Nano 108, Colorado Springs, CO

I am not a big drinker, though I do appreciate good alcohol.  As with all people in my youth a certain percentage of my time was spent attempting to drink in order to get drunk.  While this resulted in numerous interesting stories (of which I shall not go into detail at this time as I wish to retain some semblance of dignity), it did not provide me with a wide expanse of knowledge concerning what I loving refer to as "Booze."  As I have gotten older though I have taken a liking to the enjoyment, yes the actual taste, of alcohol in its many forms.

My go to has always been whisky, preferably aged and of Irish descent, strait.  Following that I will enjoy a good mixed drink.  Give me a Dark and Stormy, or a 77 with a twist (my mother of all people got me into this drink) and I am content.  It wasn't until I was married that my wife, and my father-in-law, showed me the finer aspects of beer as a beverage.  It is from my wife that I have found a love of Hefeweizens, or wheat beers, and blonds.  From my father-in-law I have sampled a variety of darker Mexican beers that have grown on me over time.  Perhaps it was San Diego, for upon moving there people would come out of the wood work to speak of and offer different flavors of beer.  Many popular brands I found I disliked (I'm still looking for a decent IPA), and some supposedly low class beers I found to enjoy immensely (a cold Budwiser is amazing after a night of dancing).  After moving to Colorado I held little hope of rediscovering the love I'd found for beer in San Diego, then I happened upon a little brewery named Nano 108.

I chanced upon it while out on a run, marked the spot in my mind, and came back later with my wife.  Down a long road just off a main street/highway and stuck between a strip mall and an industrial area the first thing you notice before you even see the sign for the brewery is an old derelict truck out front with a large sign stating "BEER", which for some reason made me smile.  Moving toward the front of the establishment is a sign hanging above it with the name.  There is an outdoor patio area with simplistic wooden chairs and tables, and then a door into a metal faced wall.  Not very inviting at first glance, never the less my wife and I entered the brewery.

The inside of Nano 108 is small but warm and welcoming.  There are a few tables in front of the bar, and a few off to the side.  When we entered the side tables were packed but there was room up at the bar.  We were quickly met with an easy going and patient bartender whose name I cannot remember at this moment, much to my loss.  Between checking on a delivery, serving beer, and talking to regulars he was what I pictured the ideal bartender to be.  This being our first time there my wife and I got a small flight, just four beers to taste.  We settled on: an Orange Wheat beer, a Hefeweizen, a Dunkelnweizen (not sure I spelled that right, but it is a dark version of a Hefeweizen), and a stout that caught my eye as it had some agave in it, and I love that stuff.

Here are my own impressions of the beer, and keep in mind that I am not a Cicerone (the beer equivalent of a wine expert).  The Orange Wheat beer was great, almost as good as the Hefeweizen for me, it fell in the same fruity vein in which I like my beer.  The Hefeweizen was my base, and I have to say Nano 108 made a pretty good one.  I especially liked that while there were notes of fruit it didn't overpower the beer with it.  The stout with agave was good but a little too stiff for my taste, my wife liked that one.  My favorite was the Dunkelweizen, which had all the slight fruit taste of the Hefeweizen but paired with a headier flavor that reminded me slightly of the Mexican beers I love.

As we drank our flight the bartender chatted us up between other duties.  He told us a bit about the brewery, and the one thing that got me was the pride he took in the beer.  He spoke to us of the owner, and the beers.  He even mentioned that if a batch didn't come out right they would dump the whole thing (which thankfully had only happened once that year).  There is something about an establishment that takes pride in what they serve to people that just elevates it in my eyes.  I would have liked to stay a bit longer and have a glass of the Dunkelweizen but my wife and I had other things to do that day.  Still I plan on coming back to Nano 108 in the near future, if not for the beer (which is amazing), then for the atmosphere.

And that completes probably my one and only brewery review.  For those of you who came to this site for the food there are food trucks that are scheduled to appear throughout the entire week.  So come on down to Nano 108 for a bite to eat and brew, you will not be disappointing.

Nano 108
2402 Waynoka Rd
Colorado Springs, CO 80915
719-596-BEER
http://nano108brewing.com/

Gordon Birsch, Mission Valley, San Diego, CA

I am always looking for someplace to take my parents to eat when they come down to San Diego.  The only problem is that while somewhat adventuresome they are somewhat hesitant to go to the many hole in the wall locations I prefer to visit.  It is a bad habit they picked up from going to so many chain restaurants.  While there are a few expensive locals I like to hit every once in a while I wanted something that looked nice but wouldn't break the bank, and most importantly had good food, but wasn't part of some gigantic chain.  After consulting with my wife, a native of San Diego, she finally mentioned a placed that I'd been thinking about going, and then she sealed the deal by saying, "... and they have great garlic fries."

