A Better OC Vegetable than Ketchup*

This isn't just your average North Coast Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout (if there is such a thing). This is one you can get at a very long happy hour at Costa Mesa's Goat Hill Tavern. And, yes, it's a frosty not really glass (so watch hefting it high too quickly, as your mind plays tricks on your muscles) mug that cost me a mere $2.50.

Now, the Goat Hill Tavern isn't the best bar in the world, even with its wealth of taps--you don't come here for the exotic. But if you want an Old Rasputin, or a Racer 5, or a Green Flash IPA, or any amount of Stonesy suds (even had 10.10.10 and the Old Guardian Barley Wine on Thursday), you will be pleased. And far from poor. And you can throw peanut shells on the floor. (And, alas, smoke in the pool room section of the bar, even in California.)

Then there's that Iowa license plate, looking all dilapidated on the column behind my beer. It's from 1986. I lived in Iowa then. So I needed a good strong beer to stop feeling so g-d old.


*Can't find a good link to explain the title, but way back in the '80s an Orange County school board member tried to insist that ketchup was a vegetable....