Power to the People's

THE PEOPLE'S PINT kicked off its seventh year of operation this month, and it would be fair to say the Greenfield brew pub and restaurant known simply as The Pint has developed something of a cult following over the past six years.

This is due in part to its commitment to putting as much locally grown food as possible on the menu, which comprises predictable pub offerings, more adventurous specials and some of the best desserts around (try the apple crisp à la mode or a beer-inspired treat like the "black and tan" mousse, which features chocolate and white chocolate mousses layered in a half-pint glass); its unabashed political sensibilities (besides the restaurant's Socialist-sounding name, which is not accidental, consider the fact that Greenfield's Green Party, which is spearheaded by Pint bartender Mark Wisnewski, holds its monthly meetings there); and, not least, its environmental conscience.

Some restaurants recycle. The Pint recycles with a capital R. If you decide to pay a visit, take a good look around - there are no paper napkins or individually wrapped plastic utensils to be seen. Want a straw for your drink? Tough luck - there's no such thing on the premises. Until someone invents a reusable, nonplastic straw, your request will be politely turned down and your server will likely deliver a short treatise on the evils of disposable products.

Co-owners Alden Booth and Dan Young also insist on composting all the waste that comes off people's plates or out of The Pint's kitchen. In what Booth calls "a wonderful little loop," the compost gets taken home and fed to his pigs, which, after being sufficiently fattened up, are slaughtered and served as pork at The Pint. ("If we're gonna serve meat," Booth says, "we want to know where our meat comes from.")

All of this means that even on the busiest Friday night, when The Pint feeds upward of 200 people, it generates no more than one bag of trash - a far cry from the Dumpsters' worth of garbage many restaurants, particularly those of the fast-food variety, produce every day.

AT 43 AND 38, respectively, Booth and Young may be on the verge of middle age, but they're still hippies at heart. They bristle at our consumer-oriented lifestyle and seem surprised by - not to mention a little uncomfortable with - their restaurant's success. You won't find capitalists whose MO is much more anti-capitalist than theirs.

For example, some businesspeople say they don't want to gouge their customers. Booth and Young go one step further: They refuse to accept credit cards. Maybe they just want to avoid giving MasterCard, Visa and their ilk a percentage of their sales, but I'm willing to believe Booth when he says he instituted the cash-only policy because "you don't need to go into debt to eat at The Pint." (Fear not, debit-card addicts: There's an ATM across the street.)

Then there's the fact that The Pint is only open for dinner. Booth says he'd rather spend his afternoons tending the vegetable garden at his 10-acre farm in Gill than serving lunch in Greenfield. Coming from practically anyone else, this would smack of spin. After all, many restaurants don't do lunch because they can't afford to - they're barely eking by on dinner receipts. But if the almost nightly waiting lists at The Pint are any indication, Booth and Young could make a killing at lunchtime if only they wanted to. I trust them when they say they'd rather earn less money and have a life.

MORE THAN anything else, I suspect people flock to The Pint for its beer. Ah, the beer: seven or eight kinds of it on tap on any given day, about 25 varieties in total, all so good The Pint was named one of the seven best brew pubs along the Connecticut River by Yankee Magazine last March.

(For nondrinkers there are pints of homemade soda, everything from Coke and Sprite knockoffs called Hola Cola and Sprighteous to full-flavored root beer and a ginger ale so potent - it's made from fresh gingerroot, black peppercorns and other spices - it makes Canada Dry taste like tap water.)

For the last half-dozen years, head brewer Young has concocted Pint beer in the cramped basement of the restaurant's 24 Federal St. home. The pub's limited brewing capacity has resulted in frequent shortages. Just last week, for instance, The Pint was out of its two top sellers - the Pied pIPA (an India Pale Ale best pronounced with a Boston accent) and my favorite, the ESB (Extra Special Bitter).

No longer. In what qualifies as the most significant change in Pint history, Booth and Young are moving their brewing operation out of the basement and into the former F.W. Webb building on Hope Street, about a quarter-mile away. In the process, they're replacing all of their old brewing equipment - a mishmash of antiquated tanks meant to hold cider or milk, not beer - with the booty from an establishment that fell off the brew-pub bandwagon and went up for sale last year. The Brighton-based Northeast Brewing Company's seven conditioning tanks, four fermenters, mash tun and brew kettle - all of which were had for "a screamin' deal," Young says - are now happily ensconced in Greenfield.

This will more than triple The Pint's beer-making capacity, taking it from about 350 barrels a year (there are 31 gallons, or two kegs, to a barrel) to nearly 1,200 barrels. Priority No. 1 is to make sure The Pint itself always has its best sellers on tap. Extra beer will be made available to select Valley bars and restaurants (the only eatery currently serving Pint beer is A Bottle of Bread in Shelburne Falls). Young also hopes to bottle some limited-edition ales, but he and Booth have no plans for a large-scale bottling operation. It's a lot harder to pump beer into bottles than kegs, they say, not to mention a lot less efficient. The pair expect to be up and brewing at the new location within a month.