly disappearing hops. Only a slight tartness remained as an aftertaste. Overall the 312 was pretty plain, quaffable enough if you don’t care for flavor, but nothing we would order out of a greater beer selection.
Last on our waitresses list was the New Castle Brown Ale from New Castle, England. The head was nice and full and the color was a beautiful dark ruby red. The nose was simple, it was like soured malt. The first taste let us know that the beer was not often served, it had oxidized slightly and left an unpleasant aftertaste. The clear bottle didn’t help any for sure, I’ve personally never understood why anyone who cares about their beer would use clear bottles. The flavor started out light and developed late on the tongue into a brown sugar malt with a mild hoppy tartness that sat on top. There was no grand taste for the New Castle, really it didn’t have much going on. Its body was very light for a brown ale and it certainly lacked any roasted aroma or flavor.
The Appetizer didn’t particularly mach any of the selected beers. It was a buffalo chicken quesadilla. It wasn’t bad but it seemed like there was no effort made to pair the food with the drink. As we finished up Carl and I approached the bar to have a look at their tap selection and we noticed that the Vine had a house beer. Needless to say we weren’t sure why our server had not chosen it.
We were truly shocked by the performance of the Vine. The service was mediocre, the selection was paltry and there was a serious lack of participation on the waitress’s part. For any one who likes to enjoy good food and good drink I would warn against the popularity of the Vine and recommend one of the other fine restaurants in lovely downtown Iowa City instead. Till next time, beer lovers and market mavens alike. Prost!
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