Desperately seeking good beer in a shopping mall
By William Brand
Thursday, December 4th, 2008 at 7:22 pm in Beer Bars, Craft Beer, General, Pubs.
Hi beer lovers (hate the term “geek”)… Here’s a Mission Not Impossible assignment for you, should you choose to accept it. Don Russell, who writes the Joe Sixpack column in the Philadelphia Daily News had a stunning Black Friday column. His premise: Where to chuck the Christmas shopping list and find good beer in or near the mall where you’re stuck slogging through… Around Philly, he found some great places.
My question is – can we in the esteemed Bay Area do as well? So, if you know a place with great beer or – since we’re talking shopping malls – a decent beer list beyond Bud Miller Coors & Blah, post it here or, if you’re shy, shoot me an email at whatsontap@sbcglobal.net and I’ll post it.
SunValley in Concord (CA) is the nearest mall to where I live and honestly, I can’t think of a single pub worth visiting, except EJ Phair’s Ale House, which is about a mile away. Tell me I’m wrong, so the next time I stuck waiting on family members to shop I’ll have more to do than peruse the tires in the Sears Automotive Center. Don’t believe SunValley has a Victoria’s Secret, but I’d have to enter the depths of the place to find out.
Is there beer like this in a mall in the Bay Area?
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December 4th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Well there’s the BJs actually IN the Tanforan mall in San Bruno. While their beers can be on the boring side, they usually have a good bottle selection.
December 4th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Is that BJs a brewpub or does their beer come from elsewhere? And they usually do have a good, if priceu, Belgian beer selection. Duvel, Chimay, Westmalle, Rochfort
December 4th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
San Jose area malls/shopping centers actually offer some ok beer choices. Oakridge Mall has a BJs (dont brew their own beer at this location) and a Cheesecake Factory has a little more than standard fair (in the vein of Guiness, Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada). Both are in the mall. Santana Row shopping center has some decent if not expensive restaurants and I know Pizza Antica there has an ok bottle list (Fantome, Chimay, Hitachino are listed on the website). And also, in the Campbell Pruneyard there is a Rock Bottom Brewery.
Now if we could actually get a great bar and bottle shop down here!
December 4th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Fantome? In a shopping mall? Who said San Jose was a beer desert. And I do not understand why there’s not at least one good beer bar in Silicon Valley. I’ve heard that real estate prices are too high and rents are too high, makes it risky. But I don’t know So rents aren’t high in San Francisco. It’s hard to figure.
December 4th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
BJ’s Brewhouses were the first ones that came to my mind as well. They are often located at shopping malls. In addition to San Bruno, San Mateo and the newly opened Newark location are all in shopping malls. There may be other nearby BJ’s that are in malls. BJ’s tend to have a few guest taps that include some decent imports and their own brews are tasty even if not brewed on site. (Their Roseville location is a brewery in a shopping center but not Bay Area as is the Blue Frog in Fairfield). If Larkspur Landing qualifies as a shopping mall, then Marin BC fits. What about the Hop Yard locations over your way?
As an aside, I often thought a great name for a chain of pubs located near outlet malls would be “While They Shop”.
December 4th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
The Englander in Dublin is also just over 1 mile from Stoneridge mall in Pleasanton. The Westfield San Francisco Centre surely has places to get good beer very close by, if not inside.
December 5th, 2008 at 7:43 am
The new BJ’s in Newark is right across Mowry Avenue from the New Park Mall. They have 40 beers on tap.
When I was there the guest taps included Sierra Nevada Celebration, Marin IPA, Lagunitas IPA, Speakeasy Prohibition, Boont Amber as well as some decent Imports and a few Belgians on tap. Also a pretty good Belgian bottled beer selection.
Lots of big flat screen TV’s with sports, too.
December 5th, 2008 at 8:34 am
William,
Not a pub and not right across the street from the mall. However, if you head up the road just a bit and hit the Back forty texas bbq in pleasant hill you can find some decent beers. You can wash down their pork ribs with sierra nevada celebration, anchor christmas ale and trumer pils on tap to name a few. Really only about five minutes by car from the mall.
December 5th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Yeah, I cant vouch for the Fantome as I’ve never been to the restaurant, but it says it on the website. I’ll have to ask my friends who work there.
