The Great American Ale Trail - Christian DeBenedetti [43]
TONY’S DARTS AWAY
1710 W. Magnolia Blvd. • Burbank, CA 91506 (818) 253-1710 • tonysda.com • Established: 2010
SCENE & STORY
This dive bar reborn as an eco-friendly, full-on craft beer palace has forty taps of hard-to-find beers and a no-bottle, no-can policy—the conservation ethic runs deep. The main menu item is gourmet sausages (with vegan options, too); beers are organized into IPA and “Not IPA.” Both categories are filled with exceptional beers from the likes of Stone, Alpine, AleSmith, Bear Republic, and Russian River. In 2011, founder and owner Tony Yanow organized the “colLAboration” series of pop-up beer gardens around L.A. with Verdugo and the Surly Goat’s Ryan Sweeney, among others, bringing craft beer to the streets of Los Angeles. A new classic bar—and likely, a new tradition—was born.
PHILOSOPHY
“All Craft, All Draught, All California.”
KEY BEER
Stone’s Smoked Chipotle Porter (6% ABV), which is sable black and laced with spicy, rich notes of pepper and smoke.
THE SURLY GOAT
7929 Santa Monica Blvd. • West Hollywood, CA 90046 (323) 650-4628 • surlygoat.com • Established: 2010
SCENE & STORY
When you tire of dodging the beautiful people who cram the streets of Hollywood, sipping beer under the mounted head of a mountain goat named Gus starts to sounds a whole heck of a lot better. Luckily, this nearly unmarked beer bar has a sweet rotating list, solicitous bartenders, leather seating, and a couple of old arcade games and a foosball table to keep things on the lighter side. There are even a few screens with a rotation of retro movies (Star Wars, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off); if you get hungry, you can bring in food from the BBQ place next door, to name one option. There are twenty-seven taps and a cask beer, with genuinely rare bottles to choose from as well (ask for the leather-bound list). This is a spin-off of local beer maven Ryan Sweeney, who opened Verdugo Bar and helped propel Los Angeles’s interest in craft beer into what it is today: a genuine movement.
PHILOSOPHY
Not particularly surly, really. Just remember the usual Friday and Saturday night caveat—you might have to wait to get in.
KEY BEER
Sour beers are showing up all over the place, taking beer drinkers on mouth-puckering rides of various intensity. Marrón Acidifié is the result of a rare collaboration between Florida’s Cigar City and the Bruery in Orange County, and the Surly Goat has put it on draft. Dark with whiffs of roasted malt, woody vanilla, balsamic, and cranberry, it’s tart—but not eye-wateringly so.
VERDUGO BAR
3408 Verdugo Rd. • Los Angeles, CA 90065 (323) 257-3408 • verdugobar.com • Established: 2008
SCENE & STORY
A complete renovation of a 1930s bar known for being quite sketchy—in a neighborhood that still is, so heads up—the Verdugo Bar has no windows and just a simple old glass, black lettered sign-light reading “cocktails.” It’s not much to look at, but then you walk inside to its serpentine, dimly lit bar, low couches, DJ in a booth, and epic beer list. There’s a California-centric twenty-two-tap row, eighty-five bottles, and one cask to choose from, all served at the proper temperature and in the right glass, never sloshed on the bar. Thanks to L.A. craft beer scene maker Ryan Sweeney, a Certified Cicerone (one step down from beer’s equivalent to Master of Wine), things are looking even better already.
Once you’ve got your beer, step outside to the patio and picnic table area. On the best weekend afternoons at 3 p.m., you’ll find a “patio session” in progress: as the DJ spins, a chilled-out crowd lounges in the sun enjoying some of the city’s best gourmet food carts like the famous Grill ’Em All (burgers) and Danky’s Döners (kebabs and sandwiches).
PHILOSOPHY
Beer, booze, and beats.
KEY BEER
Stone Cali-Belgique IPA (6.9% ABV). This San Diego-brewed, Belgian-accented ale has the best of both worlds, with a peach-like graininess and citrus-y tang of three varieties of West Coast hops