Latest reviews from Pleasanton

“Interesting place in Pleasanton owned by a former BJCP judge, with the consequence that he strives for a great variety of styles and puts the formal style category on all beers. Kind of a fun twist. Good selection, mostly localish breweries. Half or full pours available, some food. Shopping center location away from downtown probably hurts business a bit, but worthy of a stop for sure.“

bytemesis 670 days ago

“Have visited here a handful of times, particularly since it's right next to the barber shop where I get my hair cut. This is second location of Porky's Pizza Palace in San Leandro, a local family owned and operated pizza joint. Definitely a bit more modern than the San Leandro location, but not surprising since the place is pretty much brand new. Located in a small shopping center right across the street from Hopyard. You order pizza at one counter right by the entrance and then there's the bar. Their pizza is not terribly good, but they do have really good friend chicken. Place is pretty huge and they have plenty of indoor seating as well as a big patio. Beer selection is really solid. Other than maybe Cellarmaker and Sante, they get pretty much all the breweries in the area that you'd hope like Russian River, Moonraker, Humble Sea, There Does Not Exist, Fieldwork, etc. Prices can be pretty high, but not out of line in the Bay Area. They do typically offer a full and half pour size, too. Also get some cans in that I believe you can drink there or take to go. Service can vary a bit in my experience, at least in terms of the bar staff, but they're generally pretty good on that front. I wouldn't make this a must go destination, but it's really solid, especially for us that live in the area.“

brokensail 696 days ago

“Pretty interesting. Recommend to visit. Pretty good Jambalaya, though super spicy. Maybe 15 taps, but only 4 were house beers today. They were very good. Old school pricing $1.50/ 3oz taster: super awesome. Close to Gilman brewing. Pleasanton has a beautiful downtown.“

wetherel 861 days ago

“New (for RateBeer) tasting room in Pleasanton. Freakin awesome. Visited post Omicron peak. Excellent selection of beers on tap, all very well made. 5oz tasters of awesome beer. Staff and clientele are interesting. Petting the retrievers beside me is a plus. Located in beautiful downtown Pleasanton. I would visit regularly if I lived in the area.“

wetherel 861 days ago

“Small but nice selection of local IPA. Everything is in 4 packs, which is not for me, so I can’t recommend. Better to visit caps and taps or total wine in this area.“

wetherel 861 days ago

“Typical total wine, which I love: large selection of singles, many local beers. Great prices. Next to lots of interesting restaurants and stores.“

wetherel 862 days ago

“Dropped by on a Pleasanton rating trip. Typical BevMo. Fairly good selection, but everything is in 6packs, so I don’t buy anything.“

wetherel 862 days ago

“Another Beer Baron location, this one in Downtown Pleasanton. Plenty of street parking as well as some public lots available in the area. The bar and restaurant are quite good and they make quality food and drinks. Really solid beer list that keeps a healthy rotation and balance to it. Also have some good bottles to go (special beers from Ale Apothecary, stuff from Hair of the Dog, and the usual cans and bottles from around the Bay Area). The one thing I do not like about this place (and the Livermore location) is that on the weekend nights, they try to make this into a night club with a DJ and loud ass music. It's just not really set up for that and not that many people that are there really even seem to be into it (me included).“

brokensail 1028 days ago

“Another Total Wine in the Tri-Valley. This one is in a large shopping center just off the freeway. Tons of parking here. Selection is pretty similar to other Total Wines and certainly to the San Ramon one, which is really the only other Total Wine I go to these days. Like the San Ramon location, I usually just go here for Boon Black Label or Orval. They do get some special/seasonal releases like Abyss, Fiftyfifty Eclipse versions, some Lost Abbey, Jolly Pumpkin...a bunch of shit. You can get some Russian River stuff here, too. Not bad and works for me if I'm buying stuff from the larger micro brewers in 6-pack or larger.“

brokensail 1028 days ago

“Great location in downtown Pleasanton just a short walk from Handles Gastropub. Parking can be a little scarce, but there’s usually a spot somewhere along the side streets.

