Beachwood BBQ Pickle Bar ©Julie Verive

Exploring L.A.’s Cuisine de Biere

July 16, 2015

The City of Angels is a foodie town. L.A.’s vast sprawl is a stew of diverse cultures and cuisines. It’s full of world famous fine-dining venues that have launched national food fads and populated by chefs at the center of the cult of celebrity. But Los Angeles wasn’t, until very recently, much of a town for beer.

Angelenos still love a stiff drink, but Mexican imports have been the go-to brews while the region’s culture of cocktails and wine lists have long loitered in the spotlight. That’s finally changing, thanks in no small part to decades of effort by homebrewers. In fact, the region is home to the oldest homebrew club in America—the 40-year-old Maltose Falcons—along with several other decades-old clubs. In their wake came bar and restaurant owners who pioneered craft beer programs with rotating tap lists and the pub grub to match.

Now, at long last, craft breweries have begun to thrive in L.A. Nearly three dozen have opened in the county over the past five years, while craft powerhouse Lagunitas Brewing Co. recently announced plans to open a massive brewery complex in nearby Azusa. And this surging interest in craft beer combines perfectly with the region’s well-established love of dining.

These days there are plenty of exciting beer-pairing opportunities for adventurous Angelenos. From new shades of the ever-popular gastropub, to elevated dishes designed to mesh with beer’s unique flavors, to local brews crafted to compliment L.A.’s favorite ethnic cuisines—Los Angeles offers some unforgettable beer and food pairings to those who know where to look.

The Gastropub

The idea of a drinking establishment that pays as much attention to the kitchen as it does to the bar started in ‘90s-era London, and the gastropub has found a welcome home in Los Angeles.

Chef Sang Yoon is credited with bringing the concept to L.A. when he took over a divey bar called Father’s Office and turned it into an early example of the gastropub. The tiny spot in Santa Monica was one of the first great craft beer bars in the city, and Yoon added some killer grub to the equation.

In 2008 a larger version of Father’s Office opened in nearby Culver City, and it’s become one of the crown jewels of the Southlands’ beer-centered restaurants. The men and women behind the bar are knowledgeable, passionate and welcome the chance to suggest pairings to patrons.

A few dozen taps are offered, split between local brews and regional favorites. The menu is inspired by Europe’s beer-friendly dishes, but the star of the show is the famous Father’s Office burger. The assemblage of dry-aged beef, caramelized onions, and a one-two punch of gruyere and blue cheese has been called the world’s best burger by more than one breathless food reporter. Believe the hype—it’s one of the city’s must-try dishes.

Father’s Office started the Los Angeles gastropub trend, and now nearly every neighborhood is home to its own food-forward watering hole. Pioneering craft beer establishments like Hollywood’s Blue Palms Brewhouse, Alhambra’s 38 Degrees Ale House, and the mini-chain of beach-themed Simmzy’s pubs all offer excellent selections of craft brews to match menus brimming with sausages, fish and chips and the ubiquitous cheeseburger.

These are the comfortable, welcoming taverns that have helped craft beer gain a foothold in L.A., and they’ve become a foundation for the next wave of beer-focused dining in Los Angeles.

Exploring the Flavors of Los Angeles

Scattered throughout Los Angeles are ethnic enclaves of seemingly every culture on the planet, and one natural result of so many disparate flavors offered in a (relatively) small area is a blending of different cuisines.

“Fusion” is a tired fad in the foodie world, but in L.A. it’s common to find traditional flavors melded with new techniques, fresh ingredients and creative spirit—without pretension. And between its vibrant Latino community and close ties to Mexico, Los Angeles might be the taco capital of the world.

Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer Jonathan Gold wrote in the L.A. Times: “You can find tacos here from almost every region of Mexico, [and] made from every conceivable part of the pig. If you spend a half hour on the road either east or south of downtown Los Angeles, you are nearly guaranteed to discover a kind of taco whose existence you had never even contemplated.”

One purveyor of these unique flavors is Colonia Taco Lounge in La Puente, just fifteen miles due east of L.A.’s downtown. A revolving menu of taco fillings are chalked onto the wall at Colonia—just like the names on the tap handles that line the bar at the back of the restaurant. If you want to explore truly all of the ways in which beer and food can make magic together, you’ll stake out a table and spend an afternoon tasting through offerings like lamb chorizo and delicately fried cauliflower.

