Forget Candyland, Canland AKA Golden Road Brewery Is Open

Golden Road Brewery debuted two new ventures this month: The Pub at Golden Road Brewery and the launch of their beer in cans.  The brewery is located just north of Atwater Village alongside the train tracks on San Fernando Road.  The pub is now open 7 days a week from 11 am - 11 pm and features 10-12 proprietary beers as well as 10-12 guest taps from other brewers that Golden Road respects.  The project is the latest venture from Tony Yanow, who is well known in the Los Angeles craft beer community for his other ventures Tony's Dart's Away and Mohawk Bend.  For Golden Road, he partnered with Meg Gill, who at 26 is already a veteran of the craft beer movement.

Both of Golden Road's two flagship beers are available in cans: Point the Way IPA and Golden Road Hefeweizen.  The six packs are $12.  At the brewery, several limited releases are available on tap.  These include Burning Bush IPA, EL Hefe Anejo (tequila barrel aged Hefeweizen infused with agave and mesquite honey), Festivus Cinnamon Bitter and Rye on the Palate.  On the day I visited they were already out of the Hefe Anejo and the Lost its Way IPA.  I was able to try the Rye on the Palate, which is pictured at the top of this page.  The Rye on the Palate was delicious; it is lightly hoppy, and the rye gives it that wonderful bready smell (though it can't substitute for a load from Langer's.

The menu at the pub is gastropub meets vegan, as Yanow is well known for his vegan offerings at Tony's Dart's Away and Mohawk Bend.  Customers order at the bar and are given a buzzer that goes off when their food is ready.  I tried the Sloppy Joseph, a grown-up take on the classic Sloppy Joe, which is made with stout braised beef short-ribs, fried shallots and house-made bbq sauce.  The sandwich appeared on the small side but it turned out to be quite filling as well as well seasoned.  The flavorful short ribs were overflowing the bun and I opted for the addition of the coleslaw ($3) which was light and a good companion to the sandwich as it was mayonnaise free (and vegan).  I saw several pretzels go out and they are huge.



The setting is comfortable in casual as the interior seating and bar itself are located in a warehouse style building that has been built out.  Concrete floors and a ceiling high enough to play basketball in are signature elements of the space.  Simple dark wood chairs and tables, including several communal tables fill out the interior.  There is also a retail area selling six packs of the beer cans and other assorted merchandise.

On my visit the Golden Road Brews beer menu was as follows:

Burning Bush IPA - $6
Either Side of the Hill - American Strong Ale - $6
El Hefe Anejo - tequila barrel aged Hefeweizen - $6
Festivus Cinnamon Bitter - $6
Golden Road Hefeweizen - $4/$5
Get Up Offa that Brown - $5/$6
Lost its Way IPA - $5
Point the Way IPA - $4/$5
Rye on the Palate - $6
Schwartz Stout - $5/$6

Several of the beers are available in small and large sizes.

On a warm day, the patio is the place to be as you can relax outdoors without being too far from the bar for the inevitable refill of liquid refreshment and with no waiters, you don't have to worry about getting anyone's attention.

I recommend heading over to Atwater Village and hoisting a pint yourself to check it out.  The craft beer movement in Los Angeles is truly coming into its own and it is exciting to have another solid brewery right in our own backyard.  I feel sorry for the folks who go by on the trains alongside Golden Road as they have to watch happy customers enjoying beers outside while they are trapped in slow moving tin cans with mass market brews, if they are fortunate to have any beer at all.

Golden Road Brewery & Pub: 5410 West San Fernando Road.  | 213.373.4677 | goldenroad.la

Weekend Brunch at Mohawk Bend

When I was invited to try brunch at Mohawk Bend, the craft beer bar and restaurant which opened last fall to much buzz, I was very intrigued.  Brunch service just began and I was curious to see what owner Tony Yanow had in mind as his establishments are known for their extensive vegan options.

In addition to several dozen taps of local craft beer, Mohawk Bend has a full bar and cocktail program and a Pisco Sour is an excellent way to begin a morning meal.  It is made with frothy egg-whites and Pisco, so you could consider it a meal in a glass.  Who doesn't enjoy eggs at breakfast?  The Pisco Sour was well executed, not too sweet or tart and appropriately frothy.

