Tapping Into an Urban Thirst

By now everyone knows that up in the Pacific Northwest, there’s a Starbucks on every corner. What most Angelenos don’t realize is that there’s always a pub next door to it that serves local microbrews on draft.

“There were tavern societies. Towns with three pubs and six churches,” says Oregon native Lou Moensch, who owns and operates Father’s Office, a pub that brings a taste of the authentic Northwestern culture to Santa Monica’s Montana Avenue.

In denim shirt and bow tie, Moensch is erudite and droll. “I have certain feelings about draft beer,” he says in measured tones, “that drinking a fresh, lovely brew on tap is the best way to enjoy it. That is the fundamental principle of Father’s Office. By consequence we don’t serve bottled beer, imported beer or mainstream industrial lagers, just fresh draft beers from the Pacific coast.”

Connoisseurs will find 30 beers from Oregon, Washington and California on tap with names like Red Nectar and Oregon Honey Beer, as well as all five varieties from Anchor Brewing. If it’s hard to decide, the staff is expert at divining likes and dislikes, and tasters are available. And if you find something you really, really like, Father’s Office can arrange a tour of the brewery.

When Moensch bought the place in 1986, the clientele consisted of panhandlers, drug dealers and hard-core bikers. These days, it’s a light, airy room where classical music plays and the warm, pleasantly acrid smell of freshly split beer is uncompromised by cigarette smoke.

“No sports, no rock ‘n’ roll,” says Moensch. “The twinkle lights, the light wood, it’s all calculated to minimize the combined effects of alcohol and testosterone. The only thing worse than that is when you add gasoline.”

Moensch, who is on the Santa Monica City Planning Commission, sees the neighborhood public house as being an important antidote to the social and environmental evils of the automobile.

“That you have to encounter a human being without an encasing steel jacket horrifies some people. Notice that we don’t have a parking lot. You have to walk here.”

At the front tables, groups of people in freshly laundered Gap clothing talk with animation. At the bar, couples and loners hang out. One guy eats takeout pizza while reading a sci-fi novel. Another stands in a corner slowly drinking glass upon glass of plain water. Some fresh-looking 30ish people talk about mountain biking.

“This place caters to people young, single and urban,” Moensch says. What do the pub’s patrons do during the day? Moensch mounts an informal survey from behind the bar. “Sir, what do you do for a living?” he asks. “I’m a composer.” “I’m a hospital volunteer.” Moensch moves down the length of the bar and returns looking proud of his patrons.

“Then we have two people who work in food and beverage, then an economics professor at USC and a jewelry maker. We also get a lot of film industry people. Late at night you might see Michael Keaton. Tom Hayden comes in with Patti Davis, and sometimes his ex-wife, Jane, might come in.”

There are regulars, of course, the locals, the beer fanatics and quite a few aficionados of fancy neckwear. “It’s a place where a gentleman’s cravat is taken seriously,” Moensch says, pulling out a bow tie catalogue marked with who wants what. “We all wear our bow ties together. Ignacio, he’s an art dealer from Cuba, and the economics professor. It’s less expensive if we order a bunch together.”

Behind the bar, a tie is required. Bartender Sharon Tompai is wearing one that depicts Betty Boop on a motorcycle.

You can order a bow tie at the bar, but you can’t order anything in a can except Diet Coke, for much the same reason that you can’t park a car. “In the environmental movement it’s called source reduction, where ultimately the vessel is not produced at all,” says Moensch. “I’m experimenting with mineral water on tap, and for the sweet-toothed I have draft root beer from Seattle. I’ll eventually go to only cask wines.”

* Where: Father’s Office, 1018 Montana Ave., Santa Monica (310) 393-2337.

* When: Nightly until 2 a.m.

* Cost: Pints, $4-$5. Tasters, $1.75. Mixed nuts, $1.75.