I’ve mentioned it before but I will say it again, Boy do I love the bars near my home. During Craft beer week I decided to spend my Wednesday visiting two of my favorites. I started out at Tony’s Darts Away http://tonysda.com/in Burbank for a happy hour brew. I sat at the bar and enjoyed one of their awesome menu items, the vegan tater tots and had a chat with our bartender. Nikki (or Nicki sorry should have asked) is so great. She is not only super friendly and fun, she knows her beers. I asked her if I could interview her one day. She agreed. So look forward to that blog. I told her I was a beer blogger, for folks who don’t know everything about beer. In fact I assume most readers don’t know much. And don’t care enough to google for answers. So I’m here to feed facts that I find interesting. Also to taste some beers and give my reviews.

I tried TAPS Cream Ale. http://www.tapsfishhouse.com/brea/ TAPS is another California Brewery out of Brea. It was 5.3% so easy to drink, and it was a creamy ale on par with a Boddingtons. I won’t lie I still find Surf Brewery’s Mondo Cream Ale superior but this was super drinkable. I found out straight from their website that it is the Gold medal winner at the 2005 and 2001 Great American Beer Festival , Gold medal at the 2002 California State Fair and, Bronze Medal 2012 and 2007 Great American Beer Festival. I recommend it!

More importantly I recommend Tony’s Darts Away! You know what I found out this trip to the bar? Okay for the true beer encyclopedias…I mean beer wikipedias, you know this already I did not. So for those not in the know this was a big find. So you know I don’t LOVE the IPAS. I tend to find most too hoppy, too much like drinking a Christmas tree, but every once in a while I find one I really like. And usually they are Double IPAS. I was dumbfounded. If I don’t like IPA why on earth would I like a double? Well Nikki told me that Double means double the malt not double the hops. SO the reason I like those beers is because its more malty (the stuff I like). OH wow. This changes everything. I shall go out and find IPAs and bring them back to review now. Thank you Nikki. Again like I said Im sure I could have googled that. But really when youre drinking who cares. But now I know and so do you!

More about the awesomeness that is Tony’s in a future blog. Cause I love this bar and it deserves its own.

Next stop was to pick up the kids and head to the Pub at Golden Road for dinner. http://goldenroad.la/place/#/pub Okay let me say that I can’t even express to you how thrilled I was to have a brewery built down the street from me. And it looks cool. There are different brightly colored buildings, red, blue and yellow. One is offices, one is the actual brewery (they do tours!) and one is the Pub.

And then to find out It had great food, and then to find out its kid friendly I was giddy. BUT this trip…(have to admit hadn’t been in a few months) this trip I found all the great things my friends and family can do while we are there. First of all for those of us who love our Outside drinking this is the spot. Their patio is GIANT they have an upper section, a section by the parking lot (which is dog friendly) and a giant portion on the side of the pub. This side has an outdoor bar (so you don’t even have to trek upstairs a few feet) open Thursday, Friday nights and Saturdays and Sundays.

Initially I would bring my two boys there for dinner because the Pub sits almost directly next to train tracks. And if any of you reading have sons, yah trains are BIG. So we could enjoy a beer, and dinner and the boys would gobble up their spaghetti and watch the trains past by. But wait… Check out these games. The outside area had a giant connect four, shuffleboard, foos ball, ping pong, sand bag toss, and an outdoor bar. WHAT? Are you kidding me? I can eat those delicious fries, have a pint and watch my kids play happily? Well this changes everything. PGR you are now my go to summer place like every week. I don’t normally put pictures of my children in a beer blog but wanted to prove how fun this was for them.

The thing that stopped Mr. Beerman and myself in our tracks was this sign posted above the door
The Puritanical nonsense of excluding children and therefore to some extent women from pubs has turned these places into mere boozing shops instead of the family gathering places that they ought to be. – George Orwell Its true. I have mentioned in blogs before. If your kids are well behaved, meaning not running around bothering other customers, especially those there without kids, and you don’t drink what you would if you were out with friends and cabbing it home. I find it more than acceptable to bring your kids to dinner and have a beer. I remember when my 6 year old was maybe a year and a half and we went to a Scottish restaurant/pub to celebrate Burns Night. My son was happily eating his chicken fingers, toasting his sippy cup against the pint glasses, dancing a jig with the patrons. A much older Scottish woman came up to me and said “your son is so cute, I remember when my son was a babe we’d bring him to the pub with us every time we’d go, you just don’t see that in America”. So PGR Thank you. We now have a place that my whole family can enjoy for dinner or lunch on a weekend. And don’t think I didn’t email every family I know who loves a good beer and has kids. Don’t worry they are nice kids and we won’t all come at once.

Now on to the beer. I had to introduce Mr. Beerman to the Almond Milk Stout I had found at The Vegan Beerfest a few weeks back. We both agreed it’s a damn good stout. If you have a chance to get there before they run out do it! I just hope it becomes a staple. I also tried Aunt Sally’s Pale Ale. Pale ales were basically borrowed from the British. You know a good ol cup of ale….but American Ales seem to be a bit crisper and albeit a bit more hoppy. So I kind of liken them to a kinder gentler IPA. And much like I enjoy Golden Roads Point the Way IPA It was a really tasty pale ale. I highly recommend it!

How can you beat a place where the food is great, the beers are brewed THERE, and you can come alone, come with friends, or bring the family. If you live in LA and you haven’t visited The Pub at Golden Road, you should. Maybe today. It’s still craft beer week! Do it!