Sorry vegans, but Huevos Divorciados is the must order item at brunch.  It is made with fried eggs, chilaquiles, red & green salsas, queso fresco and crème fraiche.  The fried corn tortillas were at that perfect stage between nicely crispy and soggy and the salsas were piquant and flavorful.

The Vegan Scrapple was a pleasant surprise as the dish is usually made with pork leftover bits (scraps, hence the name scrapple) and cornmeal before being combined and fried.  This version includes vegan sausage and was served on a bed of tomato sauce.  It was reminiscent of polenta cakes and rather tasty.  I have never had the pork version, but this is a filling dish that while not evoking meat, was satisfying as it is. The other ingredients in the scrapple include broccolini, rappini, spinach, onions, scallions, pasilla chiles, thyme, sage, soy milk, organic polenta, and house made veggie stock.  Just like the traditional version, the chef uses the leftover scraps of what is available in the kitchen, although in this case that means veggies not bacon bits.  The tomato sauce had a nice slight kick from garlic and chile de arbol.

Elvis French Toast is a tribute to The King: french toast sandwiches with bananas and bacon and served with peanut butter syrup.  I was not a fan of this dish which was served cut-up in four pieces.  I had a version without the bacon and it likely doesn't work as well as the bacon can aid the flavors in coming together.  The bacon-fiends I was with enjoyed this dish significantly more than I did.

Sera's Signature Waffle is both vegan and gluten free.  The waffle is served with a choice of peanut butter, maple or pecan syrup.  If you are not a vegan, I do not recommend this dish as it doesn't capture the essence of a waffle as it lacks the eggs which help provide texture and consistency.

It never hurts to add a bit of greens to a meal, especially when the JJ Kale salad is on offer.  It is a wilted salad of kale seared with garlic and chili, topped with julienned jicama.  The jicama is sweet and refreshing and has a wonderful crunch and the seared kale also provides some crunch and pow from the garlic and chili.  A healthy accompaniment to the Huevos Divorciados or the Scrapple.

Best of all should you want to have a brew with your brunch, the full selection is available.  Beer, it's what's for breakfast.  Plus, Mohawk Bend now takes reservations.

Mohawk Bend: 2141 W. Sunset Blvd, Echo Park.  Phone: 213.483.2337 | mohawk.la

ColLAboration Winter Fest Postponed

The latest ColLAboration LA event, the Winter Fest scheduled for tomorrow Saturday December 3rd, has been cancelled due to the intense wind damage at the Golden Road Brewery.  The event will be rescheduled for January, when the damage has been repaired and the power is up and running.

Golden Road CEO Tony Yanow said, “We are extremely upset that we have to postpone our Winter Fest, but the comfort and safety of our customers is of the utmost priority to us. We have yet to get our electricity back due to this week’s fierce Santa Ana winds and we simply cannot take the chance that we will not have electricity tomorrow during our event. We look forward to re-scheduling ColLAb in early 2012 and hope to see everyone then. In the meantime, all advance payment through PayPal will be automatically reimbursed within seven days to all of our guests. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

For those who already purchased a Winterfest glass, the specialty steins will be good for admission to the next ColLAboration event, which will be scheduled for January 2012. Winterfest glasses can also be taken back to their point of purchase for a full refund. To help ease the pain, the following bars will be offering $4 beer specials tomorrow:

• Mohawk Bend: ALL beers $4 from 12-5pm 
•  Tony’s Darts Away: ALL beers $4 from 12-5pm
• 38 Degrees Ale House & Grill: select beers $4 from 12-5pm 
• Verdugo: select beers $4 from 3-5pm

Mohawk Bend: It's Open For Real

Yes, Mohawk Bend is really finally open.  The much delayed craft beer focused restaurant from Tony Yanow, the owner of Tony's Darts Away, has opened its doors wide onto Sunset Blvd in Echo Park.  The beer list is nothing short of epic, with 71 local craft beers on tap, enough to intrigue even the most jaded of beer snobs.  The food has extensive vegan options, including pizza made with vegan mozzarella.

The "Pub Grub" section of the menu includes the infamous Dork Burger ($14), made with ground duck and pork as well as the Fish & Chips (pictured above), IPA-battered pieces of cod, shoestring fries, malt vinegar aioli and capers.  ($14) The fish was suitably crispy and the fries did not last long among my compatriots, which included the legendary Glutster and a sommelier not known for his shyness on twitter.

