#286: University of Beer

12PM, 1/8/2023

https://www.theuob.com/

Hope no one blew away with the wind last night, it was wild! I was able to visit University of Beer before the storm hit for lunch while the weather was quite nice. University of Beer is located on Eureka at Lead Hill in the old Chili’s/Broderick location. We’ve had one of these nearby for a while over by the Blue Oak theaters. I recall when I first saw it I figured it was a huge chain that was just now making its way into our area. To my surprise it turned out to be a relatively small local chain. They have just six locations, the furthest out being Davis and Vacaville.

I’ve been to the Rocklin location a couple times when they were new there, and once to the Sacramento location for trivia. This was my first visit to Roseville’s UoB. One of the reasons I thought this was a chain was the sheer amount of money and effort that clearly goes into building one of these restaurants. Tons of decoration greet you before you have even stepped inside, intricate sculptures formed into beer cans and benches line the pathway to the front door. Inside the decoration fills most flat wall spaces. Hundreds of tap handles are mounted to the walls and ceilings along with sliced up kegs of various sizes. Light fixtures around the bar are made from sliced open beer and liquor bottles. Of all of this, the decoration that I appreciated the most was the little signpost showing all our local breweries. It’s a nice little reminder that this wasn’t a huge corporation that sent over a large container of their standard fixtures to be installed in store #978.

Anyway, I arrived right at noon, and grabbed a seat at the bar and started looking through the 40 or so beers they had on tap. They’ve got a nice mix of styles – IPAs, Stouts, Sours, Lagers, Pilsners, Wheats, Ales, Ciders and Belgians – something for everyone. I started off with the biggest IPA I could find: Juice Sr. from Great Notion, a hazy triple IPA that lives up to its name. This one ranks up there with some of my all time favorite IPAs, bursting with sweet tropical and citrus flavors that hide the sneaky 10.5% ABV. [$10 Goblet, I assume this is about 8oz]. I’m noticing now that they show two prices for all beers. The smaller price might be for flights. I initially thought it was a discounted price for members of their “Mug Club”, but the club page doesn’t say anything about a discount on individual orders, only upgrade specials on pints and some other unrelated benefits. Some clarification on the menu about what these two prices mean would be useful.

Moving on to the food, I hadn’t eaten in about 24 hours and I was ready to get stuffed. Before heading over I had picked out a monster burger and some jazzed up fries to go with it. This was the Beer-Battered Burger (beef patty deep-fried in craft beer-batter, Swiss cheese, citrus jalapeño aioli, topped with waffle fries and spicy ranch)[$20]. I’ve tried a lot of deep-fried things over the years but I think this might be the first burger. I upgraded the standard waffle fries to their Drunken Pig Fries for $5 (crispy waffle fries, beer-braised pulled pork, spicy jalapeño salsa, spicy ranch, melted cheese, sour cream, bacon, and cilantro).

My order took about 14 minutes to prepare and I ordered my second beer just before it arrived. This time I went with Curieux from Allagash, a bourbon barrel-aged Belgian Tripel ($10 Goblet). This was a much lighter beer than the IPA, a bit of a honey sweetness with a dry finish. In hindsight I think I should have ordered these the other way around to have Juice Sr. with the burger.

The upgraded fries were a great choice. The waffle fries were super crisp and stayed that way til the end even with all the toppings. The spicy ranch, bacon and pulled pork all stood out the most in this. The pork was super tender and flavorful. I see they offer this pork in taco and slider options as well.

Getting to the burger, this thing was hefty. The battered patty was golden brown and lent a ton of crispy, crunchy texture to every bite. It sat atop a nice big green leaf of lettuce and hid a couple slices of ripe tomato underneath. Swiss cheese was melted to the top of the patty and held a couple more waffle fries in place nicely. The fries, in turn, held onto the spicy ranch with their many nooks and crannies. This is a wild swing of a burger creation and I think it mostly succeeds. Perhaps the only change I would make is to swap out those fries with some fresh onions and avocado, but that’s partially because I already had waffle fries as a side. It was certainly filling and I cleaned the entire plate up and left very satisfied, again not eating anything for the rest of the day ;).

UoB is such a strange place because it’s so hard not to think of it as a gigantic chain with its meticulous branding and high level of polish. The service was on point throughout my visit. When a patron behind me spilled a drink, two employees sprang into action right away. And when two customers at the bar headed out, there were three staff members descending on the spot to clean up almost before they were out the door. I hope they do well here. I remember being absolutely shocked that Broderick didn’t make it in this location. It’s certainly not a high foot traffic area since it’s the only thing that’s not an office on this block. Maybe that nice big blue sign out front will help entice those driving by to check it out!

