brewery – Common Taste

Rating
8.5/10

Wait
No Wait

Value
$7 per pint

Where
SF

Raspberry Mint Stout
Who knew raspberry and stout would work so well together. This experimental beer should become part of Anchor’s standard rotation.

With all the breweries and tap rooms in the Bay Area, it’s hard to distinguish yourself. Anchor Public Taps shares many characteristic that can be found in most tap rooms; it situated in a large industrial warehouse, there is an outdoor patio space, and a curated food truck rotation. At first, it’s hard to find what this O.G brewery has to offer that all these other breweries with less resources can’t. To our surprise, what we discovered is Anchor Public Taps is an “experimental tasting room.”

Anchor Public Taps carries the standard classics that made Anchor reputable like Steam and the California Lager. They also carry exclusive collaboration beers that were made together with other local breweries. But what really sets Anchor Public Taps apart, is they intermittently throughout the day open a small 5 gallon batch of experimental beer for the public to try for free.

I’m not fan of the standard Anchor beer line, but the experimental beer that I did try really made me a fan of Anchor Public Taps. Supposedly, a new experimental beer will be tapped every weekend, and it runs out fast! Not only is the experimental beer amazing, the brewmasters are there serving you and asking for feedback and any questions that you may have. Possibly with enough good feedback, maybe these experimental beers may make it in the standard rotation.

Overall, the space and setup is quite ordinary to most other breweries. However, the concept of the “experimental tasting room,” is what takes Anchor Public Taps to another level and generates a stronger reason to go back.

Website – https://www.anchorbrewing.com/publictaps

Rating
9/10

Wait
5 Minutes

Value
$16 per dish

Where
Vancouver

Postmark Stout Sausage Skillet
The presentation of the dish is beautifully rustic with two perfectly well cooked poached eggs sitting over a sea of crispy potatoes and sausages served in a cast iron skillet. I think food just somehow always tastes better when it’s served in a skillet.
The sausage has a nice flavor but the stout is a bit lost and the crispy potatoes are good but not good like Plow. Overall it’s a solid dish and you’ll definitely leave full and happy.

Having only briefly visited Vancouver, I am glad I had the chance to stop by Belgard Kitchen. A major plus is that it shares the same space with Postmark Brewery – nothing better than killing two birds with one stone. The location is a bit off the beaten path, in an industrial neighborhood, but definitely well worth the trip. There something that can be said about a place that even before entering, you already know there’s something special.

By far the most memorable feature of Belgard Kitchen is the building. Surrounded in a neighborhood of by tired looking warehouses, Belgard Kitchen maintains the integrity of the context but uplifts it’s appearance with nice details. The exterior windows have a concertina treatment which adds nice texture to the facade and this concertina detail carries all the way through to the 30′ tall entrance door. Opening and walking through the entrance feels like you’re walking into a cathedral – but instead of worshipping religion it’s beer and brunch. It’s quite a transition from the cold warehouse exterior to the warm timber cladded interior. The interior is a large beautiful space with high ceilings and clerestory windows that bring in a lot of natural light. There is a balanced mixture of warehouse accents like the featured overhead crane, natural elements such as the timber columns/beams which support the crane, and rustic features such as the wrought iron furniture. As I’m writing this review, I’m realizing this is turning into a critique of the space than a review of the food. In the end, the food is tasty, but the atmosphere is what you’ll remember about Belgard Kitchen.

The Belgard Kitchen is gem in an otherwise worn neighborhood. Given more time, I have feeling that one can spend a whole day in the building moving back and forth from Belgard Kitchen to Postmark Brewing. This place will be a definite must stop the next time I visit Vancouver.

Website – http://belgardkitchen.com