{"id":249311,"date":"2015-10-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-23T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/craft-brews-for-less-than-a-five-spot\/"},"modified":"2015-10-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-10-23T07:00:00","slug":"craft-brews-for-less-than-a-five-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/craft-brews-for-less-than-a-five-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"Craft brews for less than a five spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Dr. Ink<\/p>\n

The last time I set foot inside The Ritual Kitchen and Beer Garden<\/a>, the place looked like a Gothic-style pub from the outside, and the words \u201ckitchen\u201d and \u201cbeer garden\u201d weren\u2019t part of its name. The exterior now looks brighter, less underground, and a spacious rear patio accented with colorful beer banners, a patch of shrubbery and a few jolly gnomes has been added.<\/p>\n

\"Duck<\/a>
Duck Foot IPA (left) and AleSmith Speedway Imperial Coffee Stout (Photo by Dr. Ink)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unchanged is the vast selection of craft beer the place began serving almost a decade ago, before other establishments along this 30th Street corridor joined the suds fest. The bar area is still as cozy and pubby as ever, festooned with steins, mugs and a couple of gargoyles. Also, the front patio shows better signs of life as patrons order their drinks through an open window at one end of the bar.<\/p>\n

\"Exterior<\/a>
Exterior of Ritual Kitchen and Beer Garden on 30th Street in North Park (Photo by Dr. Ink)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Happy hour signals $2 off select craft beers, about six of them, plus appetizers that stick to the norm, such as garlic-Parmesan fries, onion rings, hummus with ciabatta and veggies, roasted Brussels sprouts and chicken wings. The noshes range from $3 to $6.50 apiece.<\/p>\n

On happy-hour price, the beers ring in at under $5 a glass, which vary in size depending what you order.<\/p>\n

My companion\u2019s dark and luscious AleSmith Speedway Imperial Coffee Stout, for example, was served in an 8-ounce glass for an easy $4. It carried him through an order of thickly battered onion rings served with house-made ranch and barbecue sauce.<\/p>\n

I chose Duck Foot \u201cDouble White\u201d IPA, a misleading name that might indicate an extra-hoppy finish. Served in a 10-ounce glass, it was actually quite balanced. Although for my companion, who hasn\u2019t acquired a taste for hop-forward beers, he cringed when taking a sip of it.<\/p>\n

\"Ale-battered<\/a>
Ale-battered onions rings and dipping sauces (Photo by Dr. Ink)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Screen<\/a>Other brews on the happy-hour list included an American pale ale by BNS Flintlock, a red rye by Benchmark River Rye, and Tabula Rasa porter from Second Chance, a firm choice if you\u2019re palate demands a malty, nutty finish. The selection rotates frequently.<\/p>\n

In addition to the onion rings, we grazed from a large serving of roasted Brussels sprouts, which tasted neither here nor there despite their garlic butter sauce and balsamic reduction. As for the wings ($6.50 for six of them), they were scrawny; low on meat but high in flavor from the habanero-carrot sauce we chose.<\/p>\n

The mediocre bar nibbles, however, won\u2019t prevent us from returning for the fine crafts and the European-like ambiance, which based on the regular menu, holds more culinary promise if sticking around for dinner.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dr. Ink The last time I set foot inside The Ritual Kitchen and Beer Garden, the place looked like a Gothic-style pub from the outside, and the words \u201ckitchen\u201d and \u201cbeer garden\u201d weren\u2019t part of its name. The exterior now looks brighter, less underground, and a spacious rear patio accented with colorful beer banners, […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":249312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Craft brews for less than a five spot","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}