This place is under the same ownership as the Beer Baron bar in Livermore and has a similar vibe, although it’s much larger here with a nice patio and more natural light. It has that upscale gastropub feel to it, but not in an overly pretentious way. It’s very comfortable, and I can see spending a good amount of time here. They also have a kitchen (obviously), which is a big plus. I haven’t tried anything on the menu yet, but it looks promising.

The beer list is very good. A nice mix of locals and interesting one-offs from around the country. They also usually have a couple nice Belgians on the list. They do some great cocktails as well and have a gigantic spirits selection including many many bourbons and scotches, so if you’re into that in addition to beer, you’ll probably love this place.

The service was excellent on my visit, although there was only one or two other people there at the time. The bartenders chatted about the local beer scene and happily poured me generous samples of whatever I asked before I made my choice. They don’t have the small taster glasses yet, but when they get them in, they will be offering flights. One tip, get there between 2pm-6pm for the happy hour and you get $2 off every draft beer.

Overall, this is a great new place and kind of unique for the area considering the quality of the draft list, menu and ambiance.“

joeneugs 2789 days ago

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---Rated via Beer Buddy for Android“

Spudduck 2882 days ago

“Directly across the street from Handles. Would be dumb not to at least tick the place, despite the ratings. Also a pretty nice building, pretty roomy inside, large angle bar. Doing a solid business at 2PM on a Friday; plenty of locals taking a load off. Head brewer manning the bar, super friendly and laid back, which is good. Taplist in chalk on the wall behind the bar. About 8 of their beers, perhaps 10 guest taps. I ordered the anniversary beer, which was, lets say, not great, but from reviews I think that is pretty much par for the course. Most if not all beers served in these kinda odd tall skinny mugs. I would say 20 oz pours or so, not really sure. I made small talk with the brewer and suffered through about a third of my beer before I pretended to be late for an appointment and got going. Its really too bad the beers aren’t better, ’cause the brewer is really nice and I would really LIKE to like this place. Oooh, Place Rake #750. Keeping pace on my 1000 before 10000 goal.“

bytemesis 2886 days ago

“Visited on a Friday around noon. I feel a little ashamed having lived only 15 minutes from this place for 12 years and never visited, but I guess I wasn’t missing much. It’s in a nice location in downtown Pleasanton which is why they’ve stayed in business so long I guess. Its a nice space with plenty of room for live music and partying. They also have a nice patio out front with booth seating, which is something I’ve never seen on a patio before but is pretty cool. The service was really nice at the bar. I think the server might have been the brewer, but I didn’t ask. He was friendly and knowledgable about the beers. I didn’t have the food, but the beers were all pretty bad. This is sort of a throw back to all the sub-par brewpubs of the 80’s and 90’s that are pretty much extinct now, but this one survives because of it’s location. Not recommended unless you’re a serious ticker.“

joeneugs 3473 days ago

“Visited November 8, 2014.

This is a couple miles from my brother’s place so we stopped in for dinner after the Bistro’s barrel aged fest. Its funny, I bitched and bitched about the "house beer" made here and how I’m 100% sure that it’s not really brewed at either Hopyard. I was told that no less than 3 admins looked at it. Now it’s listed under a random brewery way up in the Sierras. It’s progress, I suppose. After all that the beer is kind of lame. It’s a "hefe" but it’s got lemon flavor. No. At least the rest of the beer list is pretty good. Also, they do samples for 25 cents. Kind of ridiculous really, since it’s probably 2 oz of beer for a quarter. Can’t beat that. And if you found a waiter that was willing to play ball you could probably just order 6 or 7 of those and get a pint for less than $2. It was something I contemplated while sitting out on the patio enjoying my food.

The beer list is solid but not amazing. 40ish taps during my visit and most of them are from northern CA which is nice. The majority of the taps are from larger breweries like Sierra Nevada, North Coast, Lagunitas, Anchor, and 21st Ammendment. They also have some Russian River, Altamont, Faction, and Port if you want something good and hoppy. On that note they had Celebration on tap too. If you’re looking for ticks they also have some Auburn and Calicraft.

