Barrelhouse 101 — Restaurant in Ventura

Barrelhouse I wanted to love you. You have so many good beers on tap! According to beeradvocate. com around 30 of your beers are world class. You even have an extensive selection or wonderful Belgium beers. Why then the two star rating? Well it started with a few IPAs. I tried the Great Divide Hercules Double IPA which is supposed to be a world class beer. Hercules’ aromas seemed muted, its flavor flat and stale. I thought that is odd. I gave the beer a 6 out of 10 in my beer tasting notes. I then bought a fresh bottle at Whole Foods, with bottling date printed on the label, one month old. Absolutely delish, citrus, complex, earthy, wonderful (I gave this Hercules a 9 out of 10 in my beer tasting notes). I then tried another Barrelhouse IPA. The world class Stone Ruination. Same problem, flat and stale, not at all what I remembered it tasting like. IPAs should be drunk within 35 days of bottling / kegging. I believe many of Barrelhouses IPAs are over 5 months old. I then moved on and tried the rest of the 30 world class beers, usually three at a time in samplers. Two out of three beers I would write FRESH??? in my tasting notes. Belgium Dubbels, Tripels which are supposed to handle some aging, tasted stale (have they been sitting at Barrelhouse since they opened about two years ago?). How many Venturans are ordering the La Chouffe Houblon Chouffe Belgian Tripel? (which has almost no taste except for a little funk, which is not to style). I tried supposed fresh beers from the Well Report list (rotating stock). I got a stale Victory Dirtwolf IPA, a very bland tasting Bruery Saison de Lente, a flight of Lagunitas beers that tasted as stale and dead as buttery goo, a flight of Sierra Nevada beers that I could only drink a few sips of. These are breweries that I know well and it is a shame that Barrelhouse is tainting their good names. Some of these beers were labeled “Retired” on beeradvocate. com. Where did Barrelhouse get these stale abominations? I’m done tasting their flights and samplers. I did find a few good beers along the way. Most of the sours have held up well over time (they are meant for long term ageing). I got a delicious Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barley Wine. The good, interesting beers usually sell out within a week so the average customer is going to have a hard time getting a taste. The bland, stale beers linger around for months on the Well Report and get sold for $2.00 a pint on Tuesdays. With so many bad, stale beers what is going on? I find it hard to believe that the breweries are all to blame. BARRELHOUSE, HOW OFTEN DO YOU CLEAN YOUR TAP LINES? If you are not doing it at least every two weeks, I bet that is the problem. Right now you have tons of customers but I predict that people will tire of your stale offerings and funky tap lines much sooner than you think.

As for the food, Barrelhouses offerings are sub-par. It is your basic bar food that you can find anywhere, wings, fries and burgers. The waitresses are nice but pretty much clueless...

My first trip to Barrelhouse was on May 23, 2015. The visit was in honor of my birthday, and I'd picked it as a lunch spot while out in Ventura for the day. It blew my mind! The burger that day was incredible, the sweet potato fries were sent straight from the hand of Zeus, and there was honey mustard to dip them in (I know, that image lends itself well as a metaphor for Zeus' proclivities too, but moving on). And the service that day was among the best ever. Fast forward. Every single time since that day, I've been searching for that level of enjoyment during the 6 or so visits between then and now and have been let down every time. Have I built it up too much? Maybe. But the service has just never been that great since, and at times it's been downright awful. However the food has never wavered in its deliciousness and ultimately, we kept coming back hoping the service would rise to match the food again. Yesterday we drove from San Diego to Channel Islands for Father's Day and I realized we'd be in the vicinity again so we had better go. Service was decent. Our waitress did take the time to recommend a drink for me after I asked about some of their ciders. She admitted she'd never tried the one I asked about so went to find out from a colleague what would be good to recommend. And the recommendation was great--I got a raspberry frambois and it was delicious. However the bacon, brie, and apricot melt, which sounded amazing, was overly fried and too heavy on the cheese and bacon to the point that the apricot jam looked more like bits of dripping bacon grease than a balanced, tangy melt. All the right ingredients were there but the execution lacked finesse. And then, horror of all horrors, those inestimable amazing sweet potato fries no longer come with the honey mustard, which was beyond soul crushing. Are the fries themselves still awesome? Yes. Were they the pinnacle of human ingenuity when they came with honey mustard? You bet your buttons. The waitress looked at me with a mixture of horror and pity when I ordered and asked for extra honey mustard and strawberry jam (another side that presented itself with the fries on about the third trip, which was amazing) and said "We don't do that." That was the nail in the coffin. Now that I live so far away, given this last experience, I am unlikely to make it a point to go there every so often. It's just so disappointing! Now I have to wait for Zeus to reveal some sweet potato fries and accompanying honey mustard and strawberry jam here...

For a short trip to downtown Ventura, I always try to get a meal in at the 101 Barrelhouse. They always seem to have a beer for any mood you're in, from warm days coming up from the beach to overcast days with drizzle. And now they even have hard seltzer and ciders on tap.

The portions here are fairly generous, and IMO the prices are average for a brew pub restaurant, and the food is top notch in my book.

For example my wife and I recently ordered the $20 short rib poutine garlic truffle fries, and each a burger entree. I was expecting a handful of fries with gravy and touch of short rib.

What we got was a full plate of garlic truffle fries with gravy and a generous portion of short rib. We ate about half of the app. I'm 6+ feet tall and over 250lbs, and barely got through my Rodeo Burger (which was excellent), but my wife only got in two bites of her patty melt before she tapped out.

We took a fair amount of food home, which was really good the next day for snacks.

From the Buffalo Barrels, to the truffle fries, to the various burgers, to the Mac and cheese, I have not been disappointed. ... And don't get me started on the tap selection. It's pretty amazing to have such a varied and wide selection to...