Los Angeles (Anaheim) in February. What should I do?

I’ll be flying into the OC airport on Saturday morning and I have a couple days by myself to do whatever until the work conference starts on Tuesday in Anaheim.

I’m expecting to have to rent a car to get around. Would love to check out some breweries and am planning to buy a bunch of beer to bring home, so a good beer store or two is a must.

I’m not necessarily only interested in beer, so if anyone has any other recommendations, food especially, also some so chill things to relax after leaving the brutal MN winter, that would be neate.

I’ll be there the 8th through the 14th.

Just a few short hours from Russian River and Pliny The Younger....

I know that’s what I would be thinking.

I’d offer to meet you somewhere but I’ll be up north for SF Beer Week. Anyway, there are TONS of breweries in that area now if you want some ticks. Ask womencantsail if he’ll drive you around to all the breweries; I’d bet he would do it.

Good Beer:
Beachwood (slightly further away)
Bootleggers
Bruery
Noble
Taps
Tustin

Ticks
Anaheim
BJs
Huntington
JT Schmid’s
Karl Strauss
Lamppost
Newport
Oggis
Old Orange
Phantom
Timeless Pints
Valiant

Unknown, might be open by then:
Bottle Logic
Hoparazzi

If you want to drive further for ticks there are another dozen breweries around the south bay and another half dozen in LA proper. 7 in Riverside, 6 in the 626 area code, a few around Pomona, a ton of them in Temecula, another half dozen in south OC... Basically the above list is about a 30 minute radius but if you drive another 30 minutes in any direction you can find a ton more breweries.

Originally posted by Clownoisseur
Just a few short hours from Russian River and Pliny The Younger....

I know that’s what I would be thinking.

Yeah, I’ve been to RR and the bay area a few times and had PtY so I’ve satisfied my curiosity there. I just want to stick around the LA area for the most part, unless there was something really special I couldn’t pass up.

Originally posted by t0rin0

Originally posted by Clownoisseur
Just a few short hours from Russian River and Pliny The Younger....

I know that’s what I would be thinking.

If by "a few short hours" you mean 7 hours (one way), then sure. Besides, he’ll be able to find Younger around LA/OC if he looks for it, though it might require standing in line which I refuse to do for that beer, but people have done stranger things for a tick.

If you have time to kill and want to mix food, beer, and bottle shopping in one day drive up 101 to Wades Wines (shop) / Malibu Sundowner (drink) / Ladyface (eat and drink) and head back through LA (eat and drink).

Depending on what time you arrive, Noble Ale Works anniversary is Feb. 8th (from 1-4 for regular session ($40), 12-4 for VIP ($50), and it’s unlimited pours). I may be going to this...haven’t quite decided yet.

My favorite breweries in the area at the moment are Beachwood (LB), Bruery, and Noble. But honorable mentions to Bootleggers, Taps, and Tustin.

As t0rin0 said, there are a lot of other breweries around, but I’m guessing you don’t really care about just trying everything. Some of them are quite bad (Huntington Beach, Old Orange, Phantom, Valiant) while others are just not places that are all that good, particularly if you’re limited on time.

There are good bars and bottle shops as well. Both Beachwood locations have good beer lists. Tustin has solid guest taps. Haven Gastropub (Orange) has a good beer list, but they’re kind of expensive. There’s also their retail store (formerly owned by the Bruery) up the street called Provisions Market which has taps and a good selection of bottles (also a bit on the expensive side).

If you go to Tustin, you can go to Total Wine (and a little bit further away is a Whole Foods).

Near Taps is another Total Wine and a smaller, but arguably better store called Hacienda Beverage.

Bootleggers is in Downtown Fullerton, and there are a number of bars and restaurants there. Of those, Hopscotch probably has the best/most interesting beer list. For food, I probably would prefer Hero’s, but it’s kind of your typical bar food, but you do get enough of it for more than one person.

If you do go to Beachwood BBQ & Brewing (Long Beach), which I highly recommend, there are a number of other places in that area as well. If you take 22W to 405N, you can stop at Stearns Liquor, too. And you could go see the Queen Mary when you’re in Long Beach.

Originally posted by Clownoisseur
Just a few short hours from Russian River and Pliny The Younger....

I know that’s what I would be thinking.

Time is relative, B-R-O-S.