Reason for Visit: We were on a driving drip to Maine and stopped at the halfway point, Hartford, overnight. Naturally we stayed overnight at the hotel attached to the City Steam Brewery Café
Google Maps Street View: Here is the latest image of City Steam Brewery Café from the Google Maps Street View. It is in busy downtown Hartford right along Main Street, co-located with the Residence Inn. This is the Cheney Building now called the Richardson Building (after famed architect Henry Hobson Richardson who designed it). The facade is composed of reddish brownstone accented with limestone. It dates to 1875-1876 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. Look just to the left of the City Steam awning and to the right of the Residence Inn awning, and you can see the glistening copper brewing equipment at ground level through the large arched window.
Entrance: In fact, visitors at the Residence Inn don't even have to leave the building to get into the City Steam Brewery Café. There is a side entrance that provides a convenient walkway between the two. Notice the stained glass window on the doorway featuring a steaming brew kettle.
Growlers: We ordered a couple of growlers from City Steam for off-premise consumption. The paper labels include a rendition of the historic Richardson Building and the name of the brewpub, with the slogan, "Fresh Beer to Go." An initial signifying the name of the beer was placed on the top of the lid with a black marker. Otherwise there was nothing remarkable about the design.
Interior: Our table was at one of the upper levels. City Steam describes itself as a "seven level restaurant" and I suppose that's true up to a point. By seven levels they mean there are seven sets of staircases but not seven stories, as can be seen easily in this photograph. Nonetheless it was quite the interesting design.
Inspiration for the Interior?: In fact, as we dined and drank at City Steam, the design struck me as similar to this Escher woodcut. No, it obviously doesn't defy they laws of gravity or bend into impossible shapes and perspectives, but all those staircases extending in every crazy direction along with the arches and whatnot simply struck a familiar chord with me.
Sample list of beers produced by City Steam Brewery Café
Items featured on these breweriana pages are personal souvenirs of my visits to these locations, and an expression of the events and travels leading to their collection. They are not for sale or for trade.
