October 22, 2009
Mucho better than the cramped and cranky folks in trendy North Santa Monica. Nice outdoor patio. Food menu is limited for me. Nothing strikes me except the burger. Beer selection is good but not outstanding. Other places have passed it by.

September 14, 2009
Arrive ready to fight for a table and then to hold it as absolutely long as possible so you can sample the excellent tap selection of regional California beers and standout Belgians. Food is outstanding -- this is a restaurant first in my book and not a beer bar per se. The quality of the offerings across the board makes FO2 well worthwhile. As for the crowd, I guess I just don’t totally get Californians, bro.

July 29, 2009
Went here for a friends birthday surprise. Showed up on a Saturday at around 4:30. Everything is opened seating (first come first serve). The outside area was fully packed but inside I had no problem. The bartender was really cool, she was into sours and I found out she attended the Stone Sour Fest as well. I enjoyed Alesmith Speedway Stout, Russian River Perdition, St. Bernardus Abt 12, Stone 13th Anniversary. Good beer selection. For food I just got the sweet potato fries which were amazing. I heard that they have the best burger but I had a burger a few hours before showing up so can’t say yet. The food seemed a little to fancy and over the top though in general. Really cool atmosphere though. I would definitely go back.

July 8, 2009
Packed! The only thing that really sucks about this place is you have to battle to get a seat. No waiting list means if you turn up late, you’re standing around forever trying to battle everyone else to get seats. Beer selection is great. Parking not too bad if you’re willing to walk a block or so. The burger was pretty good, but not as good as 8oz. Bartenders were on top of things and very knowledgeable about the beers. Highly recommend it if you like crowds.

April 19, 2009
Crazy busy, and their seat yourself process means you can spend quite a bit of time waiting for a place to sit, or just end up standing. The burger was possibly the best I’ve had in LA, and the beer selection was a welcome change from what you find around here. But all of these wonderful things come at a price - the burger and fries was over $14, and the Pliny the Elder I had was $8. Ouch. But in spite of the price, and the crowds, this still ranks as one of my favorite LA establishments.

January 24, 2009
Ive been to some great beer bars, and maybe I am biased because I am from th east coast, but this place is unbelievable. Most of its beers are on tap -- just a few of the offerings when I was there: La Folie (tap), Green Flash IPA (tap), RR Depuration (tap), RR pliny the elder (tap), Alaskan smoked porter (tap), and many other greats (tap and bottle). I had a burger that kicked ass. The sweet potato fries were awesome too. The wait was a bit long, and the crowd a bit trendy and indie and douchy, BUTt so worth it anyways. VISIT THIS PLACE!!!

July 11, 2008 [ Updated July 22, 2008 ]
Wow, I didn’t think this place could be more crowded than the Santa Monica location, but I was wrong. A more upscale theme to this larger location, but still a line waiting outside. The burger as always was amazing. I thought the tap lineup might have been different from the Santa Monica location, but it wasn’t (which is fine cause me and the older Pliny get along quite well). Overall a good place, but I might be sticking to the Santa Monica one if it is always that crowded.

July 10, 2008
my wife and i decided to make a trip there last sunday based on yet another recommendation from a co-worker. it’s part of the old helm’s bakery site and parking availability is at a premium. kind of bizarre that the father’s office outside seating area is right up along side a parking thoroughfare. so if you don’t mind the auto fumes... we sat inside based on that. no waiter or waitress will appraoch so you have to order (food and drink) from the bar. just a decent tap selection so i agree with oakes. started out with a pliney the elder and finished with old rasputin. a crappy pour on the old rasputin. temps, freshness and glassware were good, though. the fact that NO substitutions, alterations or changes to menu items can be made is preposterous. since i have this weird thing about cheese on my burger, i didn’t order the office burger (yeah, i know). so i ordered the seared albacore which was good but a measly serving and typically west l.a., over-priced. would i go there again? yes but i wouldn’t go out of my way to get there.

July 3, 2008 [ Updated August 14, 2008 ]
Oakes is right about the beer not only pretty common (again, no rotation) but noticeably less distinguished than in Santa Monica. Not to say I don’t go there all the time, not to say that I am not glad they built it... just sayin’.

May 16, 2008
Spit-polished yupped-up place to be sure (yeah, not my thing). Not to say we didn’t have fun there - mostly tasting all the different food. Their menu concept fits in with the sorts of things I like. The beer list was underwhelming, 60 taps and only two I’ve never had. They could have thrown a few more obscure ones in there. For a first night, when they were unexpectedly slammed, they didn’t seem to have any major issues, at least not with our party.