Issue #15: A Lakeside Tipple with A Best Selling Author
J. Ryan Stradal is a Midwestern Author Sharing The Region's Beauty
I’m not a novel reader. I love non-fiction, whether it’s current events, biographies, histories or microhistories. Give me all the non-fiction.
That said, occasionally, I pick up a novel and can’t put it down. That’s happened with J. Ryan Stradal’s books; not once, not twice, but three times. All three simply are fantastic. And perhaps the best part is they’re all food and beverage related.
Once I read the “slutty meteorologist from Grand Rapids” in the New York Times Best Selling novel Kitchens of the Great Midwest, I knew I had to reach out to him and talk, so I slid into his Instagram DMs. Little did I know he’d be as Midwestern friendly as one can be and generously grant me more than 30 minutes to chat about his books, writing and food and beverage. Then at the end, he THANKED me for taking the time. Again, so Midwestern.
It was a fantastic discussion, which I hope shines through below. But more so, I hope you read his books (Kitchens of the Great Midwest, The Lager Queen of Minnesota, Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club) and are excited about his fourth book! (By the way, this newsletter’s parent company is Lakeside Media Enterprises LLC, so that’s pretty neat.)
Also in this issue
Literary Libations: The Lager Queen of Minnesota
What’s Pouring This Week
Fun Reads
Learning While Writing
What struck me early in my first novel by J. Ryan Stradal was the clear Midwestern tone he set. It wasn’t manufactured in any sense. It was evident this author grew up in the Midwest - Minnesota specifically - and it made the story that much more engrossing.
The first one I read was The Lager Queen of Minnesota. How could I not? A beer lover and beer author myself, I saw it on a shelf at a bookstore and immediately picked it up. Three days later, I was done — a feat for myself and fiction. His other two books have gone down just as quickly.
Along with his Midwestern settings, there was another thing I noticed in his stories: largely female point of views.
“I’m writing to myself, especially as a young reader who wanted more representation to the Midwest, and Minnesota in particular,” Stradal told me. “When I was growing up, I’m 48 now, there just wasn’t a ton. I spent time in Minneapolis, and Minnesota was mentioned at the end of Gatsby, so it was nice of him to throw us a bone every once in a while.
“But I wasn’t seeing the Minnesota I know, or the Midwest that I know. I really wanted to read about the people and places I knew. And when I got to the point I could write a competent novel, I was drawn to that immediately.”
As for the strong female perspectives — whether it was Eva Thorvald in Kitchens of the Great Midwest or Helen, Edith and Diana in Lager Queen, or Mariel Prager in The Lakeside Supper Club — that particularly was perplexing as a male author. The female viewpoints were captivating and felt very honest, surely it couldn’t be a man writing those.
Of course, there was a magical reason for his writing from that point of view.
“I write female characters because of my mom, her influence and her voice,” Stradal said of his mom, who died at 55. “She wanted to be a novelist, but passed away before she could write a book. I feel a drive and an obligation, an inheritance, to write the books she might have written and put her in my characters.”
There are a few male perspectives in his books, but not many. He said while he was writing Lager Queen, the draft ballooned to 550 pages and included major chunks about farmland inheritance (informed by his own family drama) before his agent got to him. As he set to cut it down, he realized the male point of views did not add anything to the story and cut them.
“When I took them out, the story didn’t suffer, and that’s just an obvious indicator they’re not necessary,” Stradal said. “They just didn’t move the story forward.”
He joked that in the Midwest, it’s often viewed that men sit around and drink beer. They have opinions and knowledge, but it’s the women who are active and get stuff done.
It’s also the subjects that have drawn me into his novels. I love food and beverage and, apparently, so does Stradal. The reason he’s written the books he has, and I love this, is to learn more about the subjects. Continuously learning about different parts of the world is a main reason I became a journalist!
He said the idea for Kitchens came when he was at a dinner party in 2009 and all the guests knew the host but didn’t know each other.
“We also didn’t know how we all knew her,” he said. “I’d love to hear those stories. That’s a great structure for a book, so for four years I saved enough money to take some time off and write a book.
“It took about a year, but I had a pretty good idea what I was doing when I wrote it.”
The next book, Lager Queen, took a little longer. But its origin story is even cooler. As he toured with Kitchens, he noticed breweries in towns with about 3,000 people. “How did this happen?” he kept asking himself. So he dug and found out that, along with modern craft beer boom, much of the Midwest has a deep history of brewing pre-Prohibition.
(Quick self-promo break. Check out my beer history books: Grand Rapids Beer and Nevada Beer)
“I didn’t know much about beer, I couldn’t tell you the difference between an ale and a lager. Except I didn’t like hefeweizens,” he said. “I felt like I wanted to learn about beer and the history of beer in our region. So I created three people who didn’t know anything about beer and they taught me.”