I went with the chicken Caprese sandwich which was alright but a little plain. The better choice would have been what my brother got, which was the Sierra Madre burger with smoked cheddar, bacon, and avocado. There is better food in Pleasanton but these guys have either the best or second best beer lineup in town (the other contender being Handles Gastropub).“

t0rin0 3498 days ago

“Visited November 9, 2014.

This is definitely the wrong Perrys to go to if you’re looking for something beyond the basic beers available everywhere. The clerk was nice and he had the Niner game on but beyond that there wasn’t much. Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, a few Belgian imports, and some malt liquors and macros. There are a few other nationally distributed non-macros like New Belgium and Deschutes here too but nothing to get excited about. If you’re in Pleasanton and don’t want to go to Livermore for a liquor store then go up the way to C Mini Mart just over the freeway (580) which is also near the Bevmo.

If you want to talk about something interesting lets talk about the Jack in the Box across the parking lot. I tried that "Spicy Sriracha Burger". It was more out of morbid curiosity since I’m not the biggest Jack in the Box fan, though I do like the sourdough bun they use. As it turns out shoveling in a super spicy burger and downing it with Diet Coke is NOT the ideal course of action for a first meal of the day. By the time I got to the other Perry’s my stomach was rumbling. Bad idea.“

t0rin0 3506 days ago

“Another BevMo pretty much like all the others. This one seems to sell out of the more popular beers quickly, but they do have a larger singles selection on one of the tables near the larger beer section. Watch those expiration dates though.“

joeneugs 3724 days ago

“A small selection of micros and a handful of imports. Seems like more of the place you’d stop to pick up some Four Lokos to get blasted. People seem to be comparing this to the store in Livermore, but I’m not so sure they are really related at all. Would scroll past unless you’re really jonesing for your booze fix.“

brokensail 3824 days ago

“Wasn’t even sure if these guys were open as it was pretty empty and not very inviting from the outside. They had six house beers and a handful of guest taps. I would highly advise drinking the guest beers instead. All of the house beers were...terrible. The exception being the strawberry wheat beer and that’s just because it tasted like strawberry candy from the flavoring. Service was at least really friendly and the bartender was very helpful and attentive. Would scroll past in the future and wouldn’t really bother unless you just want the rakes.“

brokensail 3824 days ago

“Right off the freeway, so it’s a pretty convenient stop. Actually came by here previously with t0rin0, but they were closed so we just got In N Out because we’re fat. Pretty standard selection with stuff from Port, Green Flash, Deschutes, Drakes, etc. And of course you can just get loaded on Chimay and Rochefort if you’d like. A decent selection of the Hermitage beers, too. As always, you can’t break sixers or anything.“

brokensail 3824 days ago

“Kind of hard to get to from the street (have to wrap around the parking lot a few times to get there). Plenty of seating outdoors and the inside is pretty much dominated by the bar area. Grabbed a seat at the bar. Tap list was dominated by bay area beers, which was nice to see. They do flights and half pours, but the half pours are expensive so you’re better off going with a full glass or a flight. Food is pretty typical pub fare. It was pretty crowded during the 49er Monday night game, but service was still quite good. Probably the best bet for grabbing a beer in Pleasanton.“

brokensail 3824 days ago

“Visited November 10, 2013.

THERE ARE NO BEERS ON TAP HERE. I THINK THE 100 TAPS REFERS TO KEGS AVAILABLE FOR SALE.

This was kind of a logical stop since it’s within about two miles from my brother’s place, and it’s right next to the freeway. Unfortunately it’s also right next to an In n Out which was tempting me with it’s greasy aroma permeating the parking lot air. Luckily I had convinced myself that there were greener pastures ahead in downtown Livermore. That and I’m always unfulfilled when I eat at In n Out. Too expensive, not all that great, and the lines are usually bordering on ridiculous. The Bevmo on the other hand is never that crowded, yet they not only stay in business but they have been expanding like crazy in the last year.

