BronxRoots-L Archives

From: Mike <>
Subject: The Dry Beer:-)...
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 09:13:46 -0600

NOO YAWK TIMES
February 20, 2003

The Dry Beer Is Back, Looking for a Lush Shelf Life

By ROBIN FINN

THE corporate headquarters of the reborn Rheingold Brewing Company,
desperately seeking status as New York's macrobrew of choice for carb-,
calorie- and cutting-edge-conscientious
young urban things, are less than lush: a couple of dingy rooms in a
commercial building that squats
above Fifth Avenue and 27th Street. You can't even get a cold beer here:
so much for sampling the
merchandise.

"You're welcome to taste it, but it's going to be warm," apologizes
Thomas L. Bendheim, Rheingold's
eager-to-please chief executive, proudly brandishing a bottle of the
reincarnated brew that was
synonymous with New York — and hawked by celebrities as diverse as John
Wayne, Casey Stengel
and Ella Fitzgerald — in the 1940's and 1950's, but disappeared in 1978.
A previous comeback in
1998 fizzled.

Prodded by Mr. Bendheim, 40, whose mantra is marketing and whose forte
is brand revivals (to him,
they're a religious experience, whether the focus happens to be beer or
Dooney & Bourke handbags,
his previous reclamation project), Rheingold is embarking on its third
act, with him writing the script.

This is a Rheingold aimed at the "Joe Millionaire" generation, a
Rheingold tippled at CBGB's and on
tap at City Hall Restaurant, a beer that sponsors obscure downtown rock
bands instead of the Mets.
The company has revived the old Miss Rheingold spokesmodel contest with
a twist: Miss Rheingold is
a bar employee and is, to quote the boss, independent.

"We're doing this in a way that celebrates, doesn't denigrate, women,"
he says. "We are the antithesis
of the Coors twins — not that they haven't been a great marketing tool
for Coors," he hastens to add
(never antagonize a conglomerate that might, who knows, buy you up and
let you cash out the day you
take your $8 million company to $50 million). "But we are about real,
working New Yorkers with
New York dreams. It's a different kind of sex appeal."

The clean-shaven, clean-cut chief executive wants, in the unpretentious
spirit of the brand he fronts, to
be called Tom. He also suggests conducting this happy hour interview at
a Greenwich Village bar
instead of at his office. And miss the $12,000 in Rheingold archives
(vintage bottles, posters and other
eBay finds) along with that weird resin lamp sculpture of a male hand
grasping a Rheingold? No way.
Too, there's a neon logo sign that screams retro chic and can also be
seen in select bars in the East
Village and Williamsburg, and on the Lower East Side.

"We're all about creating a buzz instead of a blitz," Mr. Bendheim
explains. Having begun, the buzz
escalates next month, when, he says, Rheingold appears in 1,800
locations citywide and on Long
Island, where he expects Miss Rheingold to "play big."

Mr. Bendheim begs forgiveness for wearing sensibly dorky rubbers over
his shoes (blame sidewalk
slush). About the dress shirt and sports jacket; sorry, he had business
meetings; his sales staff told him
to wear something cool, like a black turtleneck, but potential investors
are likelier to show him the
money if he shows up in Brooks Brothers. He invested, too. New team, new
board, new beer recipe:
what stayed the same is the brew master, Joe Owades. Mr. Bendheim loved
his brew for the
Boston-based Samuel Adams.

"We will become New York's beer again," he pledges.


BUT does New York, which sucks up $40 million per year in beer, need
another? Mr. Bendheim has
his spiel ready. "It needs its own beer," he says. "New York is absent a
beer of major hometown
significance. This isn't about rehashing the past, but our brand has a
history and authenticity. We've
been around since 1883."

Mr. Bendheim, raised in Scarsdale, N.Y., and lured by marketing since
high school, remembers
sneaking Rheingolds before he was legal. And, call it karma, he found
out after he took this job in
January 2002 that he's a distant relation of Samuel Liebman, the
company's founder. Mr. Bendheim,
while inspired by M. Lowenstein & Sons Inc., the textiles firm his own
relatives built from scratch after
immigrating from Germany, chose not to enter the family business.

Before his five-year stint as chief operating officer at Dooney &
Bourke, Mr. Bendheim worked in
strategic planning at PepsiCo and in marketing at Dansk International.
After Dooney & Bourke, he
was determined to run a company on his own: he opted for the Rheingold
position over offers in the
equestrian business and in crystal giftware (a no-brainer for a beer
lover).

Now there's a $1 million advertising campaign in full fettle, a new Miss
Rheingold to crown on March
10 and, after an exhaustive reblending with taste tests conducted in his
Wilton, Conn., kitchen, a
golden brew with a new slogan, "100 percent New York by volume," that
hopes to tap into the
jingoistic post-Sept. 11 mind-set of New Yorkers. At 139 calories in 12
ounces, Rheingold clocks in
midway between the "lites" and the hefty brews, with a snappy alcohol
content.

"It's clean, crisp, smooth, has a short finish, no skunk," he says.
"Even my wife likes it, and she doesn't
like beer." Rheingold is actually brewed upstate in Utica, but Mr.
Bendheim doesn't flinch when that
little disparity is pointed out. "Hey, it's still made in New York, and
we're looking into the possibility of
opening a brewery somewhere in the city," he says. As smooth as his
beer.

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• The Dry Beer:-)... by Mike <>