Gordon Biersch is a great big brewery/restaurant located in Mission Valley.  While it is a chain, it is not a big chain with only five in California so far and a few scattered throughout a couple of other states, and the menu looked pretty good.  Upon walking up to it I was a bit worried I was walking into a TGIF, but once you enter the double doors at the front you get more of a low key sports bar feel to it.  No obvious flare on the walls, and the front of house is friendly and respectful.  After we had been led to our seat I took a look at the menu, and was unsurprised to see a fair amount of bar fare.  There were the obligatory sliders, egg roles, and wings you'll find at any restaurant, and further down a variety of burgers, tacos, pizza... actually you name it they probably had it, and of course beer.  My usual feeling when seeing so many different things on a menu is that when a restaurant has a lot of different items on it they don't have the time or expertise to do any one of them well.  Still I have been proved wrong in the past, and as I said there was beer.

After perusing the menu my wife surprised me by not ordering a burger, instead she got the California Cobb Flatbread, and I ordered a New York Steak Sandwich with garlic fries.  Then I did something else totally out of character for me.  I ordered a beer.  This is not to say I don't like beer.  After being in San Diego for so long it is hard not to have formed an appreciation for the cold sudsy drink produced in large quantities in this area.  It was just not something I did very often.  The reason being that I am, as my wife puts it, a light weight when it comes to alcohol.  Still there are certain occasions when the taste of a nice cold beer is not just wanted but needed, and as this was a brewery I thought I would give it a try.  My wife and I each ordered a Hefenweizen, which was delivered shortly to us from the bar.

Now unlike food, which I tend to, and will below, examine in detail due to having tasted and examined a wide range of flavors and styles, beer is probably one of the things I know little to nothing about, but I know what I like, and I really liked this beer.  For those of you that know even less about beer than me, a Hefenweizen tends to be one of the slightly lighter fruitier beers, or as the menu states it had, "...subtle notes of banana and clove."  All I know is that it is the type of beer I prefer, and in this instance it was delicious.  Now, if this was due to the workout I'd just finished, or the warmness of the day I can't say.  All I know is I liked it a lot, enough to go back and have another, but on to the food.

After I'd drunk enough to become slightly inebriated, about fifteen minutes or so, the food came out, and on first seeing it there was certainly a great deal there.  I'm used to getting maybe half of a steak when I order a steak sandwich but this time they sent out what looked like an entire steak.  With relish I took my first bite and was surprised to taste they had not seasoned the steak, not even a little.  On occasion I will come across a steak that doesn't need any seasoning, a good rib-eye perhaps, but this was not one of them.  I won't say the steak was bad.  It came out medium-rare, cooked pretty much exactly how I like it, but out side of a hint of salt and pepper it tasted like a big piece of meat.  The fried onion string, garlic aioli (of which I barely tasted), and spinach (which I now love on a my burger/sandwiches) helped, but just enough to make it taste good, not amazing.  The dish though was saved by the garlic fries, which by some miracle had, just the right amount of garlic on them.  When I say just the right amount I mean a little more than a normal person would enjoy, as I really really like garlic.

Looking over to my wife's flatbread I saw that the grilled chicken, bacon, avocado, tomatoes, cheddar, blue cheese, and baby green looked a little lacking.  Still after point behind her and saying "Hey is that your cousin?", I stole a piece of piece of it for testing purposes.  After a deft smile of contrition I had a bite, and tasted something leaning towards healthy.  It wasn't a bad flatbread, and here I am doing my best not to add the word pizza as it does not apply in the least to this dish, but it was hard to find a bite that had all the ingredients in enough abundance to really add flavor to the bread.  Oh, the bread was pretty good, but it looked like the chef did not bother to throw on enough to really make it great.  Still I finished off the piece and then proceeded to drink more amazing beer, which in the end made the meal pretty good, especially as I had a gigantic piece of steak to get though.

Okay, maybe not the best meal in the world, but I will say that the service was phenomenal, and again the beer was amazing.  For the beer alone I'll go back there to try something different, hoping that the unseasoned steak was just a mistake done during a slow lunch, and at the very least I now have another place I can take my parents.  Gordon Biersch is just entertaining different enough to fall outside the trappings of a chained restaurant, and just clean and well lit enough to be suitable for the less adventurous of my family.  Until then, cheers, and I'll have another beer.

Gordon Biersch
5010 Mission Center Rd.
San Diego, CA 92108
(619) 688-1120
http://www.gordonbiersch.com/locations/san-diego-ca