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A cryptic Facebook post from Chris Walowski, formerly of a bumblebee costume at Smog City hinted at a late 2016 opening for a brewery in Burbank.
Verdugo West doesn’t pop-up in Google searches yet but as the opening draws closer, that will probably change and we will learn more about this latest addition to the brewing scene.
Break out your hashtags and tastes for hops when Tony’s Dart Away goes all #TDA6th starting tomorrow and going through the weekend.
There will be the near ritualistic hourly tappings (between 10am-7pm) of special & rare California-brewed beers + the return of a brand new* Darts Away IPA that you can get in a commemorative pint glass for sale for $10 (which includes a pour of the anniversary hop bomb)!
For those Sour Cottontails out there, Sunday will be “Sour Easter” with each hour bringing a new sour.
*For those who didn’t want to drink an SABInBevMiller IPA, do not fear. Eagle Rock Brewery has stepped up to brew the Tony’s IPA this year.
There was always a couple reasons as to why I didn’t get out to Simmzy’s more often. One it was in Manhattan Beach (then Belmont Shores) which is not an easy 405 drive or parking experience. Secondly, it is teeny-tiny and super popular.
Well, those two problems have been alleviated for me. With the new Burbank location that has some elbow room to it. The same food concept reigns here with a curated menu of items that should hold a choice for everyone in your party. Or just the S’more Pudding for dinner. OK, I had the Bleu Cheese Burger which was really good though a bit tall to fit into my mouth.
The beer menu shows great diversity as well. Locals? Check. El Segundo, Smog City and MacLeod on tap. Styles? Covered. Porter to brown to ESB to IPA. And you can order up a Simmzy’s Flight as well to get a broad spectrum of tastes. I can see studios converging to the corner of Olive and Alameda for lunch often.
It’s anniversary time again at Tony’s Darts Away!
And that means beers aplenty both rare and hoppy.
Here are the initial details for those who like to plan.
Starts on Saturday, April 5th and heads through the 6th, from 10 a.m. to close
Thet will “be tapping a heavy-hitting lineup of high sought after and interesting beers every hour to hour and a half, including but not limited to:
[the return of] DARTS AWAY IPA Golden Road Brewing (brewed by the TDA team with GRB)
Grapefruit Sculpin Ballast Point
Angel’s Share Lost Abbey
BeRazzled The Bruery”
So check on their Twitter leading up to the event @tonysda
price: NO admission fee; $10 for a commemorative glass and one pour of Darts Away IPA or $10 for the glass.
Story Tavern in Burbank which is just over a year old now will be doubling their space with a party tonight.
To celebrate the expansion of 8 more taps and a game room, “Figueroa Mountain Brewing Company will be in the house this Thursday at 6:30PM to shower Story’s patrons with a wealth of delicious rarities, most of which have previously never been available in LA! Flights will be available.”
Draft List: Bag of Cats IPL, San Rafael Red Ale, Magpie Porter ,Monkeys with TypeRYEters ,Our Belgian Pale ,Irish Stout ,Wrangler Wheat and on CASK: Hoppy Poppy IPA
Each morning throught L.A. Beer Week, I will give you my Pick of the Night. The ONE event I think rises to the top of the list. Some days that choice will be harder and there might be 1A and 1B’s (if I get wishy-washy). I will endeavor to pick events you can just head out to. But if tickets are required, I will mention it. But expect crowds. Craft beer and craft beer in L.A. is popular.
For the first day, head to…..
What better way to start the party than with Eagle Rock Brewing.
From Saturday, April 13th all the way through to Sunday, April 14th: Tony’s Darts Away will be celebrating what they are dubbing the 3rd Anniversary Weekender!
Here is the pertinent information to get you started, “On Saturday April 13 and Sunday April 14 our place will be open regular hours, starting with Randy’s Best of Breakfast dishes at 10 AM followed by ongoing tappings of our most interesting and highly sought after beers every 60-90 minutes until 7PM. We will be open until 2 AM as usual and will have lunch and dinner specials on as well. There is no required entrance fee, but for $15 we are offering a special Dart Glass plus a fill of a yet to be announced specialty beer! Additionally, this glass entitles you to try specialty tappings a full 30 minutes before they are available to the public.”
Follow the event over on the Facebook HERE.
Story Tavern is new this month to the craft beer scene and they have joined the fun that is L.A. Beer Week so I headed over to Burbank for the first chapter of the story.
The theme was Rocket to Flanders. Belgian beers and punk rock. The locale was all Craftsman styled except for the fake fireplace below a big screen TV. They had the cool Beer Week posters up though so I sauntered in and since the bar seats were filled grabbed a seat at one of the communal tables.
The prices were a bit high for Burbank but they had Beachwood’s Uno Belgian single so that is where I started. I ordered the Belgian stew that promised vegetables and delivered onions only which was a bit of a letdown but it was from the special appetizer section so not a total loss.
A decent flight to celebrate Belgian beer but I didn’t get much in the way of “selling” the flights or L.A. Beer Week. And it looked like the flight was from bottles which meant extra work for the bar staff and beer that might sit for a bit waiting for the next flight order.
All in all, I didn’t get a vibe of special event nor much education. (I went without saying that I was a beer blogger just to see what sort of help I would get). So I can only give a very mild thumbs up. The beer list was fine. No complaints. Just pricey and below standards that I have set for L.A. beer bars.
Maybe they will grow and upgrade but Golden Road is just down the road and better so they need to up their game.
Last Saturday, I got to spend a lovely spring LA day drinking beer. Great craft beer at the ColLAboration pop-up Beer Garden. I partook of Stone Vanilla Bean, Bear Republic Double Rocket. Red Poppy from Lost Abbey but my surprise favorite was the habanero Sculpin from Ballast Point. So balanced that I imagine the technical skill it took to pull that trick off. I probably can’t do a pint of it because of my low scovill tolerance but the few sips I had were great. 2nd place went to Brouwerij West’s Blonde. Perfect on a summer day. I love both of their beers.
More analysis to come on FoodGPS on Thursday morning.
Pop Up stores were first. Then Pop Up restaurants. Now a Pop Up Biergarten.
Check the link – it happens one month from today!