The Holy Trinity Pizza ($11, above) is made with tomato sauce, basil, fresh mozzarella (non vegan) or vegan mozzarella.  I tried a slice of the vegan version which was surprisingly good.  Also pictured above is the "Quick and the Bread" herbed flatbread with choice of seven spreads.  I can vouch for the pita-like flatbread but the spreads did not last long in our hungry party.

The 71 beers on tap are all listed on a menu with their style, brewery, ABV (alcohol percentage) and whether they are served in a tulip or pint glass.  Breweries represented include North Coast, Ballast Point, Hangar 24, Bootleggers, Anchor, North Coast, Sierra Nevada, The Bruery, Bear Republic, Firestone, Taps, Rubicon, Lost Coast, Lost Abbey, Craftsman, Green Flash, Eel River, Alesmith among others.  Russian River Brewery's Blind Pig and Pliny the Elder, both excellent brews, were much enjoyed my my group of thirsty ruffians.

Despite the fact that Mohawk Bend only announced their opening on the same day, they were slammed.  Waits for tables were quite long and the bar was crowded with folks all trying to get their mitts on a pint of liquid gold.  The crowd was a mixture of beer aficionados, East Side hipsters, locals, writers and randoms.  it looks like Yanow has another hit on his hands, on a much bigger scale.

Mohawk Bend: 2141 W. Sunset Blvd, Echo Park. Phone: (213)   260-0265.  Website: http://www.facebook.com/mohawkla

ColLAboration: A Pop Up Craft Beer Garden

Saturday's ColLAboration event combined two trends of the Los Angeles food and drink scene: pop-up restaurants and craft beer.  The event was a collaboration between four of the leading members of Los Angeles's craft beer scene: Ryan Sweeney of Eagle Rock's Verdugo Bar and West Hollywood's The Surly Goat, Brian Lenzo of Blue Palms Brewhouse in Hollywood, Clay Harding of Alhambra's 38 Degrees Ale House and Tony Yanow of Tony's Darts Away in Burbank and the soon to open Mohawk Bend in Echo Park.

The event celebrated the 1 Year Anniversary of Tony's Darts Away and was the first in a planned series of pop-up beer gardens.  The inaugural event was held in a parking lot in Burbank, a block away from Tony's.  Tickets were sold in advance online or at any of the participating bars.  Your ticket came in the form of a glass and cost $10 per person.  Beers were either $6 or 4 for $20, via an efficient token system.

ColLAboration was by far the smoothest run food or drink festival I have ever been to.  Tickets sold out in advance, although a limited number were available on-site the day of.  They deliberately avoided selling too many tickets, so that attendees could get beer with minimal lines.  If you had purchased your ticket in advance there was no line to get in and most of the afternoon the lines for beer were nonexistent to two minutes with the exception of when a rare beer was announced over the speakers and a ten minute queue developed.

They provided ample bathrooms (port a potties) and even had a fenced in "smokers pen" for the cigarette fiends in the crowd.  No lines, a genial crowd, fair prices - what's not to like?  They even arranged for several local restaurants to deliver to the event, so people could get food to wash down their beer.  Tony's was also selling food on-site in the form of folks wearing hot delivery cases, ballpark style, walking through the crowd selling their vegan treats.

Sweeney (above) had told me about a Sierra Nevada Dubbel, called Oliva, which he thought I would like.  A couple hours later I was the first person at the event to get a glass of the elixir, which was even better than I had hoped.  I didn't know that Sierra Nevada made any Belgian style beers.  Their stock went up a lot with me.  I ran into several of LA's beer aficionado crew, including Jimmy Han of the soon to open Beer Belly,  HC of L.A. and O.C. Foodventures, Chris Day of Sotto, Steve Armstrong of ShangriLA Food Blog and Brand X, among others.  Unfortunately I left before Josh of FoodGPS and Esther of E*StarLA arrived.

There will be several more pop-up ColLAboration beer gardens this summer and I am looking forward to attending as many as I can.  If you went this past weekend save your glass, as it is your admission ticket to the next event.   Unlike some beer events where you pay one price for all you can drink, ColLAboration was all about quality over quantity, although the pours were rather generous.  Good beer, a good vibe and good weather; this event hit the trifecta.  Stay tuned for news on the date and location of the next fest.

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