LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA
Just north of San Diego lies the ravishing rolling hillside and Pacific coastal waters of La Jolla, a romantically quaint village with affluent citizenry. Visited April ’07, LA JOLLA BREWHOUSE originally opened in 1990, then came under new management in ’98 and re-established itself once more around 2002.
Located in a freestanding building setback from a small parking area and next door to Blockbuster Video, its casual sports bar atmosphere included a front porch coal fire pit, wood-floored and walled interior, televisions at every conceivable angle, and an L-shaped bar with booths and tables to the right.
Sandwiches, burgers, pizza, and pasta were served alongside a fair-to-moderate beer selection with the keen exception being creamy chocolate-spiced hop-charred walnut-pecan-backed Czarina Russian Imperial Stout.
Soapy toffee-trifled chocolate-roasted apple-peach-pumpkin-depleted Red Ale, mildly bitter lemony orange Pale Ale, and acidic banana-clove-dried Hefeweizen lacked firm character.
Decent selections were astringent floral-hopped walnut-hazelnut-skimped Dry-Hopped Brown and lemony fizz-hopped grapefruit-peeled clover-honeyed floral-dabbed Kolsch-styled Blonde.
By 2009, Russian River’s Travis Smith (responsible for world famous Pliny The Elder) took over brewing chores. The recipes and beer names have changed. See website below.