Great Basin Brewing Company in Carson City, NV

A little bit ago I had just returned to the United States after a brief visit to the Republic of Molossia. I had just cleared customs and was looking for some good American cooking. I’ve found that when I’m in an unfamiliar area–such as Dayton, Nevada–independent brew pubs are generally a good bet. The presence of fresh, bespoke beer is always a good foundation for any meal. On top of this, the owners of these small businesses are almost always present, ensuring quality control. Their menus are almost always innovative without being crazy, and generally center on the four basic food groups (loaded burgers, soft tacos, enormous salads, and fried appetizers).

I, of course, was looking for a pretzel. I found a place called Great Basin Brewing Company just east of Carson City, Nevada. Thankfully, the menu did indeed include a “Brewery Pretzel.” The description was a little confusing though: “Brioche pretzel twist, garlic butter, coarse salt, beer cheese.” As we all know, a brioche is kind of a cross between bread and pastry. In other words, in a whole different category than a pretzel, which is closer to a bagel than a pastry. But I was famished from my international travel, and wasn’t in a position to be choosy. I ordered the pretzel.

The first thing that strikes you about this so-called pretzel is that it resembles an exclamation point without the dot at the bottom. It also resembles what you would have discovered on the sidewalks of New York before they began enforcing dog clean-up laws. Either way, Great Basin calls this a “brioche pretzel twist.” I’m not sure it works. It lacks the classic shape of a proper Bavarian pretzel made of rolled dough, and thus seems to me to be less fun to eat. Certainly it’s less familiar, thus distancing it from the category of “comfort food.”

When I bit into it, there was a bit of a pretzely crunch. But this isn’t because it had been boiled in lye; rather, it’s because it was overbaked. Indeed, this pretzel (if I can call it that) was almost (but not quite) burnt. More damningly, it lacked that chewy texture that’s the whole point of a soft pretzel. This pretzel was really just a misshapen loaf of bread. Further, the distribution of salt on my pretzel (but not on the pretzel in the photo above) was horribly uneven. A couple of patches were way oversalted, alongside entirely bare patches. It’s the pretzel version of eczema.

But just when it seems that this is a total loss, you encounter the amazing beer cheese. It’s extremely cheddary, with rich flavor and a slight taste of beer in the background. This beer cheese was so good that I finished it off with my finger after the pretzel was long gone. Oh, and it comes in a cool little wok(?) that I would have slipped into my pocket if the server hadn’t been keeping such a close eye on me.

I learned that the pretzel (as we’ve now come to expect) was not made in house. Rather, it comes from Liberty Food and Wine Exchange, which, so far as I can tell, is a legit restaurant in the Reno area. So the pretzels do not come from some soulless restaurant supplier like Sysco. Happily, the beer cheese in made in-house, which, as we’re coming to learn, is generally a guarantee of quality.

Once again I have to give a middle score to this dish, with a pretzel I don’t understand and beer cheese that is the stuff of fantasies. 3 stars.

PRETZEL TRIVIA

Surely you know the storied musical group Steely Dan. At the very least, you’ve heard some of their hits like “Do It Again” or “Reelin’ In the Years.” They exploded onto the scene in 1972, and somehow both captured the Zeitgeist and influenced it. Steely Dan were jazz-influenced musical perfectionists, and it’s a bit XX that so many of their songs are now considered Easy Listening.

Steely Dan’s third studio album was released in 1974. Unless you’re a fan, the only song from that album you’ve probably heard is “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.” But the album spent 36 weeks on the Billboard 200, and managed to rise to #8. The critical reception was generally good. Creem wrote “The music can be called jazzy without implying an insult, and Donald Fagen and Walter Becker are the real world’s answer to Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia [of the Grateful Dead].” On the other hand, Stereo Review’s critic wrote “the lyrics baffle me; maybe they know what they’re talking about, but I can’t get a clue.”

According to the book Steely Dan FAQ, the group struggled with coming up a title for this album. They wanted the title to convey “the seedy, sexual side of life,” but couldn’t agree on specific wording. So they settled on using the title of one of the tracks to name the album. And that track was–drumroll please–“Pretzel Logic.”

The album cover photo was taken by celebrity photographer Raeanne Rubenstein, on the west side of Fifth Avenue at 79th Street. It’s said the vendor in the photo refused to sign a release for the photo to be used, but the label’s executives discovered that the vendor was operating without a license, and figured he wouldn’t dare get enmeshed in any legal action. So they slapped the photo on the album cover, and there were no repercussions.