After eating at the new Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens at 1999 Citracado Parkway, in Escondido (occasionally we’re forced to escape the June gloom) we were reminded of the old dinner party aphorism: send the beer drinkers out for the booze while the wine drinkers do the cooking.
Unfortunately, at the Stone World Bistro the beer drinkers are not only brewing (at which they obviously excel), but they’re also cooking. In this process a little too much beer is spilled into the food. Seems like most every item on the menu has a splash of suds in it: the dipping sauces (cheese and barbeque), the batter used to deep fry the mashed potato balls and onion rings, and even the ketchup. It’s almost as if someone is in the kitchen simply spraying beer down the whole line. (Note to beer drinking cooks: not everything is better with beer.)
Greg Koch and Steve Wagner, the co-founders of Stone Brewing, apparently enjoy doing things themselves. The lovely garden behind the Bistro has a comfortable hand-hewn look and feel to it. The Stone Brewing store up front does not appear to have been designed by retail consultants. In fact, the entire place has a kind of “screw the rules, we’re doing this our way” that is best summed up in their infamous Arrogant Bastard Ale.
Koch and Wagner say that they have been involved with the international “Slow Food movement” since 2000. And, as their website states, they have “an amazing selection of regional beers, wines, produce, meats, breads & cheese.” While all this should add up to a wonderful dining experience, it falls far short. The problem seems to be with the pairing of all these quality ingredients.
The night we visited the World Bistro we started out with “Spud Buds” something the menu describes as “garlicky mashapotatoes, balled up, and deep-fried in our Arrogant Bastard Ale batter.” The potatoes were bland and the batter and dipping sauce tasted. . . well a little too much like stale beer.
For our entree we had the Chicken Tikka Masala and the Wood-Grilled Buffalo Burger. The Tikka Masala is a perfect example how how wrong great tasting food can be when it is paired incorrectly. The Tikka masala was delicious. So was the side of sweet potato mash. Together on the same plate, however, they came off looking like a big blob of sludge and tasting quite similar.
The Buffalo burger, which would have been great on a straight-up American bun, was served on Focaccia bread with Arrogant Bastard Ale Golden Gourmet mushrooms, roasted garlic mayo, and Sriracha pickled cucumbers on the side. As great as all this sounds, together, it tasted like a slice of meatloaf on a piece of Italian bread. And that’s not a burger. At a brewery a good burger is required.
The Stone World Bistro & Gardens is a great way to escape the coastal June gloom and an even better place to drink Stone brew with friends. On the food side, however, it seems they’re out a little too far over their skis.
[Link: Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens]
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