Beer Baron Bar & Kitchen — Restaurant in Santa Rosa

We went to BEER BARON after a museum opening, hoping for a small meal and some interesting drinks , knowing it would be noisy on a Saturday night, but wanting to support a new restaurant with our presence & our money. Big mistake. This is not really a restaurant, but a drinking establishment.

Don't want to drink all night? Oh well, sure, they have a FEW things you can eat. Very few. The food we ordered was pretty good, a mile better than other bar food. But the service stank. I've never said that in my life. Manager, order your restaurant now! Or close it until your staff knows what it's doing.

Back to the food. DO order the decadent duck-fat fries. They are deeply flavorful, & worth every calorie. The chef guilds the lily, & serves them with 3 dipping sauces: an unexpected smokey ketchup, an aioli sauce, and a drop dead curried aioli, which is a wow! There's not much actual food on the menu to order: a smoky guacamole, which inexplicably serves chips containing wheat. Huh? I'm gluten free & I expect to have trouble finding food I can eat. But wheat in tortilla chips? Come on folks!

There were a couple of salads I could eat, but salads & beer are not a great marriage. There were 3 taco plates available. I couldn't order much else on this wheat filled menu. They had a burger my mouth was hungry for. With a wheat roll. They have a tempting Reuben on the menu. No gluten free bread. A Mac & cheese with andouille sausage. A club sandwich. Fried chicken & waffles. Hoison chili wings & hoison chili lamb riblets...with wheat in the soy sauce. That's pretty much the menu.

We ordered the fries, two beers, a mac & cheese with andouille sausage for my husband, and one of the 3 taco choices for me. The fries came. Delish! A promising start. No beer. Eventually my tacos came. Hmm. Well, OK. We waited for my husband's Mac & cheese, but it didn't come. And no beer. My husband insisted I eat my tacos, because the were getting cold. We waited for the beer. We waved to Jocelyn our wait person, who assured us our beer was coming. It didn't. We asked for water to wash down those fries. We waited. I began to eat my tacos. No beer. No Mac & cheese. FINALLY the beer arrived. Really good beer. Lots of choices. I was eyeing the rye menu. They have some cool sounding cocktails & pages of booze....good booze: whiskies, bourbons, ryes. But no Mac & cheese for my poor patient husband. I shared one of my 3 appetizer size tacos with him & I ate the other two. No Mac & cheese. We ordered a beet salad and another duck-fat fries because we were hungry. We finished our beer. The salad arrived & it was generously sized, lovely to look at, and delicious... two colors of beers mixed in with strawberries and arugula and maybe goat feta. Yum! After we finished the salad we sat for 15 minutes with nothing more to drink & nothing more to eat. Finally, an hour + after he ordered it, my husband's Mac & cheese arrived. He loved the dish. But no one took more drink orders and the second order of fries never arrived. We packed the Mac & left, with a heavy heart.

The former Rendevous space was vacant & closed for years. Santa Rosa needs new restaurants to bring people downtown. There are at least 5 vacancies in Santa Rosa's 3 downtown blocks. But we need restaurants with good service. And bigger menus. This is not a place I can bring my lady friends for lunch. This is not a restaurant for a business lunch. Not a place families can bring children. Not a place for foodies. Or for health mavens. Or for people watching their weight. It's a good place to drink. ??? Is this sustainable? I'm not against drinking establishments. If the waitress had asked, I might have tried one of the ryes. It's just not a place most of us will go back and back and back to.... unless you want to sit & drink.

Don't bother hurrying in. They aren't ready for...

Lets start on the positives, its beautiful, has a great bar stocked with choice selections and great food. During our wait I had one of my favorite Japanese Whiskeys and that was a tough pick for me because they had so many great choices. When we sat down I ordered their heatstroke chicken sandwich which was delicious. They also had a nice beer selection.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of negatives to our experience too.

The wait and host staff. We waited patiently to be seated for a while even though there were tables available. We finally asked the hostess about it, pointing that there was availability and she stammered and showed us to a table.

The service. Just ok at best. There was an issue with a large glass door. It was cold outside and the waitstaff likes to keep it open after multiple requests from multiple different tables asking to keep it closed. I found myself closing it about 5 times. Our neighboring table did the same. I felt bad for him because his frustration reached was evident as he had his wife, elderly mother and children with him. His requests went unanswered and he got on a sever about it. The server was combative on the subject and started firing back at the guest. It was a bad look for her and the restaurant.

The wait for everything of our was considerable. It was clear that they weren't properly staffed. We were being waited on by what seemed like the assistant manager. She took forever too. It was really odd because she had what looled like hernvery young daughter working there hustling the waters. VERY odd.

Another odd thing is that when I was closing my bar tab I overheard one of the bartenders say he wasnt trained on their POS system. That was kinda funny.

The pricing. This isnt the biggest deal but you'd expect such a nice looking restaurant with price points to matcg to have their staff and service together.

In closing, it was a mediocre...

2ND UPDATE: We gave Beer Baron one last chance during Trivia Night, and though we spent $150 on food and whiskey, we left after the second round of questions because the bartenders are awful here. Same guys who still don’t know shit about whiskey, same guys who leave your glass empty for 10-15 minutes… or worse, take the empty without asking if you want another. The bar top was filthy. They’re not friendly or welcoming at all.

I don’t make this accusation lightly, but my spouse and I are both convinced that they watered down the bottle of RedBreast 12. The color was too light and it tasted watery. I have a bottle at home, and double-checked as soon as we got back, and we are pretty sure that is what’s happening.

Bottom line: we’re not coming back, which is a real shame.

UPDATE: In the service industry, it’s painfully obvious when it’s “just a job” for the people serving. The lack of passion is clearly evident. It’s so weird to have bartenders who don’t like whiskey tending to a whiskey bar. Off-putting experience on a Friday night recently: None of the three bartenders were the least bit passionate nor interested in whiskey. One admitted to being a tequila and vodka guy, and not liking whiskey. … what?

Watched the three of them wash every surface diligently while my glass sat empty.

Weird. ———————————————- A beautiful (if a touch small inside) whiskey and beer tavern with excellent food and a couple hundred whiskeys to choose from? What’s not to love?

The bar has around 15-20 seats at most, and there are about 10 tables inside. They do have a nice covered patio on the square so there is outdoor seating as well.

The smoked olive oil guacamole was to die for, and the fish tacos were very good. We’re going back tomorrow for...