November 2, 2009
I had a lot of hope for this brand new sparkling and shiny Ale house that is viewable from I-5 as you head north out of Burlington. Unfortunately there were a few issues that even now I can’t seem to overlook. We arrived in the middle of lunch-hour on a weekend only to find the place nearly empty, not a soul in sight...not even employees. The facility is brand new and looked very promising, however during the middle of lunch-hour on a weekend the place should be busy...it wasn’t. We eventually found our way to the bar area (which was strangely separated in the back of the restaurant) and found a very friendly server who seemed almost overjoyed to see us. Sitting in the bar area were three gentlemen who as it turned out were the owners of this particular establishment. The way that the place is setup it appears that they have capability and the appearance that they brew on premise, however they do not. Half of the beers on tap were local and the other half were BMC macros. I noticed what could be a randall on the side of the room and when I asked one of the owners he looked at me confused and said it was just a large portable pitcher....I mentioned to him that they could possibly use it as a hop infuser and he just gave me a quizzical and confused look...my heart sunk a bit more. The food was a bit sloppy in their attempts to make it look more gourmet and "Stacked". The beef ribs (which they supposedly specialized in) were tough, stringy, and unfortunately dry, the soup tasted strongly of powdered stock mix, the salad was quite tasty albeit a bit overdressed with creamy dressing. Stone IPA on tap was a pleasant surprise however for the location everything was a bit overpriced. I’d like to try this place again in a few months to see if they’ve ironed out some of their wrinkles.