AM28: Melting Grill

1PM, 12/3/2022
https://www.meltinggrillrocklin.com/

I think I saw this place on Yelp or somewhere in passing recently and couldn’t stop thinking about it. This Saturday I got it out of my system with a visit for lunch. Melting Grill is a Korean restaurant located right near the Blue Oaks Century theaters, just across the parking lot. Despite the tasty dishes I had seen photos of, making this place look like a full on table-service type place, it’s more like a fast-casual cafe. They offer a bunch of small-medium plates with a modern take on many traditional dishes. They also offer a large bubble tea menu.

When I arrived and stepped inside there were just a couple customers sitting, waiting for their tea orders. The friendly woman running the front welcomed me in before I had even spotted her behind the counter. The space is medium sized but feels spacious and open. Two long and bright LED strips running the length of the dining room provided a ton of light, so much so that I was distracted by them at first and wasn’t sure where to sit for the best lighting. Once I had settled in I quickly forgot about them though. First things first, up to the counter to order.

I had looked over the menu a bit before heading over and had a pretty good idea of what I wanted. I went over the entire menu once more to make sure my selections were there and see if there was anything I had missed. Honestly just about the entire menu looked like stuff I’d order, but I stuck with my earlier choices. These were:

• Pork Belly Musubi (Slow cooked pork belly topped with Korean spicy BBQ sauce) [$5]
  • Hard for me to pass up something with pork belly. You can order one or two pieces ($5/9.50)
• Corn Cheese (Korean style of corn cheese; sweet and savory flavor with sweet corn and mozzarella cheese, sprinkled with green onion and sesame seed) [$6.50]
• Spicy Creamy Salmon (Salmon with spicy creamy sauce, shredded imitation crab, wonton skin chips, lemon wedge and rice) [$18]

My two appetizers arrived together in just under 10 minutes. The pork belly musubi was a pretty big chunk of rice with the belly perched on top. I must not have read the full description because I was a little surprised by the spicy BBQ flavor of the sauce. It was not a flavor I was expecting at all. At the time I had a tough time putting my finger on the exact flavor. On the menu I see a random entree, hanging out in the “Items” section (which seems like more of a sides or catchall for random misc things), called Cajun Seafood. That’s exactly what I was tasting, it was sort of a Cajun spice. It wasn’t all that spicy, but it was tasty. I had hoped for a bit more tender chunk of pork. This needed a bit of work to get a bit out, good thing I had both a fork and chopsticks to work with, because I would have struggled with chopsticks alone.

The corn cheese dish was served in a black square dish with a handle that made me think cast iron skillet, especially because she tested the bottom before setting it down on the table to make sure it wasn’t too hot. Indeed it was quite toasty and the cheese was nicely melted into the loads of corn. This was a delicious appetizer and so simple. A very nice blend of sweet and savory.

On to the main dish, which came out about six minutes after the appetizers, perfect timing. This was incredible. The imitation crab was hard to spot, covered in the orange sauce and blending in with the rice underneath it, but I could smell it as soon as I brought a scoop up to my mouth. The portions were good, although it’s hard to tell in the photo. The salmon was a good 3×4” fillet, perfectly tender. Underneath it was a heaping serving of rice. I was glad to have all of it to soak up all the delicious and creamy sauce. I didn’t really get any spiciness from this at all. The cream sauce tamped down whatever was there. Although I enjoyed the crispy wonton strips, they felt a little out of place in this dish, at least with the fork I had continued using from earlier. Probably easier to grab these with chopsticks but I just used my fingers. I inhaled this dish and picked at some of the remaining corn before the “full” signal made it’s way to my brain.

I very much enjoyed this visit and it mostly lived up to my high-ish expectations, based solely on photos of all the dishes on yelp. I could see myself coming back here for sure, there’s still much to explore on the menu.

#285: Moksa Barrel House

4:15PM, 11/7/2022
https://moksabarrelhouse.com/

Poor planing strikes again! I first headed to Art’s Craft Beer Palace on Monday only to discover they were out of business (there wasn’t even any sign on the building anymore). I was already trying to beat the rain to be able to grab a drone picture but by this time it was too late, the rain had come. Thankfully I already had a drone shot of my backup location, taken during the soft opening a while back. I trekked up Foothills to the Blue Oaks intersection where the Moksa Barrel House is located (just across the street from McDonalds and behind the gas station).

Moksa Barrel House is a collaboration between Moksa Brewing (Rocklin) and Hawks Restaurant (Granite Bay). Although Hawks is considered a fairly upscale restaurant (I’ve not been, personally) they are bringing that higher-end kitchen experience here to serve up something more along the lines of your typical bar food – burgers, chicken sandwiches and ice cream. In addition they offer breakfast in the form of pastries and a breakfast croissant (served for the first hour of the day 10-11, which seems like a really short window to me). As far as beverages go obviously you have Moksa’s excellent beers to choose from but they also have wine available and many coffee choices, with beans provided by Mostra Coffee in San Diego.

