Tap Room at Whole Foods in the Coddingtown Mall (Santa Rosa)
Took me a while, since I wanted to wait until the opening hoopla died down, I finally checked out the new Whole Foods in Santa Rosa's Coddingtown Mall. It features the chain's first on-premise beer bar called the Tap Room. I had a taste of my friend's sampler, and as a non-beer drinker, couldn't stomach Sierra Nevada's Hoptimum IPA: so bitter, hot and alcoholic. More to my liking was the Monstre Rouge: not nearly as funky with brett as the warning given me, better balanced and lively, many layers of elusive flavors, very long and refreshing.
Near the end of the evening, it was quite slow and we had a chance to talk to the barkeep. He said that this is an experiment for Whole Foods to encourage appreciation of craft beer and he has regular visits from WF big wigs. The Tap Room just started serving hot food in the bar, here's the menu:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniew...
If anyone tries the sandwiches, please let us know.
P.S. The housemade gelato is gawdawful. The Hoptimum served to wash the taste out of my mouth.
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Whole Foods
390 Coddingtown Mall, Santa Rosa, CA 95401
By Melanie Wong
on Feb 4, 2011 12:10 PM
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Do you know whether they sell growlers to take away? I wish more places did that.
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Ooh, sorry, I didn't pay attention to that. We went to the happy hour at Russian River Brewing Co. before, and I know that RRBC sells growlers. But with the Pliny the Younger release, might be hard to get in right now.
Btw, Whole Foods sells refillable bottles and jugs of Revive kombucha.
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Russian River Brewing Co.
725 4th St, Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Revive
Windsor, Windsor, CA
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This may be worth a different thread, but do you know if anyone is pouring Pliny Younger in SF now? Not looking for growler, just a pint. I suppose Berkeley, North Oakland also within my zone of interest.
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The Whole Foods in NYC (I think the Bowery location's Beer Room has been open for at least a year) fill growlers, so I'd guess they would here as well. The ones in NYC get rave reviews for their great selection, so this is definitely worth checking out.
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