Barley Pops and Hop Hits
June 4th, 2007 by brianS
Welcome to a new, occasional feature, "Barley Pops and Hop Hits".
I won't make any attempt to compete with banjo's masterful On the Grill feature here. Instead, my goal will be offer a small foray into the foamier side of baseball fandom in each city.
The Twins open a series tonight in Anaheim, home of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (snicker). Anaheim may be the
Happiest Place on Earthbut it's smack in the middle of a beer wasteland.
Apparently, Hollywood hasn't discovered the cool in the microbrewery/brewpub movement as of yet. Which I do NOT understand. How is Michael Jackson not cool?
To business. Where and how can and should one scratch that hop itch while in the City of Angels?
Luckily there are numerous on-line guides purporting to offer salacious advice on this question. Examples can be found here, here, here and here. Sadly, these lists are largely populated with defunct operations and chain "brewpubs" -- e.g., Gordon Biersch (which I consider a last resort option at best), BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse (a respectable chain of TGI Fridays/Chile's-type, family-friendly restaurants at the Major League level, with well-made beer and the occasional surprise, such as the "Juniper Rye" ale I tasted yesterday on the way home from the Oakland game), Rock Bottom (a solid, national chain with decent bar food and some good beer options), Chop House (see the Rock Bottom link; more upscale; I've had some outstanding beer at the Denver version, as well as darned good steak), and Karl Strauss (a regional chain that started in SD while I was in grad school there).
There probably are some decent tap rooms if you know where to look, which I don't. And, as with any decent-sized city (or indecent sized, in this case), there will of course be assorted British/Irish pubs scattered about, some of which will even know how to pour a Guinness. Just don't expect to find any cask-conditioned ale.
Better yet, drive down to Pizza Port in San Clemente. Now THERE is an organization that knows how to make and serve beer!
Or you could just try to weasel an invite to my friend Flat-Earth Mikey's house for a tour of his prodigious beer-fridge stash. He's always telling me he needs help drawing down the stock. I don't believe him, but he says it.
As for beer at the ballpark, well, I've never been to Angels stadium. But if the A to Z Guide list of concessions is any indication, save your nickels for something else. Unless you are the kind of beer drinker who gets excited by the words "Budweiser Patio". This full-service review of Angels Stadium doesn't offer much hope. I quote: "you've got a pretty decent selection of beers on tap and in the bottle, including Sapporo, Firestone and Foster's." Wooo-hoo! Hold me back! Although the Firestone products are at least potable (no, none of their beers taste or smell like rubber; and no, they don't have a blimp, AFAIK).
This entry was posted by brianS on Monday, June 4th, 2007 at 6:01 pm and is filed under Barley Pops and Hop Hits, brianS. It is one of 524 entries by the author. We are no longer accepting Letters to the Editor on this post.
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CarterHayes replied on June 4, 2007 at 7:29:59 pm
I wholeheartedly second brianS' recommendation of Pizza Port. (in our case, the Carlsbad member of the three-city chain). While I was was stationed at Camp Pendleton many "NCO meetings" were held at Pizza Port during normal working hours with extremely satisfying results. The Carlsbad Chronic was a favorite of my platoon-mates and succeeded in mending some pretty well-worn bridges after a few
pintspitchers.CarterHayes replied on June 4, 2007 at 7:48:54 pm
Er, that should be "in my case, the Carlsbad member of the three-city chain."
E-6 replied on June 4, 2007 at 7:54:26 pm
A great idea, sir. There are wonderful little breweries and micro-breweries (is that an oxymoron?) dotting this sometimes great country. (Too bad Portland doesn't have a ballclub . Or the Rockies weren't in the AL Central.) It's really not surprising that such an image conscience locale as LA-proper has little in the way of wonderful suds emporiums. Their loss, I guess. My advice? If you're in the LA area and you want an adult beverage, have a martini. The best place to scratch that itch is
The Chateau Marmont, the Roosevelt, The DresdenMusso & Frank. Granted, you're a lot closer to Chavez Ravine, but who are we kidding? You're gonna wanna go to Anaheim after a couple of martinis? Think of those annoying inflatable sticks and the rally monkey...I thought so.
Banjo replied on June 4, 2007 at 8:27:26 pm
It's the Russian Dolls theory of blog posting - each subsequent feature is bigger than the last - making the final product bigger and better. Now that's what I call good site management by the Stick. You see, if Billy Beane ran this blog could never pull that off. He'd be tinkering - he'd say I don't belive in San Clemente, and If my guest bloggers write about it, I'll call it an "organizational disconnect" on many levels and fire their sorry a$$ just like Ken Macha and Art Howe. Then a bunch of commenters would chime in and yeah..that guy never had our back and he talked mean about us when we were sick or injured.
Nice work..
Rhubarb_Runner replied on June 4, 2007 at 8:30:47 pm
Unfortunately, none of the Runner family are beer drinkers, so I'm not much help in this regards. When I lived in LA, a coworker of mine was part owner of a microbrewery which produced MaliBrew beer; I don't believe it's still in operation.
Having attended several Angels/Twins games in the mid/later 80's at the Big A, my biggest impressions were: 1) the large dive-bombing moths in the upper deck; 2) I hate Brian Downing; 3) Ron Davis really sucks; 4) Joe Niekro = busted; 5) Dazzle pwned stealing home. Not much else.
SBG replied on June 4, 2007 at 8:45:36 pm
My ultimate hope with this feature is that Norm educates me about beer. I'm just a few years removed from the vast wasteland of North Dakota where Old Milwaukee is a beer of choice for lots of folks.
brianS replied on June 4, 2007 at 8:47:33 pm
saw an NDSU tee-shirt at the BART station yesterday after the game. Was he related to you?
SBG replied on June 4, 2007 at 8:50:25 pm
That was a guy you should have gotten to know. Movers and shakers, those NDSU guys!