He spent quite a bit of time in Michigan researching for that one. He said Grand Rapids is a great city and that Bell’s Two Hearted is one of the beers he remembered — and for good reason, it’s one of the best created. He also drew a significant amount, maybe 80%, of the brewery-building experience from a start-up in his hometown.
Now, he’s onto his fourth book. As a current California resident, it was no surprise to learn his fourth book is likely to have a wine component.
“I’m circling that drain at 80 pages in,” he said. “I’m compelled to write about things that I want to learn about. I’m an enthusiastic end user so I’m trying to educate myself on how to be a steward and not just a recipient and my character is just getting the impact of that.
“I love viewing culture through food and beverage. It’s a way to cement over differences in a very fractured time. Not to get too simplistic, but one thing we all agree on is we need to eat. Most of us like to eat food that tastes good. We’ve got really right wing relatives who probably eat healthier than anyone in California and care more about sourcing than anyone here. It’s not as stark as a divide politically as you might expect.
“I like exploring those nuances and connecting bedfellows, not just across political divides, but races, genders and regions.”
What’s J. Ryan Drinking?
“Out here, Pliny the Elder is easy to get. (Editor’s Note: This is the second time the fantastic beer has been mentioned in the newsletter’s young life.) And [Russian River Brewing Company owners] Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo are so great. Wonderful people add to the enjoyment.
“There’s also a Pale Ale from MadeWest Brewing out of Ventura. It’s in the 5% range and as a 48-year-old dad, the session-style Pales are great because I can have two and still put my son to bed without seeing double, or have two after I put him to bed and not wake up hungover. That’s what I’m looking for now.”
Literary Libations
Hi friends! This is Alyssa dropping in with your weekly edition of Literary Libations, your go-to spot for book and drink pairings. Did anyone else cringe at Pat’s opening line to this newsletter?
Being a highly creative and unexpected person, I thought “Since Pat is interviewing J. Ryan Stradal for this week’s newsletter, why don’t I surprise the readers with a J. Ryan Stradal BOOK for Literary Libations?!” (We swear this week’s newsletter isn’t sponsored. But if you’re a writer/publisher/agent reading this, hit us up.)
In all seriousness, there’s not much that I can say about this writer or book that Pat hasn’t said already. When Pat recommended Lager Queen to me a couple of years ago, I knew I had to read it because Pat had only recommended two fiction books to me ever. This one, and The Old Man and The Sea. Stradal’s characters and scene writing feel akin to a warm cozy hug. His books are dripping with that Midwest grit you can only understand if you’re from here. I loved it.
While reading this book, I recommend a nice crisp lager. Here I go again with the unexpectedness! For me, I’m cracking open a Pour of ‘84 from one of my favorite local breweries, The Mitten Brewing Co. If you’re traveling into West Michigan and also have an aversion to gluten, did you know they reduce gluten in about half of their beers, less than 20 ppm gluten?
What’s Pouring This Week
We’ve been sipping on Gin Mare recently. A fantastic Mediterranean gin that is great even on its own, even though I have a hard time with neat gins. But it’s full-bodied and isn’t overpowered by juniper. It’s one of the “Super Premium Gins” that has helped power the segment to double-digit growth in the last decade.
Speaking of Gin … I didn’t mention Gin & Tonics, but Goslings sent over a bunch of their tonics. They’re different, fun, and taste great! The standard has ginger and cardamom, while other versions are Tropical with pineapple, mango and guava and Citrus with lemon, lime and orange.
I’ve also been sipping on the Jeptha Creed 6-Year, which is owned and operated by Joyce and Autumn Nethery, the only mother-daughter whiskey-making team in Kentucky. I’m hoping to chat with them soon, but regardless it’s already a cool story and a great whiskey, so check it out.
Fun Reads
If you think you spend a lot on beverages, this WSJ article might help… or it might hurt as they dive into how much readers spend a week on wine.
Last time we checked, it’s still summer, so here’s a great guide by Inside Hook on ice cream cocktails.
When I was a kid, my parents left for a few weeks and left me with my grandparents. I was never baptized, and my grandma (RIP) didn’t like that and took me to mass and threw holy water on me. Well, I think she’d like this!
Aaron Goldfarb, one of the great beverage writers out there, chatted with some other beer writers to determine a Mount Rushmore of breweries for VinePair. I think Beth Demmon’s is the closest to mine, as it includes Bell’s, Russian River and Sierra Nevada. It’s nearly an impossible exercise and there are plenty of breweries well deserving of one of the four slots. I’ll agree with the great Dave Infante with Anchor and its pioneering craft beer status deserves one of the spots. But then what about Sam Adams? Ugh!
I think most of us love guacamole, right? Well here’s a cool story from The Takeout that looks into its ancient history.