The Globe’s Beer Goggles

I’ve never enjoyed Brussels Bistro in Laguna Beach. The subterranean Belgium-themed restaurant that opened 15 years ago on Forest Avenue has always felt to me to be more of basement dive bar or nightclub than a serious restaurant.  Sure, the...

Whenever a new sausage and beer-hall concept is reviewed, comparisons to LA's Wurstküche—which arguably created the blueprint for all sausage-and-beer joints that followed it in Southern California and beyond—must be made. So let's get it out of...

Garden Grove has too many of my favorites. It took me a few days to chop my first draft of this list down to the ten you see below. If you hadn't noticed, Garden Grove is that Venn diagram sweet spot where O.C.'s own Korean District overlaps with...

When ordering the rib-eye burger at Congregation Ale House, don't expect anything massively portioned or customizable. This isn't that kind of burger. It doesn't drip with too much sauce, there is no option for bacon, and it fits snugly inside one...

If you're a beer layman, the list of suds at Stadtgarten will be intimidating. It's meant to be. There are about a dozen on tap and almost twice that from bottles. A great majority of them have tongue-twisting titles in German. And rather than...