Who wouldn't pony up $12 for a beer imported all the way from Chicago?

The "imported" beer on the left, Goose Island, may be a splendid brew, but imported it's not, unless you count its Chicago provenance as such.

by Ken

At my very first job, more than a few summers ago, I was stationed primarily in the company's order-processing and accounts-receivable department, one feature of which was an entire long wall lined with file cabinets that contained the order account records. Yes, this will give you an idea just how many summers ago it was; at the time, it would never have occurred to anyone to do any of the order processing, or store any of the account records, on computers. Oh, the company did maintain certain records on computers, but they weren't computers of its own. One of my jobs, in fact, was to carry the new information to be input to the data-processing company.

(It so happened that only a door or two away from the building that housed that company, there was a deli whose sandwich offerings included a shrimp parmigiana hero that was stuffed with about four-inches'-thick worth of fried shrimp for some insanely plebeian price. I frequently arranged my schedule to stop for lunch after making my data delivery. Of course it was no hardship to be forced to "eat in the neighborhood." On the other side of Fifth Avenue from our office on East 46th Street there was a deli whose sandwich offerings included a comparably overstuffed and punily priced steak-and-onions hero. Do I need to add that both of those shops are long gone?)

Getting back to those file cabinets, all of the company's accounts were filed geographically -- first by state, then by city. At the end of this massive bank of file cabinets was a file drawer labeled "Foreign," with accounts filed by country. One day one of the clerks who worked on those accounts issued a plea for help. She was utterly unable to find the file she was looking for, in Indiana -- even though she had, she assured everyone, searched through the entire "Foreign" drawer.

It would be too much to presume that all these years later that young lady has worked her way up to a position of authority in the concession operation at the new Yankee Stadium. It may just be the work of someone with a comparable background in geography.

It's not that the domestic suds is such a bargain at Yankee Stadium, but for customers willing to pay the stiffer tab, the imported options included Goose Island, which as far as anyone knows comes to us straight from Chicago.
Patrick Wall reports for DNAinfo New York (lotsa links onsite):

Yankee Stadium Calls Chicago Brew 'Import" In Latest Beer Flub

CONCOURSE -- Yankee Stadium has hit another foul at the concession stands, charging thirsty ball fans $12 for an "import" beer that actually comes from Chicago.

It's the second time in two months the Bombers have made a suds snafu.

Last month, the stadium had to rename its "Craft Beer Destination" specialty alcohol booth when a fan pointed out that several drinks sold there did not meet the definitions either of craft or of beer.

Now, the Yankees are hastily altering cart signs that hawk $12 "Large Import Beer" after DNAinfo New York pointed out that the menu included Goose Island -- a domestic brew from the Windy City.

Legends Hospitality, the company that operates the stadium’s concessions, said Wednesday that the company is in the process of switching out signs at its four "import" beer carts to more accurately reflect its offerings.

Legends Hospitality spokesman Eric Gelfand said the new signs will read "Premium Beer" instead of "Import Beer," since the carts sell Goose Island's India Pale Ale, a Chicago-based Anheuser-Busch brew that has never been brewed overseas.

The carts also serve Beck’s, a brew originally made in Germany, which was recently bought by Anheuser-Busch and is now manufactured in the U.S. Their other Anheuser-Busch offerings, Stella Artois and Hoegaarden, are both imported from Belgium.

Gelfand said the carts were intended to sell only imports, but that Goose Island IPA was a last-minute replacement for another Anheuser-Busch import that fell through. He said patrons were clamoring for a good IPA.

"It’s a situation where, quite literally, the cart came before the horse," Gelfand said.

The flub wasn't lost on some of The Bronx's beer aficionados.

"Goose Island: It’s good beer -- but it’s not an import," said Bronx Beer Hall co-founder Anthony Ramirez. "Serious beer drinkers are serious about where their beer comes from and how it’s made."

Yankee Stadium was also caught red-faced during its home opener on April 1, when writer Amanda Rykoff noted that all the marked-up beverages sold at an artisanal-looking stand labeled "Craft Beer Destination" were actually MillerCoors products.

The drinks -- Blue Moon, Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy, Batch 19 and Crispin -- are all mass-produced, so they don’t fit the official Brewers’ Association definition of "craft," a chorus of online critics charged.

In addition, Crispin, a cider, doesn't count as "beer," they added.

"Once again, the Yankees have figured out yet another way to charge a superior price for an inferior product," Rykoff wrote on Tumblr.

After Deadspin and other media outlets picked up on the snafu, the stadium replaced the sign in a matter of days. Now it reads, "Beer Mixology Destination."

It occurs to me that Jerry Seinfeld's pal George Costanza, in addition to working for a time for the Yankees, occasional dabbled in the world of import-export, though it was generally an imaginary world. You don't suppose George could have something to do with the snafu, do you?

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