Superflux gets super creative with hot dogs and beer at new tasting lounge
The East Van brewery has a resident chef at its fresh digs
Superflux Beer Company’s hot dogs aren’t your ballpark franks. Photo by Dennis Chui//@dennisthefoodie
FOR SOME, HOT DOGS and beer make for the ultimate food-and-drink pairing. A world away from ballpark staples, the team at Superflux Beer Company is taking things to the next level with its decked-out dogs and experimental beer served in its new tasting lounge (505 Clark Drive).
Corduroy Pie Company’s Graham Marceau has come up with a slew of crazy-fancy hot dogs.
On the menu are the Mortadella (a Black Forest premium Bavarian dog with corn ragout, mortadella, lemon mayo, pistachio, Grana Padano, olive oil) and the all-natural Oscar (made with Two Rivers Specialty Meats’ dry-aged beef, topped with oven-dried tomatoes, rock crab, Béarnaise sauce, smoked paprika, and anchovies).
Two Rivers’ dry-aged beef is the base of I am the Eggplant, loaded with green curried eggplant, pickled green chilies, chili mayo, cilantro, and crispy shallots. Then there’s Beet Ranch, another Black Forest Bavarian frank with yellow beets, ranch dressing, cucumber, dill, and crushed potato chips.
It’s not all franks at Superflux. Resident chef Justin Lee (formerly of Crowbar) is serving seasonal salads made with ingredients from Surrey’s Zaklan Heritage Farm, the go-to grower for selective local chefs. There’s Thai Style Beef Tartare (with radicchio, fermented-tomato and spicy -peanut nahm jim, and fried shallots); Belgian Endive Egg Salad; Radish and Turnip with aged, clothbound Avonlea cheddar and charred-onion dressing); and more.
Superflux Beer Company founders Adam Henderson (left) and Matt Kohlen. Photo by Carlo Ricco
On the beer front, this is a team that likes to experiment inside the cans and out.
Founders Adam Henderson and Matt Kohlen met nearly a decade ago at a Kits pub that Kohlen was working at; Henderson was selling beer through his importing company, Copper & Theory. They bonded over the beverage and became fast friends.
“We’re always looking for something that will be fun and bring joy to our consumers, but also something that allows us to learn a new technique, work with a new ingredient, or develop something that is a bit different than what is in the market today,” Henderson tells Stir.
Velvetone.
Take Colour & Shape. The beer’s first iteration, in 2015, was called Juice Willis. “Primarily hopped with Citra and Centennial, it was one of our first beers exploring extreme hop flavour and aroma,” Kohlen says.
They’d long wanted to make a coconut IPA, figuring the flavours would work well together (for most people). Their Coconuts IPA is dry-hopped with Citra and Vic Secret. They collaborated with North Vancouver’s House of Funk for Fresh Foam lager, made with Skagit Valley Pilsen Malt and Hersbrucker hops. Fieldhouse Nordic is a dark lager made darker with cacao nibs.
They show they have an even-keeled side, too; Craft Beer Is Dead is an ode to the classic West coast IPA: clean, bright, floral, and resinous—“an intentionally one-dimensional beer you don’t have to think about or pick apart”, Kohlen says.
Among the rotating beers that will be on tap at the lounge are Colour & Shape IPA, Happyness IPA, Easy Tiger, Coconuts IPA, and Mañana IPA.
Most of their grain (malt, barley, oats) comes from Alberta, while hops are almost exclusively from Washington’s Yakima Valley, with a few varieties from Australia and New Zealand thrown in.
Now, we know you can’t judge a beer by its label, but we love Kohlen’s cool, clean, sweeping designs on Superflux cans. The Happyness label just seemed pleasing from all angles, Kohen says. “No real intent behind it; purple velvet track suit from the 80s, maybe?”
Nova. Photo by Dennis Pang/@dennisthefoodie
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