El Palacio Mexican restaurant teams up with Flagstaff brewery for private-label beer

When El Palacio owner Anthony Serrano (pictured) went looking for a private-label beer for his Chandler Mexican restaurant, he didn’t want to think big. In fact, just the opposite.

‘‘We thought it would great to team up with a local brewery,’’ says Serrano, whose 18 taps feature eight Arizona beers and 10 Mexican ones. ‘‘Since we are smaller, we decided to pick a small brewery as our partner.’’

The restaurant had teamed up with Flagstaff’s Mother Road Brewing for a successful beer dinner last October, so Serrano sat down with brewery rep Dan Choiniere.

‘‘After many, many tastings we chose Gold Road, which is a Kölsch-style beer, to be our private label beer,’ Serrano says. ‘‘We felt that it paired incredibly well with practically everything on our menu.’’

Since Kölsch is a German style, Serrano chose the name Cantina Göld and had a special tap handle created. The beer is now on tap at El Palacio, and by mid-September will be sold at Serrano family restaurants in Bullhead City and Mohave Valley.

Not only do the restaurants and breweries benefit from the arrangement, but so do customers.

‘‘Because of our close partnership with Mother Road, we are able to offer this awesome beer at the price of $3 a pint or $4 for a 20-ounce,’’ Serrano says. ‘‘So far the response has been incredible and the patrons we’ve sampled it on have fallen in love.’’