Tag: San Juan Capistrano

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Another Capistrano Christmas – Cocktails

I love me a hotel bar. Something about the charging of a drink to your room gives me a charge. And the Inn at the Mission in San Juan Capistrano has a really nice one. This year there was even nightly free hot cocoa with marshmallows.

This year my goal was to splurge on a smoked cocktail….

I will circle back to it at the end but first I had to try their signature Mediterranean Old Fashioned with Old Forester bourbon and a sprig of burnt rosemary for a touch extra. I could order these by the case. That initial whiff of flame and herbs is great.

I also partook of two selections from their Heritage Classics section of the cocktail menu and I will start with what could be a new favorite drink for me, The Aviation (not the Deadpool gin) with a combination of gin, maraschino liquor and creme de violette. Soft and floral and each flavor component got a turn but none wore out their welcome. I sipped from coupe next to a Christmas tree while watching guests check in.

The other classic was my first ever Brooklyn which is rye whiskey, maraschino liquor and dry vermouth. It was just fine but far too close to a Manhattan in my limited cocktail experience book.

As promised, the smoke. I went the Gin route. The presentation was great. Smoke piped into an empty tequila bottle, then the drink was mixed separately and then added into the smoke. Wait for the two to meld, then poured. Mine tasted of, you guessed it, smoke. Nothing but smoke. I smelled smoke all night, it was on my pillow in the morning. Yikes. The rye drink was better but still the balance was tilted to the smoke.

Despite that, I was glad to have tried it because now I know a bit more about my tastes and what will be more successful choices in the future.

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Another Capistrano Christmas – Beer

Last year, my wife and I spent Christmas at the wonderful Inn at the Mission in San Juan Capistrano. This year, I went back for a beer and cocktail trip just before the big holiday with my beer buddy Richard to see a different side and visit new places.

Starting in Oceanside where within a ten minute drive you can find SouthO, Heritage, and two or three others that I didn’t note but my stop was Bagby Beer Co. which was great on two counts.

First, the beer list is long and super diverse and as would be expected from multiple medal wins, supremely solid across the board. (plus they had a cool list of holiday cocktails and slushies). I had Apres Surf, a super low ABV coastal ale that had fragrant pear notes, Brugges Cruise an OK wintry Belgian Strong, Worker Bee a reliable honey ale and my winner, WEYEsbeer a hefe collaboration with Bierstadt Lagerhaus.

The second count is that there is only an alleyway separating you from the Oceanside Bottlecraft location with cans and bottles to go and an impressive beer list. If there was a hotel next door, it would be a trifecta.

Despite a pair of false starts due to out of date, straight up false hours of operation info, we also hit up Delahunt Brewing in Dana Point and another D brewery, Docent Brewing in south San Juan Capistrano.

I am partial to the latter because of their grilled cheese and tomato soup combo and excellent barrel-aged beers but the two half pours of IPAs that I got at Delahunt were quite good.

Praise the traffic gods who cleared the path and thanks to Pizza Port – San Clemente for being an excellent Plan B of pizza goodness.

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H2

The only bummer about my Christmas trip to San Juan Capistrano was that Heritage BBQ was also on vacation those days.

But I have a new reason to try again, this time in Oceanside at the second location of Heritage that also includes a brewery and they have a former Pizza Port brewer at the mash tun.

You can read all about it HERE from San Diego Beer News.

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1st Visit – Docent Brewing

Docent Brewing is in a classic brewery spot in an industrial park in San Juan Capistrano but they have done it up real well.

The space is bright and big with multiple seating areas both inside and out. And if you pick outside you will probably see bikers and runners on the paths outside that stretch all the way into the mission part of town.

I made a mistake or misheard and when I ordered the taster tray , I was asked if a quarter pour or half pour was wanted. I said half. That came out as 8 ounces each and not the 4 or 5 and one of them I picked was the barrel-aged 13% stout.

I went with a pale, Black IPA, Red IPA along with the aforementioned stout. Later I had a second pale and that style seems to be their sweet spot. Both Life Coach and Double Nickels were zippy and bright with citrusy notes. The Momo red was my third place choice.

So a bit of an above average mixed bag. The nearby Inn at the Mission had some more Docent beers on tap so I indulged with the Super Tonic Coffee Stout which was quite good too.

Both places that I drank at had great (different) atmospheres. But Docent worked well in both.