Anthony Bourdain Didn't Visit Craft Beer Breweries On His TV Shows — Here's Why

Anthony Bourdain liked a good beer. He was often seen sipping a cold one on "Parts Unknown," and even clinked green bottles with Barack Obama when he met him on camera in an episode filmed in Vietnam. Beer culture, though? That's another story. In fact, Bourdain once likened craft beer culture to the movie "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers," and, in the same 2016 Thrillist interview, stated a belief that beer (and bars) are to be enjoyed, not analyzed. Bourdain had a particular distaste for craft breweries. 

While Bourdain told the outlet "If you bring me a really good [...] craft beer, I will enjoy it, and say so," he wasn't as forgiving when it came to choosing locations for his shows, and never even briefly visited a craft brewery or pub (despite visiting traditional breweries in interesting locations occasionally). Rewatch "Parts Unknown" or "No Reservations" and you'll notice a distinct lack of wineries as well as craft breweries. "It's just red stuff going into a glass," he told Thrillist on the subject of wine tasting on screen, adding that both beer and wine "aren't visually interesting."

Bourdain's professional aversion to craft breweries wasn't just an attempt to keep up a bitter feud against craft beer aficionados. It was more professional and thoughtful than that, which shouldn't be shocking considering Bourdain spent 15 years making great TV shows. It's certainly more interesting to watch Vietnamese street food being made with fresh, vibrant ingredients than it is to observe a perfect pint being pulled or a bottle being uncorked.

The foody cult favorite didn't really care much for wine personally, either. In the same Thrillist interview, Bourdain mentioned he had no interest at all in "who put the grapevines in." He simply enjoyed decent wine, just as he enjoyed decent beer and decent food, no matter the specifics of their pedigree. This might seem surprising from someone who spent many years working in high-end restaurants across the Northeast, but Bourdain's tastes were nothing short of eclectic. This is demonstrated by Tasting Table's list of his 18 favorite New York Restaurants, which features dive bars and grills alongside steakhouses, Chinese restaurants, and fast food chains, with a total of zero Michelin stars between the lot of them. 

The chef thought this had an impact on the public's opinion of him, telling Thrillist that "people's expectations of me, as far as what I'm eating, are already pretty low." He was puzzled when the public expected his taste beer and wine to be more traditionally upmarket than his taste in restaurants. Because why would a connoisseur of real, honest food demand more out of his beverages than them being local and copious? While Bourdain's reasoning for avoiding wineries and craft breweries during his TV career is solid, sitting down with a technically unimpressive beer or glass of wine and hearing more of his vitriol for their devotees sounds like a good time.