Huntington Beach Beer Company — Restaurant in Huntington Beach

A small gastropub that's easy to miss that boasts a killer balcony, good brews and tasty food. This was what my review would have said 7 years ago when I first came to this place. The food was never out of this world, but it was good. They used to have several beers they brew themselves on tap and the atmosphere was electric being that close to the beach. That place has died. Now with only about 5 in-house beers on tap and no IPA, one of the most popular beers in the craft beer world right now, you can tell immediately the passion for beer has come and gone. I was directed to a large TV on the wall to figure out what in-house brew I wanted and was dissapointed to find they only had like 5. Years before, I remember having to choose from around 15-20 choices. After I chose my brew, we had to ask that our table, which seemed to be permanently sticky, be wiped down once more. The menu has seemed to get bigger, but not better. We started with some spinach dip that had an off flavor and was served with chips that were flavorless and hard. My daughter had their pizza, which ended up being the highlight of our meal, my son had their grilled cheese kids meal, which was served on a huge piece of sourdough bread, something that one-year-olds don't care for. My wife ordered the pub style fish and chips which actually wasn't bad, but the breading wasn't cooked all the way and tasted eerily familiar to corndog breading. Although, the fries that accompanied it were very good. I ordered the shrimp pasta with vodka sauce. My pasta sauce had a strange seafood flavor that didn't come from the shrimp, which was juicy and delicious but underseasoned, and as a whole the dish was dissapointing and tasted anything but fresh. Strange flavors and bad smells had us questioning the freshness of most of the food. Overall nobody finished anything and we left unsatisfied. My wife and I both had stomach aches later that evening and into the next day, so the food safety practices concerned us even though I won't try to draw any correlating lines. All in all, this place has really slid. Food was bad, drinks were dssappointing and seemed to take a backseat which is weird considering it's a brew house. Atmosphere was ok and staff was nice and helpful. This place is in serious need of a makeover and not cosmetically. It has the potential to be a charming brew spot with good food and views, but the lack of execution on anything we saw will only lead us to believe that this place will close down eventually. This place helped me fall in love with California and eventually move my family across the country to live here. Each time I've came back here, we visit once every couple of years, it gets a little worse, but this time it really took a big step. I'm begging you, as a fan of this place, hire a chef that knows what he is doing and get him in the kitchen and start over from scratch. Reinvest in the beer and let it do the talking. This place has the potential to be a really great place to eat, drink or catch a game. I hope the owner smartens up and stops expecting customers to pay for mediocre food and drink. It would be a shame to watch them close this place, but as of now with the product they are putting out, it's only a...

(This is all on utube video what Im about to say and can be confirmed). Do you know who Ice Poseidon is? Hes a IRL (in real life) live streamer on utube.

This restaurant got a hooker/prostitute to promote this bar by bringing Paul Denino aka Ice Poseidon into the bar and do live streaming in the bar to promote the business to real live viewers.

Well, it didnt go so well in actuality, except for many of Ice Poseidons fan base, perhaps.

#1 Theres a part where the hooker/promoter of the bar/restaurant and Ice poseidon played a game to see who could put more straws in their mouth. After the bartender handed over a full box of straws to them and the game was over more than 200+ straws that were in the hookers and Ices mouth got put right back in the box along with the new unused ones...HEALTH VIOLATION TO SAY THE LEAST OR WORST, depending on the angle you put it.

#2 The bar/restaurant owner Evan thought it be cute to play the IM A BARBIE GIRL LIKE PLASTIC IS FANTASTIC SONG over and over and over and over again...many times!!! All the while there was a guy totally caroused running around and dancing and singing to the song. This silly guy was with Ice Poseidon and so the the bar owner Evan encouraged it by replaying the song till not only was the heavily intoxicated young man tired out but the customers as well. There was a part where two ladies were being troubled by the drunk guy trying to get them to dance with him and reaching out to touch one of them all the while being videotaped. There was also some women complaining to a staff member about the looping song who had paid the music machine or whatever to play different music only to be told that that the owner himself Evan had encouraged the circus to go on by calling his staff from home and ordered the song to replay. Evan was so bold as to show himself on film while broadcasting himself live on utube via Sam Peppers channel Ices friend who were part of the party live streaming promoting the business at the time, in underwear twirling in circles smiling about the hoopla that was stirring at the bar with him thinking himself a funny character in the charade. I think a couple of the women that were complaining about the song replaying left because they couldnt take it anymore as they seemed seriously disturbed and had expected their music selection to be next on the list.

#3 Their was a cascading series of incidents that surmounted by the end of the live stream away from the business itself that shouldnt concern this business in general. However an integral factor that contributed to the series of events started because of heavy alcohol consumption that took place at the bar itself. Particularly a women who without a doubt, as one can see in the utube video, consumed too much to drink. Apparently, unfortunately, as it seemed to have occured, the women was allowed too much to drink too late. Consequently causing an uproar from the 2nd floor of this bar spilling down to the sidewalk of the...

Very unprofessional and unapologetic staff that ruined our night.

I was very disrespected by multiple members of their staff. At one point I even felt physically threatened when one of their crew members that was wearing a blue hat got in my face while I was trying to explain to his manager (not sure if he was actually the manager) how his crew members were acting.

It all started when my friend, who was one beer in for the night, was refused service for being too drunk. Although I didn't agree with their judgment call, that is not my issue - they have the right to refuse service if they think someone may be too drunk.

My issue with this place was that when I asked to speak to the manager on duty, everyone I asked said they were the manager. I refused to take that as a legitimate answer and asked a female bartender with red hair to get me the actual person that was in charge - she shooed me away with her hands and told me to leave.

When I finally found a person that at least 2 people said was in charge, another crew member wearing a blue hat got involved and was visibly angry. When I tried explaining what happened to his manager he cut me off before I was allowed to finish a sentence. He did this at least 3 times until I asked him to stop cutting me off and let me complete a sentence. He then said "okay, go" while he got uncomfortably close and sized me up like he was going to throw a punch.

The apparent manager heard my complaint and said "okay, is there anything else?" Then when we walked outside the guy in the blue hat followed us out and yelled out to another guy down the street and asked him to come by in case they needed any "help"with me, my wife, my sister and friend that was one beer in.

This night at least, the restaurant was run by a bunch of unprofessional college-aged amateurs that acted like they owned the place. We felt bullied, physically threatened and completely disrespected.

If you expect to be treated like a paying customer, go...