Match Point Brewing, a local brewery run by two tennis doubles partners who dabble in Asian flavors, has opened its long-awaited taproom in Albany.
The taproom, which occupies the former Albany Taproom space on San Pablo Avenue, is snuggled up to the 310 Eatery which provides its L.A.-style street food menu of burgers and dim sum.
Match Point founders Simon Chen and Johnny Weng are tennis buds and beer enthusiasts, whose main brewery is in Concord. The pair specialize in making beers that celebrate Asian cuisine and ingredients, both traditional and modern. On the menu right now, for instance, is the jasmine rice lager Tiebreaker Series, the mandarin wheat ale Buzzer Beater and a five-spice saison, Heritage.
Match Point also pulls in drinks from other producers, such as a coffee lager Vietnamese (using ingredients from Brisbane’s Little Green Cyclo Coffee) and a koji-rice lager called Kojiscapes from San Jose’s Fox Tale Fermentation. And because no taproom can exist without a bucketload of hops these days, Match Point pours IPAs like Gilman Brewing’s Bad Tattoo and Epidemic Ales’ Pineapple Upside Down Cake. There are also flights, to-go cans and nonalcoholic drinks like Red Bull, Wang Lao Ji herbal tea and Partake Brewing’s peach gose.
The 310 Eatery menu is quite expansive, but the kitchen is particularly known for its Godzilla-proportioned burgers, such as the 405 Traffic Jam with a blend of short rib and bacon, breaded portobello mushroom, crispy onions, dipped pastrami, jalapenos and kalbi aioli, served on brioche. There’s also a range of classic dim sum dishes like har gow (shrimp dumplings) and pork shu mai, and “Then Sum” bites such as tamarind-seasoned shishito peppers, popcorn crabcakes and salt-and-pepper fried chicken knee cartilage.
The tennis-themed taproom Match Point Brewing, which specializes in beers with Asian flavors, opened in Albany in May with food, such as this “late-night dim sum” from 310 Eatery. (Alex McCutcheon/SpiderPlant Media)
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The taproom has a tennis theme — the tap handles are made from tennis rackets, for example — that goes beyond just decoration. Last summer, the brewery sponsored an inaugural Match Point Brewing tennis tournament in El Cerrito, and the owners have expressed interest in throwing more sporting events in the future.
Match Point Brewing is one of an intriguing handful of craft breweries in the Bay Area celebrating Asian culture. In downtown Oakland, Dokkaebier makes Korean-inflected beers using things like kimchi and bamboo, and Alameda Island Brewing makes seasonal Filipino-inspired beers with ube and calamansi.
Details: Open Wednesday-Monday (closed on Tuesdays) at 745 San Pablo Ave., Albany; matchpointbrewing.com/taproom.