This is a pretty average Bevmo over all. They have two aisles of beer and all the usuals. All the big name California beers like Port, HeBrew, Lost Abbey (just the year round stuff), AleSmith, Green Flash, Ballast Point, and Speakasy. They have the usual imports like: Rochefort (I love that I can get these at just about ANY Bevmo), Orval, St Bernardus, Rodenbach, St Feullien, etc. Then there’s the house beers, sort of, and by that I mean the Hermitage beers that seem to be exclusively made for Bevmo even though I know that they contract for a ton of other places as well. The selection is large just like all locations but it’s missing some notables like the Lost Abbey sours (though they do get Red Poppy but I’ve never seen Cuvee de Tomme or Framboise de Amarosa here), anything from Russian River (they messed that one up a long time ago), and Almanac (may have just missed it, not sure).

I’ve noticed that in the past year the prices have become more competitive, possibly due to losing market share to Total Wine, but that’s just speculation. The service was also friendly. I’ll probably stop back in when hanging out in Pleasanton some time but if you’re looking for specialty stuff you can just go across the freeway to a little hole in the wall called C Mini Mart and get your Russian River and new brewery fix.“

t0rin0 3869 days ago

“Typical warehouse style store. Its big, has wide open spaces and a good selection. Has all the amenities of a warehouse style place as well as all of the deals. A good place to stop on the way to Yosemite.“

redlem 4091 days ago

“Headed in here and got the impression this is a typical Bevmo with a pleasing yet not all that large of a local (Bay Area) selection. I found a terrific Drakes offering that made the drive over more than worth it. For me this doesn’t seem worth going too far out of your way. Next time I’m near by I’ll drop in.“

Ibrew2or3 4127 days ago

“Stopped in for dinner. Had a nice tri tip sandwich and a flight of beers. Unfortunately the beers came in those liquor glasses. Oh well. The beer was alright. The service was a bit slow but otherwise nice and helpful. There was a band playing some 70’s and 80’s cover songs. A bit pricey.

Update: stopped in again recently (about a year after I stopped in the first time) and it was exactly the same as it was the first time I came in. I’m pretty sure it was even the same band playing the same songs. The beer list was exactly the same too (crappy black lager, crappy IPL, and a few other unremarkable beers). The biggest difference now is that there is a new place across the street that has a better beer selection and better food.“

t0rin0 4235 days ago

“Sat at the bar, got instant service. Very friendly staff and great beers. The food was delicious and the value was really good. A decent ambiance with many locals stopping in. Everyone knew everyone. Just had a really friendly feel. The bartender even made a special call to the brewmaster to inquire as to what kind of hops were in the train wreck IPA for me. Talk about A+++ service!!! Will come here again!“

thetmaxx 4449 days ago

“Fairly small place in old town Pleasanton. Sat at the bar. They have 5 rotating taps of their own brews, and about 10 guest taps. Sampled their 5 brews, all were decent. Guest taps included some interesting selections that would be hard to find bottled. Food was good, reasonably priced, and large portions. Service and ambience is what really sets this apart from most small brewpubs. The bartender was extremely friendly and attentive - made you feel like you’ve known eachother for years. Entire place has a friendly feel about it and you can be comfortable as a visitor and not feel like an outsider. Will be visiting again when I’m in the area!“

bnoel09 4590 days ago

“This is the BevMo where online orders are shipped from. I get stuff from here when rare stuff gets released.“

IrishBoy 4673 days ago

“Here after reading the reviews. Was looking for a good place to grab a quick bite and toss back some brews. Beer list was great, had pitchers of Pliny, and a Old Rasputin on Nitro. Nice selection of beer, with many I cannot get on the East Coast. The food was quality as well, with homemade fries and a great burger. Others in my party said their cajun spice cheesesteaks were great too. The service was just average, and the value was pretty decent. Overall, a great place to stop ini if you are in the area. It is a bit hard to find from the road though.“

hoosiers1994 4775 days ago

“I think this place compares favorably to the other more well known beer bars in the East Bay. They have a large tap list with mostly good micros. Usually on a given day they’ll have three or four "exciting" beers that you’d have to drive to Oakland to find on tap. The food is good pub grub and the service is good. The servers have only a basic knowledge of the beers, but that OK. If you live in the Livermore/Pleasanton area, this is probably your best bet for beer.“

