My last post about a place we visited in Santa Monica. For our final night we just wanted to chill, drink some beer, grab a little food, watch some Olympics on the TV and enjoy a place with good atmosphere. Barney's Beanery was recommended to us so we decided to check it out. The place is in the 3rd Street Promenade, which was a pretty cool place to just hang out and people watch. There were street performers and other goings-on, the weather was great, it wasn't a bad cap to a cool vacation. They apparently have a few other locations in the greater Los Angeles area.
The first thing I noticed about Barney's is the interesting menu layout. It's done newspaper style (and printed on newsprint), with kind of a old-western motif, which was odd because the vibe of the place is most definitely not old-western. The interior look and feel was probably the thing I liked the most about the place, it had the same "lots of TVs of varying sizes all over the place" strategy of say a Buffalo Wild Wings, without the meaningless veneer of proto-frat boy jock worship of say a Buffalo Wild Wings. Overall I dug it.
Now, like I said, we weren't really going for the full on meal experience here, just looking for a place to have some snacks and watch some TV while enjoying some beer. We scanned the decent drinks menu and each arrived at the same choice simultaneously - we are married for a reason after all. We chose the Maui Brewing Company's Bikini Blonde Lager. We both love all things Maui (my all-time favorite beer is still the Kona Brewing Company's seasonal Wailua Wheat Ale), it's where we honeymooned, and we both like our beers on the lighter side rather than the darker side. The cans were different from our usual too. All in all, quite good. I think we each had a few of those, and I switched halfway through to snakebites (half lager half strong cider - in this case Stella Artois and Strongbow I believe).
I decided to delve into their very deep menu (seriously its like 8 or 9 pages) for something I'd like. I went straight for the appetizers and I immediately spotted fried pickles, which has rapidly become my favorite appetizer. They are growing in popularity in the DC Metro area and I'd love to see what the West Coast had to offer.
Man was I sorely disappointed. First of all the breading was all wrong. They were breaded like fish sticks rather than dipped in a batter. Not only did this present a pretty unpleasant exterior, it also trapped more of the frying oil, making these pretty greasy. The other crazy thing was that they used pickles sliced sandwich style, lengthwise, as opposed to crosswise in chip form. This led to the double whammy of being harder to eat and mushy in the middle (have they the BRAINWORMS?). I take my fried pickles pretty seriously, and I would not recommend these.
So after failing to eat more than a few of the pickles, we switched to the chips and salsa and added the guacamole. They make their salsa fresh daily according to their menu, and it wash pretty good. It at least didn't taste overtly like jar salsa. The chips were slightly stale, but I may have only noticed because I was in a pickle funk. The guac wasn't bad, I'm not the biggest guacamole fan so I'm not really a great judge, it was more for my wife who adores the stuff.
I wish we'd had more time to really try more stuff on the menu (we had to go watch the mars rover landing). Its pretty extensive and a bunch of the stuff on it looked pretty appetizing. Especially the extensive chili menu, burgers, and mexican offerings. We decided to close on a desert, and we ordered the s'mores. I figured they would come pre-made but much to my surprise and delight what they brought was a plate of graham crackers, chocolate, marshmallows, and a a bowl of flaming gel. With the skewers, you can roast your own marshmallows and make them yourself. It was one of the more pleasant desert eating experiences I've had in quite a while. I'd say it may even have made up for the sadness that was their pickles. Ultimately, I'd go back to this place.
http://barneysbeanery.com/index.php
The first thing I noticed about Barney's is the interesting menu layout. It's done newspaper style (and printed on newsprint), with kind of a old-western motif, which was odd because the vibe of the place is most definitely not old-western. The interior look and feel was probably the thing I liked the most about the place, it had the same "lots of TVs of varying sizes all over the place" strategy of say a Buffalo Wild Wings, without the meaningless veneer of proto-frat boy jock worship of say a Buffalo Wild Wings. Overall I dug it.
I decided to delve into their very deep menu (seriously its like 8 or 9 pages) for something I'd like. I went straight for the appetizers and I immediately spotted fried pickles, which has rapidly become my favorite appetizer. They are growing in popularity in the DC Metro area and I'd love to see what the West Coast had to offer.Man was I sorely disappointed. First of all the breading was all wrong. They were breaded like fish sticks rather than dipped in a batter. Not only did this present a pretty unpleasant exterior, it also trapped more of the frying oil, making these pretty greasy. The other crazy thing was that they used pickles sliced sandwich style, lengthwise, as opposed to crosswise in chip form. This led to the double whammy of being harder to eat and mushy in the middle (have they the BRAINWORMS?). I take my fried pickles pretty seriously, and I would not recommend these.
So after failing to eat more than a few of the pickles, we switched to the chips and salsa and added the guacamole. They make their salsa fresh daily according to their menu, and it wash pretty good. It at least didn't taste overtly like jar salsa. The chips were slightly stale, but I may have only noticed because I was in a pickle funk. The guac wasn't bad, I'm not the biggest guacamole fan so I'm not really a great judge, it was more for my wife who adores the stuff.I wish we'd had more time to really try more stuff on the menu (we had to go watch the mars rover landing). Its pretty extensive and a bunch of the stuff on it looked pretty appetizing. Especially the extensive chili menu, burgers, and mexican offerings. We decided to close on a desert, and we ordered the s'mores. I figured they would come pre-made but much to my surprise and delight what they brought was a plate of graham crackers, chocolate, marshmallows, and a a bowl of flaming gel. With the skewers, you can roast your own marshmallows and make them yourself. It was one of the more pleasant desert eating experiences I've had in quite a while. I'd say it may even have made up for the sadness that was their pickles. Ultimately, I'd go back to this place.http://barneysbeanery.com/index.php
Oh you make me LAUGH! Make your own s'mores sounds like a blast. I am NOT going to Santa Monica for fried pickles though! Mmmmmm... beer ~Amy
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