Long line at the Surly Goat
Pliny the Younger is in Los Angeles and so far a few places that got a keg have sold out, not surprising right?. There are a few bars that will tap their kegs next week and I hope I get a chance to taste it before it becomes Pliny the Tapped Out, like it became at the Russian River Brewery on 02/17/11. I planned on showing up to the Surly Goat early, one of the few places that got a keg of The Younger, but I had forgotten about the event until I got a text asking me if we were still going that very morning; bad planning and showing up a half hour after the place opened, meant we weren’t getting in and they ran out of it 40 minutes after they opened. I was bummed out, but 8 oz Burger was down the street and it was a place that had been on my radar for a few months and that’s where we ended up; beer and burgers would cheer me up for sure.
8 oz Burger is located right in the heart of Melrose Ave, a trendy area for shopping but not known for a place to go to for food, but burgers are pretty laid back and it fits right in. The first thing I noticed was the draught selection, all were from California and they were decent choices, but I noticed one of the beers on the list was my recently poor rated Chocolate Stout by Bayhawk; yea I didn’t order it.
I had two beers that night, the first being Palomino by Bootleggers (above). I liked this beer, nice hop flavor and aroma, malty, citrus finish and a bit dry; enjoyed it, 3 Beer Caps.
The second choice was Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout by Anderson Valley. This was a nice and strong flavored beer; dark chocolate, espresso beans, medium body; enjoyed it but would have liked to get the beer at more of a room temperature, it was too cold and same for the glass it was served on. Three beer caps for it, but will try it again to see if it gets four.
3 Little Pigs (left) and Melrose (right)
The burgers were very tasty, my favorite was the Three Little Pigs ($10), it was an all pork blend with pickled onions, avocado, iceberg, mayo, pepper jack cheese and Poblano relish. Pork is fantastic no matter how you have it, pepper jack cheese and the avocado worked really well with it and I’ve been thinking about it often and will probably make one at home soon. The other burger was the Melrose ($8), served with a house blend, wild baby arugula, garlic roasted tomatoes, red onion marmalade. I liked the Melrose, but I thought the acid from the roasted cherry tomatoes took away from the flavor of the beef. My friend Rich and I split the burgers so we could try both. We also ordered stuffed olives with chorizo ($5), these were great and I really liked the smokey flavor from the chorizo after that initial bite of olive, a must if you are a chorizo lover (bad wording I know, haha!). We also had some grilled artichokes, these were OK. Burgers were cooked medium, perfect, and that’s how they should be; big ups to the cooks for the burgers.
My boy Rich and I had an overall good experience here, good tasting burgers and although they don’t have a great list of beer choices, don’t come here for the beer, come to enjoy the burgers. Three beer caps for their beer selection and four beer caps for their burgers.
Throw one back for me ~ cheers!
Cerveza Please 