December 5th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
it’s the “dubliner”..that is closer to stoneridge mall than “e.j’s” is sunvalley…it has a lot of taps..and almost always has blind pig…&…pliny on tap…just be warned …they have toooo many taps…and it is not uncommon to pick an “off”..beer…a side note…i was working at sunvalley mall when the airplane crashed into it…it was a wild and sad event…i mean how do you stop looting when a plane just crashed and the place is on fire ?
December 5th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
the Fremont Hub has Jacks Brewing Company
December 5th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Oakridge Mall in San Jose has a BJ’s. Oh, you said decent beer. Sorry, my bad. Nearest decent beer is in Santa Cruz or Morgan Hill. Better beer selection on Mars than in Santa Clara County.
December 5th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
While They Shop. Great name for a shopping mall pub. Great suggestions. About Stoneridge/The Dubliner — which was started originally by Judy Ashworth — has been resuscitated recently, patrons tell me. Trouble is, I have a hard time finding the place.
About Jack’s. I really like the place, good beer and their garlic fries are worth the visit.
December 5th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Looks like BJs saves the day for the Bay Area, hun?
December 5th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
About Back Forty — Haven’t been in there since they moved to this location. Love their ribs. Will have to check it out soon.
December 6th, 2008 at 8:12 am
>Looks like BJs saves the day for the Bay Area, hun?
Not only that, if you go to the BJ’s Oakridge Mall on Blossom Hill and Santa Teresa in San Jose, you can also go across the street to the new BevMo, and pick up a few bottles to take home. It’s not exactly The Toronado and City Beer, but we’re working on it.
Incidently, if someone wanted to bring a good beer bar to the South Bay, Santana Row Mall would be a good place to do it. I can see it working there, and is probably the best location in the South Bay to start, in my opinion. Some of the bars there now have some good bottles or taps, but no overall selection particularly outstanding.
Murphy Street in Sunnyvale, downtown Mountain View, or Los Gatos might also work.
December 6th, 2008 at 8:38 am
I could see a place in Santana Row doing well, but I’d much rather see something in downtown San Jose, more accessible by public transportation and decidedly less stuffy.
December 6th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Not in the Bay, but if you’re in Sacramento by chance, the Downtown Plaza mall has River City Brewing, across from Macy’s.
December 6th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Just visited the new Firehouse location which is right across the street from IKEA in East Palo Alto. It has all the “house” beers from their brewery in Sunnyvale plus several guest brews on tap and in bottles. One of the guest taps is currently El Toro IPA and they plan to feature other ET beers so I’m hoping they tap some of the great ET winter brews.
December 6th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Hi All… I posted an appeal for places with good beer in shopping malls on Facebook…Here are the replies I’ve gotten so far…
Jay at 10:28am December 6
Oggi’s Pizza and Hollister Brewing come to mind…
William Brand at 11:09am December 6
Oggi’s is a Southern California chain. What kind of beer do they have Jay? And how close to a major mall? How about Hollister? Is it close to a major mall. I got this idea from Do Russell’s Joe Sixpack column in the Philadelphia Daily News. he came up with some great pubs at or near malls around Philly.
David at 4:31pm December 6
I second Hollister, not really a mall, more of a shopping complex - Home Depot, Costco, CompUSA & some movie theaters. Fantastic beer though! 15 handles plus an engine, all brewed on site. Haven’t been to Oggi’s.
Another good idea that’s probably already been done - good beer in airports!
William Brand at 10:22pm December 6
Sounds good. Guess I should nominate one here in the Bay Area: Schooner’s Brewery & Restaurant. Great beer and it’s a big outdoor mall in Antioch with Home Depot, a multi-plex theater and all the other standard California chains.
December 6th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
That’s good news about Firehouse. Steve Donahue, who brews the beer for both places and is in charge of taps, said he hopes to have rotating taps there. If you had to go to Ikea, that would be the perfect retreat after a few hours of mass hysteria at Ikea.
December 7th, 2008 at 8:22 am
The Duke Of Dunkel wrote:
“I could see a place in Santana Row doing well, but I’d much rather see something in downtown San Jose, more accessible by public transportation and decidedly less stuffy.”
Agreed. I’d rather see it in downtown San Jose, and if it were in Santana Row, it would likely be somewhat overpriced, and crowded with people who would be more interested in being seen there, than actually tasting the beer.