While our travels around the Bay Area have obviously been dialed down the past few years, my wife and I and our good friends have been finding some really great brewery + outside-food options lately. A lot of breweries out here don’t serve food but do allow you to bring in orders from outside restaurants—and both the beer and food options can be phenomenal. Our low-key habit is to pick up Vietnamese food on the way to Moonlight Brewing, pairing hoppy lagers and English-style ales with spicy chicken wings and bahn mi. But when we’ve got time: we head to Temescal Brewing in Oakland, ultimately a beer (and food) paradise.
Temescal happens to be tucked into one of the tastiest spots of the Bay Area we’ve found (and they welcome outside food). Most recently, we’ve taken to ordering online at Burma Superstar, swinging by Temescal to grab a table and an initial round of beers, then two of us do the half-mile food-pickup loop while others chill. The walk there isn’t amazing but smells beautiful: Korean- and American-style BBQs, Thai soul food, ramen shops, fried chicken to-go, tofu houses out the wazoo… All of which pair quite easily with Temescal’s lineup, which (in addition to incredible IPAs and heftier options) features some really stellar sub-5% beers. Sipping crisp lagers and English-style pale ales with tea leaf salad and pork belly with pickled mustard greens… well, it’s our favorite brewery and outside-food combo we’ve found so far.
Have a favorite combo of your own? Do breweries near you even allow on-site food to be brought in? Have a brewery + favorite food truck? Want to just rave about Burmese food? Let us know how your local scene’s looking via @RareBeerClub on Twitter.
