The Monty's brand is small but fierce. Like twins separated at birth, its two flagships, Monty's Korner (355 East Ave, 263-7650) and Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave, 271-7050), have their similarities - comfortable atmosphere, friendly staff, well-stocked draught selection - yet vary unmistakably to match their surroundings.

As one of the East End's original fixtures, Monty's Korner has grown with the neighborhood, going from a quiet beer, wine, and port pub to a busy, active bar filling students, regulars, and run-of-the-mill revelers with all manner of liquor and beer.

Bar manager Jennifer Clark says that Monty's stands out from the East End pack because of its universal appeal; you won't get turned away for wearing your ratty t-shirt and sneaks, but if you want to show off that new oxford, that's cool too. "Just because it's the East End doesn't mean you have to dress up," Clark says. "Everybody's welcome."

Both weekends and weeknights are popular at the Korner. "We have our own following," says Clark. "We're open every day, whereas most of the places [in the East End] are open Thursday, Friday, Saturday," she says.

Wednesdays feature "Krazy Karaoke" at 9:30 p.m., while the "beer school" at 7:30 p.m. every-other Thursday highlights the bar's stellar selection of imported and micro-brewed beer. Mark Tichenor, co-author of Freetime Magazine's beer column and well as the Beercraft Blog (beercraft.wordpress.org) runs the free themed tastings. The September 20 theme is "Beers of Autumn."

"We're going to be doing a lot of harvest ales, and some pumpkin and specialty ales," says Tichenor, who serves the samples from the Korner taps in addition to bringing some bottled brews. "This place has really good beer."

In the absence of the East End bar hoppers, Monty's Krown definitely has more of a neighborhood, community feel.

"We get a lot of people from the [Upper Monroe] neighborhood," says Clark. "There's two totally distinct crowds at the Krown. The happy hour crowd, which is the after-work people and a lot of people from Xerox and Kodak. Then there's the night crowd, which is very into the music scene and black leather jackets and Genny Cream Ale drinking."

Both bars are stocked with an ample supply of rotating draught beers, with Genny Cream Ale bottles ("It's very successful," says Clark.) available for fans of the local delicacy.

Area concert promoter and Monty's patron Steve Ransel Mills says that besides being a good bar, the Krown is also a great place for putting on a gig; it regularly hosts music on the weekends from a wide variety of genres.

"It's really laid back," Mills says. "It's like putting on a party for your friends. The staff is really cool and very easy to work with."

Mills picked up on the Krown's community atmosphere right away. "I started walking here when I was living over in the South Wedge. It was weird 'cause I knew half the people here, and then two weeks later, I knew everybody else. It's a really welcoming place."