600 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 100Trips to Los Angeles are always fun.
I’ve only been to California twice. Both for work. Both to Los Angeles.
We landed at LAX a little before 3:00 on Tuesday afternoon. By the time we got our luggage, our car, and completed the one task we needed to do before heading to the hotel downtown, it was dinner time.
We got settled in our hotel and I asked my colleague if he was hungry. The answer was, of course, yes…since we’ve been traveling all day. I figured this would be the only night of our eight day trip that we’d get a chance to sit down for a good meal so I was going to take advantage of it.
There were a lot of options around our hotel, but I, as you could probably guess, picked the brewery.
Dinner on our first night in Los Angeles was at Karl Strauss Brewing Company on the corner of Wilshire and Grand Avenue in downtown LA. The restaurants takes up the corner space of a high rise building- known simply as 600 Wilshire.
We walked in to the brewery just before 8:00 on Tuesday evening. There weren’t a lot of other people in at the time. The bartender told us to sit wherever and he’d be over to take our order in a few minuts.
The space is pretty typical for a brewery. It has a modern flare with concrete floors, mostly of pub tables and minimalistic furniture. The place was still decorated for Christmas which some additional light to the single bulb lamps hanging from the ceiling.
The beer list is pretty big. Karl Strauss Brewing was one of the original craft brewers in San Diego and they pump out a number of small batch and large batch beers every year for their nine restaurants in Southern California. The list was written on chalkboards right above our heads which correspond to an impressive number of taps behind the bar.
The bartender set down a couple of menus then told us to order at the bar when we were ready. It didn’t take long to find something we wanted.
I started with Brisky Business. The beer is a “Cold IPA” which I’ve never heard of before. Granted, I don’t drink as much beer as I used to. It’s a newer style of IPA pioneered on the West Coast. The beer is fermented at a lower temperature than what an IPA is typically fermented at. The beer was pretty good. I’m not sure how much I like the style but I like IPA’s and this one was still pretty hoppy.
I didn’t really have a hard time figuring out I wanted a burger but what burger I wanted was a little bit of a harder choice. I ended up picking the Food Truck Burger. This sandwich is a beef patty made with fresh ground steak, Tillamook pepper jack cheese, onions, pickled jalapenos, Korean BBQ sauce, gruyere, lettuce, tomato, and a chipotle ale mayo. I kept the onions off and added some beer brined bacon for a extra $3. The burger was delicious. There was a lot going on and I would have liked more of the jalapenos but there was a real great combination of sauces that gave an extra zing to the sandwich. Once I picked it up, I had a hard time putting it down.
The sandwich came with fries. They were a pretty simple frozen skin on French fry with a delicious and heavy salt and pepper seasoning. There wasn’t a lot on the plate but just enough to compliment the sandwich. We both left pretty full but not over stuffed.
The cost for my meal was just under $35.
I don’t think I’ve ever had Karl Strauss beers so of course I’m happy to find some West Coast breweries while I’m out here. I’m sure the place is hopping on not a Tuesday night. They have a really cool space right in the heart of downtown LA with delicious foods and delicious beers.