The naming of this place is slightly confusing for me, though it’s not at bad as some places (I’m looking at you Kelli’s Cookies) The sign out front simply says “Barrel House” with “Moksa & Hawks” in smaller print below. If you go the website or any of their social media though, it’s called the “Moksa Barrel House” with little mention of Hawks. I propose they meet in the middle and call it the Hawksa Barrel House. Thanks, I’m here all week!

Anyway, when I first pulled up to the Barrel House, right around 4:15PM, I doubted they were actually open. There were just two cars in the parking lot and the windows have been tinted strongly enough that you can’t really see inside from the front. The tinting is a very welcome change from the soft open, where the sun was blazing in and very annoying. In fact they were open, as they are 7 days a week. When I popped inside it seemed like I might have been the only customer, or maybe the 2nd. The only table seated was partly or wholly comprised of Barrel House staff.

The space is big and very open, with high ceilings and big windows on two of the four walls. There’s a nice mix of low and high-top tables to choose from. The place can get pretty loud when it’s busy, as I experienced on my first visit. Some noise-dampening panels in the ceiling could help and would totally blend in to the unfinished look. Outside has a decent-sized patio for when the weather is nice. One wall is lined with barrels, each holding beer to be released in the future, labeled with some info about the barrel, when it was filled and with what kind of beer.

The menu has expanded quite a bit since my first couple visits for the soft and official openings back in August/September. One item I enjoyed quite a bit was the stout milkshake, which is vanilla and/or chocolate ice cream blended with one of Moksa’s delicious pastry stouts. At that time the stout was Pastry Mode (stout with vanilla beans, coconut and hazelnut coffee). At $14 for about a pint it’s a very pricey milkshake, but man it was good. I did not intend to get one tonight but I noticed that the stout featured for the shake had been changed to a recent release, Indulgence (German chocolate cake inspired stout with Mexican vanilla beans, coconut and cacao nibs), so of course I had to try it again. This time I went with all chocolate ice cream. What a chocolate bomb! I recall the Pastry Mode shake having a more obvious alcohol flavor to it. Both beers have the same ABV but in this one it was totally masked by the chocolate. I wonder if vanilla might have been a better choice here to let the chocolate from the beer stand alone. Either way, I enjoyed every last sip of this.

Although I had a bacon cheeseburger previously, and have been wanting to try their chicken sandwiches, I was drawn to the newest burger in the lineup, the Double Juicy (two quarter-pound patties, American cheese, caramelized onions and garlic aioli on a toasted potato bun)[$14]. This thing was messy. Right away I realized I had to put a little more effort than usual in how I was holding it because both patties, slick with melted cheese, slippery onions and a nice dollop of aiolli, wanted to slide right out of the bun. I lost a small amount of onions back into the tray it was served in with the first bite. I would say this was about the size of an In’n’Out double double. The beef patties were cooked nicely, with just a hint of pink left inside. Flavor-wise it’s very rich. Each of the 4 primary ingredients were able to shine through well. As good as this burger is, I might add some bacon or lettuce, something with a little crunch or texture really. That’s the only thing about this that I would change because it’s a very soft, uniform consistency from start to finish.

To finish off my order I wanted to grab a side. I hemmed and hawed looking through the options (fries, onion rings, chicken tenders, loaded chicken fries or fried Brussels sprouts) and ended up settling on the sprouts (topped with barrel-aged balsamic, Parmesan & basil)[$12]. Being the fried type, these were on the drier side and had a load of crispy, flaky leaves that had come off their sprout, which were a nice little treat to have in-between bites of the burger. These were good, but I think I’m burning out on Brussels sprouts in general. Be it fried, roasted or grilled, they are always sort of topped off with the same stuff no matter where you get them. The main difference seems to be how much olive oil there is on them once they hit the plate.

Food/beer/service-wise I think they are doing great here. Granted, I’ve been a long time Moksa customer and someone usually recognizes me so I’ve never really had a bad customer service experience with them. The food was prepped very quickly both times I have ordered it, the beer is obviously solid. The one thing I keep coming back to when I think of my few experiences here is that my wallet cries a bit when I get a full meal. Today’s total was $40 before tax/tip. That’s kinda rough for a burger, side and shake, in my opinion. Going forward I suspect I will continue going to the brewery location and only really visit the Barrel House for exclusive beer releases. I’ll probably come check out the shake now and then to see how it changes with the featured stout. At the very least, it’s nice to have another location to be able to order Moksa’s beers, especially on this side of town. One of these days I’ll have to check out Hawks proper for dinner.