Tag Archives: local beer

City Tavern

Thursday night was Enegren Brewing Company’s flight and pint night at City Tavern in Culver City. The EBC crew headed down for an evening of meeting and greeting all the LA folks who stopped in to try their brews.
As the designated brewery photographer, I was dragged along and forced to drink craft brews and eat delicious foods. Bummer.
It was heavenly to get away from the 100+ degree weather we’ve been having up here in Valencia. Culver City was a good twenty degrees cooler with a nice ocean breeze.
The inside is industrial, yet cozy with exposed brick and chalkboards lining the walls and tall skylights that let the sun stream in.
We ordered the Enegren flight first, just for a little quality control.
As with the majority of the time, it passed.
City Tavern has a great selection of both draft beers and bottled beers. A large number of them were local which is always wonderful to see and imbibe upon.
I love being overwhelmed with a beer list!
The food selection isn’t too shabby, either!
We split the bacon and cheddar pretzel with mustard aioli – soft, gooey and overflowing with thick pieces of crispy bacon.
The appetizer special of the day was squash blossoms stuffed with goat cheese and sundried tomatoes and tempura fried. These were light and airy and ridiculously fresh and hot. The tangy goat cheese was a perfect balance with the sweet bits of sundried tomato and delicate blossom.
The night flew by with tasters from Cismontane, Lagunitas, Magnolia Brewery and Eagle Rock, to name a few.

For my grand finale beer order of the night I asked Susie, our wonderful server, to surprise me.
This surpassed all of my expectations and then some. A sour paleta, a sour beer and a Sourac made with rye whiskey, sour ale, bitters and simple syrup. Bite, sip, sip. Not a combination that I’d ever ordered or even tried before, but a delicious ending to a long evening!

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Filed under beer tasting, Restaurant Review

Colorado: Part III

I’ve been ridiculously sick and therefore passing out after taking coughing meds every single night before I had time to blog. Now, however, I’m home, slowly getting better, and ready to wedge myself in the couch and type away!
Our lovely friends invited us over to their house for dinner. I was too busy shoveling the delicious pork roast, rice salad and buttery carrots into my face to get a picture, but I DID remember to take one of Louise’s AMAZING biscotti! She used to make this for my bestie Michelle and me when we were wee tykes rollerblading around the neighborhood and packing picnics to eat on the golf course. To this day, I can’t even look at any other biscotti with any respect at all.
Since we were in Colorado, I had to pick up a local brew. This is Friek, a kriek beer that Odell Brewing made a single batch of. Once this is gone, it’s gone for good (at least until the next Small Batch Revival which we attended – more on that in the upcoming blog). This was not as sweet as I was expecting from a kriek. It was more of a sour ale that you’d enjoy sipping slowly over the course of an evening.
Which I did. This is a delicious beer, made to be enjoyed in a single glass. Personally, I think more than that would be overwhelming and ruin the palate.
The next day we drove around to check out neighborhoods in the area. I love this about Colorado – elk wander freely through the lawns, chowing down on young saplings. I love this because I don’t own saplings that are being chewed on by elk.
For lunch we went to Mad Greens. ANOTHER thing I love about Colorado – this Chipotle-style restaurant with salad. You choose your lettuce and walk down the assembly line picking other vegetables, fruits, seeds, nuts and proteins to be added, which are all married together with one of their HUGE selections of dressings.

I ate here twice in one day. I want to go back already!
After our healthy lunch, Michelle and I went up to Boulder to walk around Pearl Street and visit the Walnut Brewery – a place I used to go after playing billiards at the Foundry next door. The Foundry is now Absinthe Club. I weep for the loss of innocent pool tables.
Walnut Brewery is a big local brewpub that serves chicken-fried chicken (my favorite when I was eleven), nachos, potato skins and a huge variety of other artery-clogging deliciousness. They also brew their own beer on site in these big mash tuns and fermenters.
We split a taster of their five beers and then ordered a pint each. After 3/4 of that pint, we were both incredibly tipsy (read: a little bit drunk), and had no idea why until we realized that we’d both come from sea level up to altitude. Cheap dates!

Afterwards, we slowly made our way around the different shops of Pearl Street until we sobered up, then I headed to my hotel before the long trek up to Fort Collins. Best friends and beer – not a bad way to spend the day.

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