Beachwood BBQ
Review
Seal Beach
Beer: Hangar 24 Palmero – traditional
Abbey-style dubbel with California dates from Coachella Valley
Appetizer: Fried green tomatoes without any sauce
Main Course: Dry rub Baby Back ribs
Starch: Potato salad with peppers and onions
Vegetable Creamed corn
Bread: Corn bread
with fruit
I first heard about Beachwood BBQ because of their beer list
but never managed to find the time to get down to Seal Beach and check them
out. Recently, Christie and I were
headed out to South Coast Plaza to do some pretentious shopping and we decided
to stop by and give them a try. We’ve
traveled a good part of the real South (i.e., not SoCal) sampling barbecue so
we already have an idea of what we do and don’t like about barbecue and we’re
always looking for another good place here in southern California.
Beachwood BBQ is located on Main Street in Seal Beach and as
luck would have it, the streets were blocked off for a huge car show. Apart from causing a parking problem, I was
afraid that the crowds would overrun the restaurant and we’d have to wait a
long time for a table. We lucked out and
quickly found on-street parking about three blocks south of Main.
After getting the car squared away, we squeezed through the
throngs of people shuffling up and down the street and found the restaurant
right away. It’s a tiny little place and
my fears about a long wait increased exponentially. We stepped in and asked if there was a table
available and surprisingly we were seated right away at one of the small tables
by the window overlooking the street.
Apparently there were about ten groups on the list ahead of us but
they’d all wandered off and were unavailable which left us with the best table
in the house. I don’t think you can
count on that kind of luck everyday so things were definitely looking good.
We were given menus when we sat down but they didn’t list
the beers that were available. On the
back wall of the restaurant and again on the wall behind the bar are about 24
square signs that list the available beers on tap. I could have checked the hop cam before we left but this
was a last minute decision so I was unprepared for this important decision. I quickly perused the list and saw that a
number of beers were from well known California breweries like Russian River,
Port, and Stone but it also included some lesser known Southern California breweries
like Hangar 24, El Segundo, and a couple from Beachwood BBQ itself. The rest of the list was composed of beers
and places with which I was unfamiliar. I quickly chose an Abbey-style double from
Hangar 24 called Palmero. I would have
liked to take longer to research the tap list but since I was getting pretty
hungry by this point, have a tendency to like Belgian-style doubles, and had
been wanting to try some of the beers from Hangar 24 for a while, I made the
decision in rapid order.
The Palmero
is from Hangar 24’s Local Fields series, which uses locally sourced ingredients
to brew a series of limited release specialty beers during the year. The goal is to show off different seasonal
styles along with distinct flavor combinations.
The Palmero is a traditional Abbey-style dubbel made with California
dates grown in the Coachella Valley. The
beer was rich, carbonated, and fruity with notes of raisin and spice. It was very enjoyable and was big enough to
stand up to the slab of baby back ribs that were to be the main course.
After getting the beer squared away it was time to check out
the food. There were many things that
looked interesting on the menu but we ignored everything and went straight for
the baby back ribs this time. Of course
you can’t have ribs without some southern side dishes so we started out with
some fried green tomatoes as an appetizer, followed by potato salad and creamed
corn with the meal.
The delicious fried green tomatoes were light and crunchy
with a sharp tangy bite. They weren’t
served with any remoulade sauce but I used a tiny amount of the house vinegar
barbecue sauce while Christie preferred a little bit of the spicy barbecue
sauce.
The main course arrived shortly after we finished off the tomatoes. The ribs are dry rub style and aren’t covered
with any sauce. There are four barbecue sauces
and a small bottle of Tabasco at the table.
These sauces cover the expected spicy, sweet, vinegar, and mustard flavors
but their consistency is thinner than is typically found in the South. Don’t be fooled by their viscosity however,
these sauces pack all the flavor that’s needed.
Of course that assumes that you’re going to use the sauce. The ribs are slow smoked and plenty flavorful
on their own.
The creamed corn and potato salad seemed to have a lot of
thought and care put into them but the execution was lacking. The creamed corn was merely wet corn instead
of the creamy concoction that it can become.
The potato salad was also disappointing although I should point out that
I’m not a fan of German style potato salad and this seemed to come from
somewhere on that end of the spectrum.
It also had green peppers and onions mixed in but still ended up a bit
flat in my opinion. On the other hand, the
corn bread was very tasty and had little pieces of dried fruit like cranberries
sprinkled throughout which provided a surprising little pop of flavor.
The service was friendly and pretty efficient. We had added some sweet potato fries to our
order but they weren’t ready in time for the main course so we canceled them. I’m pretty sure there was enough time to cook
the fries but since it wasn’t included in our original order we may have messed
up the kitchen’s routine and contributed to this missed opportunity.
Ratings
Specific Beer: A+
Hangar 24 Palmero
Beer Selection: A+
for 24 interesting selections
Appetizer: A+ Crispy fried green tomatoes
Main Course: A+ Smoked
Baby Back Ribs
Side Dishes: C for
Potato Salad and for the Creamed Corn
Bread: A Corn
Bread with fruit
Service: B
Overall, I highly recommend this place although I hear there
can be long lines involved. The only
area I scored them low was for the side dishes and they have many more of these
to try to find ones that I like.
After our meal we wandered up and down the street admiring
the huge collection of Hot Rods, Funny Cars, Dragsters, and Classics while
eating fresh kettle corn.