“California Cuisine” is usually thought of as low-fat, low-calorie and high-style, but at Beachwood BBQ and Brewing it’s pork and beef, instead of kale and avocado, that get pampered on the plate. This is no traditional barbeque joint, but the flavors are every bit as bold.

The Long Beach brewpub, twice named Brewpub of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival, has earned national acclaim for brewmaster Julian Shargo’s endless parade of devastating hop bombs and inky stouts. However, his subtle approach to classic styles makes for beers just as praiseworthy, and it’s these brews that offer some of the most interesting pairing opportunities. Case in point: the German-style altbier Alt(ernate) Reality, with its seesaw balance of malt flavors and hop presence, is an adroit accompaniment to a sweet and smoky pulled chicken sandwich on a pretzel bun.

The staff at Beachwood is positively obsessed with beer, and they encourage experimentation. “We don’t like to lead the witness,” says Owner and Chef Gabriel Gordon, whose staff tweets out suggested pairings every day. “We don’t over-explain pairings. I hate that. It’s up to [the diner] to decide what works and why.”

Not every beer lover is a meat eater, and L.A. has vegetarian and vegan beer fans covered too. Mohawk Bend is the sister restaurant to L.A.’s largest production brewery, Golden Road Brewing. The vaudeville theater-turned-gastropub offers vegan snacks that even the omnivores show up for—particularly the cauliflower florets prepared like buffalo hot wings.

Mohawk offers 72 taps dedicated to brewed-in-California craft beer, including Golden Road’s full lineup. Beer program manager Lauren O’Neill says that while the menus don’t offer pairing suggestions, every server and bartender gets extensive training on craft beer, including an introduction to beer-and-food pairings.

“We empower staff with the basics [of pairing],” she says, “and it’s important that they feel comfortable with having those conversations.”

The staff is taught “the three Cs”—cleansing, complementing, and contrasting—and is encouraged to explore different flavor combinations. The restaurant also offers a few beer dinners every year, which give Chef Alfonso Galan the opportunity to offer more deliberate combinations.

A New Wave of Cuisine de Biere

Burgers, sausages and deep-fried fodder have been America’s de facto cuisine de biere since the brewpub boom of the ‘80s, but the increasing acceptance of craft beer as a powerful accompaniment to food is pushing adventurous chefs to develop more sophisticated dishes with beer pairings in mind.

One of the first breweries to open in Los Angeles, Eagle Rock Brewery, opened a sister restaurant-and-brewpub concept in late 2014. The Eagle Rock Public House has beer pairings in its DNA. You won’t find burgers on the Public House menu; instead, the kitchen makes elevated dishes with seasonal and sustainable ingredients to serve alongside Eagle Rock’s core lineup and special release brews.

Co-founder and executive chef Jerry Su says expanding people’s horizons is a major goal for both the Public House and the overall Eagle Rock brand. “It’s hard to be different,” he says of the foodie-friendly menu, “but we want to offer the neighborhood a bit of diversity and something we would enjoy ourselves.”

The result is a selection of small plates and larger dishes with complex flavor profiles that provide plenty of beer pairing opportunities. “We keep a binder with beer tasting notes and pairing suggestions for every beer we serve,” says Su. The staff is also briefed on pairing opportunities at daily pre-shift meetings.

In downtown L.A.’s thriving Arts District is the Little Bear, a “Belgian beer cafe” that offers another glimpse at how food figures into the city’s nascent beer culture. Just as American craft brewers riff on Belgian beer traditions, the menu at Little Bear fuses traditional Belgian beer snacks—liege waffles, moules frites, Belgian-style fries—with more typical American comfort food.

Little Bear boasts an all-Belgian-style tap list and a deep bottle-list full of food-friendly sour beers, saisons, and abbey ales to draw pairings from, and the staff is quick to offer guidance through the confluence of flavors.

Every day, more Angelenos discover that craft beer is just as compelling a complement to food as wine or cocktails. The region’s restaurateurs and beverage managers are scrambling to keep up with demand for expanded tap lists, beer-friendly menus and more beer-savvy staff.

Los Angeles’ multicultural stew has all the right ingredients: a thirsty, intrepid populace; an exciting and innovative dining scene; a fast-developing craft beer culture; and a vast diversity of regional and ethnic flavors. It’s an exciting and tasty recipe for the future of L.A.’s cuisine de biere.

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