Bitter Virtue

From Bitter Virtue’s website:
«We (Chris Brown and Ann Binns) opened Bitter Virtue in 1997 because we thought that there were a lot of people who shared our pleasure in the fruit of the hop, but who found it difficult to find an interesting range of beers.
More and more supermarkets have noticed that there are beer drinkers who do not fall for trendy lager advertising and are not concerned with the cheapness of the product. These shops, however, cannot always stock lines that are not universally popular. Even in a large supermarket, with a good range of beer, you cannot guarantee that the beer you bought and liked last week will be available next week — and the beer section of most off-​licences is usually a poor relation to the wine department.»
If you were asked to write a mission statement for a beer store, could you possibly come up with anything better than this? I especially like the ‘fruit of the hop’ part.
I’ve been to Bitter Virtue several times, and the owners are unfailingly friendly and helpful. They seem to genuinely enjoy watching customers discover their candy jar of a beer store. Bitter Virtue carries a range of Belgian, German, American, and English beers and Chris and Ann are happy to offer suggestions or descriptions of anything they carry.
Although its not well advertised, Bitter Virtue offers an annual trip to the Zythos beer festive in Bruges, held every year in March. They arrange for a coach, hotel accommodations, and entry into the festival, so all you need to take care of is enjoying the beer.
If I have one complaint, it’s that the website could be better. It is adequate, but lacking any sense of pizazz. The website would be vastly improved by adding a list of their current selection, pictures of bottle labels, some sort of ‘beer of the month’ description, or any number of other widgets would really improve the website.
All in all, this one of my favorite beer stores and I’ll be back even if they don’t have a website at all.