joeneugs 5341 days ago

“Great rotating beer selection. Food is great. 1600 different beers have passed through the bar. WOW!“

jwbrewing 5363 days ago

“I love BevMo. Being from Northern Nevada, we don’t get to see this many great beers in one location. If it was up to me I would move to California just for the beer selection.“

jwbrewing 5363 days ago

“Cool small place down town. Friendly locals.“

fidel 5399 days ago

“Been here a few times the food and beer are always excellent.“

mrhoppy 5460 days ago

“Small place. Average beers. Good sausage. One trick pony.“

mrhoppy 5460 days ago

“Average BevMo. They do have beer I like.“

mrhoppy 5460 days ago

“One of the better bevmo’s I’ve been to.“

fidel 5509 days ago

“My first BevMo ever. Bought my first Belgians, my first real craft brews and first tulip glasses. A decent selection as far as BevMos go, and the prices are always good.“

AgentSteve 5641 days ago

“Perrys in Livermore has got such a better selection. This has some micros and a few Belgians, but nothing to go out of your way for.“

AgentSteve 5641 days ago

“Great beer selection w/ around 30 handles - over half rotate throughout the year hosting seasonal varieties and regional brews. Servers are generally knowledgeable about beer. Food quality is usually better than average. Menu consists of pub grub w/ California flair. Little noisy for conversation at peak hours.“

ZazuH 5739 days ago

“Just a step above most liquor stores. A few special things here and there. The other Perry’s in livermore seems to be better these days.“

fidel 5741 days ago

“Not a BAD place, but consider that all of the other Bay Area BevMos are carrying Dogfish Head and this one is not. Other than that, they do carry a good selection of Belgians and local specialties. UPDATE: They Carry DFH and Oskar Blues now.“

Taverner 5742 days ago

“Cool spot not far from downtown Pleasanton and the fair grounds. Nice veriety of beers on tap. Good pub grub.“

fidel 5818 days ago

“Pretty interesting place. Lots of bottles and cans line the walls. All glued down, most of them full. Decent tap list. Pretty good pizza.“

wetherel 5851 days ago

“Not a bad bottle shop, they had some harder to find local brews like Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout and Double Bastard. The staff is friendly, but being the Livermore Valley the bottle shop caters more towards the wine crowd than the beer crowd. If you’re looking for a great wine selection, this is your place.“

Taverner 6029 days ago

“Neat place in an odd location (strip mall kind of hidden from the outside). Pliny the Elder was on tap and I was so excited I didn’t really try anything else. Asked about the cask, but nothing was on. Food was tasty ... typical pub grub, albeit better than expected. Apps were awesome.“

Aubrey 6046 days ago

“They have 30 brews on tap and seemed to be a bit short on local and Nocal craft brews because they were pony-ing up with German and Oktoberfest brews. I did have the best brew of the whole trip here. I was served up about a 10oz glass of Drake’s Rye Wine. YUMMM. They also had Pliney, a couple of Hoptown brews (it would have been cool if they had a couple more, IIPA maybe), Bear Republic and others. They have lots of cans, bottles and tap handles decorating the walls.“

Ibrew2or3 6087 days ago

“Decent six pack selection in coolers and limited singles selection. If I lived in the area and wanted a standard craft brew sixer this could be the place. Not really worth the trip even from near by Hopyard.“

Ibrew2or3 6087 days ago

“Great selection of beers, they even have RR’s Pliny the Elder on tap. Very mellow, fun place. The only downside is the food is not so good. The garlic fries are good but that’s it.“

Taverner 6092 days ago

“Really good food, servers who know alot about the beer they serve, and a large variety on tap. Around 30 every night.“

AgentSteve 6131 days ago

“Small dark pub reminds ma a lot of a neighborhood dive bar. The service was fair but you usually get good service when you sit at the bar. The beer selection was average, but they had some interesting guest taps. Nothing special but allright if you are in the area.“

Ratman197 6218 days ago