A Tale of Two Breweries

The Luxembourg Chastains recently returned home after spending a couple of weeks in the U.S. Whether you call it a furlough or a pilgrimage, it was our annual trip home. Since Cammy grew up in Escondido (just northeast of San Diego) and her family still lives there, that was where we set up camp. There were quite a few highlights--the beach, the zoo, the mall, watching baseball on television.

The biggest highlight, however, was reconnecting with loved ones. Seeing Cammy’s family (who lives there), and my family (who traveled from Denver and Los Angeles to meet us), was the greatest reward. Seeing friends from Santa Barbara and Seattle was also really wonderful. Third on the list of highlights was eating American food again.

When an American lives his whole life in America, he may take for granted all the food choices that abound in the Land of the Free. Something as simple as a juicy mushroom and swiss burger accompanied by a couple pints of handcrafted ale is exotic, heavenly and entirely absent from our present European lifestyle. Nonetheless, that simple lunch is the one that stood out among the many I had. Here’s how it went down.

One morning, the guys in the family (Chuck, Jim and Marc) were trying to pick a place for lunch. It was just us guys, and we had only two priorities: great beer (preferably brewed onsite) and good food to go with it. It wasn’t a difficult task--Escondido and neighboring San Marcos have a handful of good watering holes. Perhaps the most famous is the Stone Brewery of “Arrogant Bastard Ale” fame. I’ve been there several times, most memorably in the days soon after it opened. Back then, they had so many interesting kegs that you could get vertical years of certain beers, such as their Imperial Russian Stout. The selection is now more limited, about a dozen beers in total, though each is exceptionally tasty. 

We were about to go to Stone, until I had a flashback to the last time we had gone there, back in 2006....

I stared at the rest of my Grilled Buffalo Burger, the only burger on the menu. Here is how the menu described it: “a tamarind-glazed buffalo patty with pickled red onions, roasted garlic mayo and butter lettuce served on a Caramelized Onion Roll...with a choice of garlic mashed potatoes or Chile-Lime Chips. Sriracha [Asian hot sauce] pickled cucumbers on the side as well.”  After choking down three bites, here is how I described it: dry as hell and badly in need of a good soaking in the roasted garlic mayo and some ketchup. And as for sides, I love garlic mashed potatoes, but I was longing for some thickly-cut steak fries or onion rings, some garlicky cole slaw or something like that. Something that actually tastes good with beer. Something you would find at any Red Robin. 

As I flashed forward to the present, I pleaded with the others to find somewhere else. My argument was that beer and food should complement each other, which is why burgers and beer, ribs and beer, pizza and beer, work so well. Stone has great beer, but their menu is a baffling tragedy. Their menu choices are a puzzling mishmash of vegetarian, Asian, Mexican and British. Tasty Tofu Stir-Fry? Wild Mushrooms Over Penne Pasta? Spicy Almond Crusted Tilapia? Tempeh Shepherd’s Pie?! I love fish, and I grew up on tofu and the fermented soybean cakes called tempeh, but that doesn’t mean they belong in an American brewpub. 

I could list another dozen nonsensical dishes. What is even more baffling is that the menu hasn’t changed in years! Stone could use about three more beef burgers (with enough fat content to make them juicy), a classic reuben sandwich, grilled bratwurst in a soft roll, a hearty fish and chips dish, and maybe even a few wood-fired pizzas. 

I actually didn’t have to argue at all; I was preaching to the choir. The guys agreed and came up with a brilliant alternative, the San Marcos Brewery and Grill. You could call it Stone’s less pretentious little brother. They also brew their own beers, seven of them, one which was memorably called Pompous Ass Ale. (Which is worse, being arrogant or pompous?) The beer was delicious, but what sold me on the place was the beautifully prepared pub food that was obviously meant to accompany a pint of beer. 

For starters, we ordered fried calamari and a round of beers. The calamari was so tender and flavorful that I was sorely tempted to order another plate, but I knew a large mushroom and swiss burger was on its way. When it arrived, I concluded that if burgers had aspirations, they would all aspire to be like this. It was big, containing a half pound of fatty ground beef grilled until the inside was barely pink and the outside was dripping meat juices, with sauteed mushroom and melting swiss cheese and reposing inside a soft kaiser roll. There were five other tempting burgers I could have chosen, none of them from an anorexic buffalo. 

Everything that San Marcos offered was beer-friendly. The club sandwich, the reuben, a steak sandwich, a steak! They had a sausage sandwich that had bratwurst, knockwurst and linquisa all inside the same bun! There was a selection of pasta dishes. If you wanted to go light, there were half a dozen salads and a couple of soups. I was in brewpub heaven. 

Is there a moral--or even better, a point-- to this story? Why yes, there is. The point is to look at the whole picture when choosing a restaurant. It is too easy to choose a steakhouse because it reputedly has the best chunk of meat in town, without taking into account the side dishes, the wine list, the ambiance.

Sure, you could argue that Stone’s fame and craftsmanship make it the stronger candidate compared to the lesser-known San Marcos Brewery. But I just couldn’t face another eclectic, weird menu item at Stone, while San Marcos had excellent beers and a menu that I wanted to revisit. You could call it the lunch worth 6,000 air miles.