Blue Palms BrewHouse

DoubleJ

California

4.1/5  rDev -9.3%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 3.5 | $$

And now, for something different:

* This is located about a block east of the Hollywood/Vine metro stop and the Pantages Theater.

* The outside makes you look like you're walking into a theater, but inside it's much different. Descriptions of beer styles are written on chalk boards and are hanging from different parts of the place. A little rustic inside.

* Two dozen taps plus a cask and 50 some bottles. Rare, hyped beer can be found on their draft list, though this wasn't the case on my visit. I settled on an Einhorn Spezial Pilsner. Fresh beer, no shaker pint glasses, good pouring.

* Thursday is a promotion for 25 cent wings. I thought why not, so I ordered half a dozen BBQ wings smothered in sauce. Good stuff.

* Must be great for grabbing a beer or two before or after a show. Regardless, this is highly recommended.

03-20-2009 17:51:33 | More by DoubleJ

northyorksammy

Ontario (Canada)

4.14/5  rDev -8.4%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$$

The best beer bar I have been to in LA. You come in, you feel already at home. Good parking next door (late enough it was free). About 95% guys and all efficiently served by Bix. Twenty five taps up electronically on a board, with lots of interesting choices. Great bottle selection too, but Black Tuesday at $90 was something I wanted but not at that price. Some other really rare ones, though prices were steep for those as well. Music was decent and toned down, so you can talk. with some TVs on. they are trying to get their sublease settled to stay in the current location.

01-18-2012 06:10:06 | More by northyorksammy

GJ40

North Carolina

3.88/5  rDev -14.2%
vibe: 3 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | $$

I stopped into the Blue Palms based on the BA listing while in LA on business. It's not much to look at from the outside and the interior isn't a lot better but it is effective. It's got typical bar feel with low light and dark woods. I think the best feature is a great shuffleboard table by the front window. I didn't get to use it but I would have liked to.

The beer selection includes about 24 on tap with many from CA as well as some other US and European beers. They also have one cask which held a Stone PA with Coriander. I'm not big on spiced beer but since it was the cask selection, I went with it. I enjoyed it (although it didn't need the spice). The server we had was outgoing and seemed genuinely into craft beer.

For me, the Blue Palms depends heavily on the tap list. If it's consistent, it's worth a visit. But if it falls off, the atmosphere just isn't enough of a draw.

07-23-2009 13:48:48 | More by GJ40

Floydster

California

4.64/5  rDev +2.7%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | $$$

Finally Los Angeles has a respectable beer destination, will never go to Father's Office again if I can help it with this place around, I stopped here for the first time yesterday right when they opened after it being recommended by Gabe at Beachwood BBQ, it was kind of pain to park but I found some free parking by the car dealership after searching for a few minutes, in a cool area with the stars on the concrete and all that jazz, anyways I walked in adn went straight to the bar, atmosphere was cool with some old tap handles lining the wall and a somewhat dark backdrop, the place was very clean, the menus were visible, food looked good but I did not try it because I was kind of in a hurry, they had printed wine and bottle lists, great quality, I was stoked to see that Parabola was still around, it was nine dollars for a small snifter, the most expensive beer there but also the best hands down, other tap beer standouts were Lost Coast Java Porter, Moylan's Hopsickle, Rodenbach Grand Cru, Hair of the Dog Fred, Bruery Black Orchard, Victory Fest Bier, Ola Dubh 30, a couple other Firestone brews, and Stone Smoked Porter will Vanilla Bean on cask was very tempting as well, prices ranged from six to nine dollars which is very fair for this area, bottle list consisted of Duvel, St. Bernardus, Delerium Tremens, Orval, Westmalle, Chimay, Firestone, even the 11, Unibroue, Bitburger, Hair of the Dog, Fantome, and Allagash, prices range from five to forty on these, the owner Brian said they plan on tripling their bottle list this year, by the way he is a really cool guy and even offered me a free pint but I was already feeling that Parabola, so I passed and went and grabbed a quick bite to eat down the street, will definitely be going back soon, especially when Firestone sends them that Bravo Brown keg, get to this place as soon as you possibly can

08-22-2008 17:38:33 | More by Floydster

Beerandraiderfan

Nevada

4.33/5  rDev -4.2%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $$

Thanks for koufax21 reminding me that despite having been here like a dozen times, I've never reviewed it.

First thing I really like about the atmosphere is that this is a sports loving craft beer bar. So many craft beer places shun sports, having this stereotype of avoiding dumb loud jocks. Not here, they're proud about their OSU and Steeler patronage (teams I hate, but I'd rather go to a place that supports their team v. hipster i don't follow sports douchery). Right next to the Fonda theatre (seen Aquabats & Rancid play an awesome set here).

High quality in terms of both beer selection and food. Tap list displayed largely. TVs all over. Fine wood decoration. Open spacing, never 'crowded' to the point of being a drawback. Good mix of favorites and local new stuff. Ask to see the bottle list. Some real good stuff in there. Some of it decently priced. $15 -bal aged 22oz stuff in Hollywood is amazingly priced (Old Dipsea).

Angel's share on tap, cheaper and more carbonated than in the bottle at a retail store.

Food has always been a notch above bar food.

11-28-2011 21:40:26 | More by Beerandraiderfan

UCLABrewN84

California

4.38/5  rDev -3.1%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $$

I visited Blue Palms yesterday for the first time to go to their Jingle Bell Jubilee. The entrance is a single small door next to a venue so it might be hard to see for some. Inside there is a very nice atmosphere with lots of wood and whatnot. They have a decent amount of tables for seating. They offer around 15-20 taps including a cask most of the time (finally tried a cask!). They also have a killer bottle list if you have some extra cash to burn. The service was good especially for the crowded event. My wife and I got some food that was very good too. Very reasonable prices for the beer (I was able to get a couple of flights and some half pints - both of which I love to see at beer bars). I will definitely be back again in the future.

12-11-2011 20:29:55 | More by UCLABrewN84

glid02

Georgia

4.45/5  rDev -1.5%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $$$

Stopped by here to meet up with a few CA BA's a while back.

Atmosphere is nice. It's a fairly small venue that's just short of classy - and I mean that in a good way. The bar is on the short side in the back right corner and the front right corner has space for a band which started up about halfway through my time there.

Quality is good. Beer was served at the perfect temperature with the proper amount of head.

Service was very good. The waitress certainly knew what she was talking about and we never had to wait on anything.

Selection was solid. A stout from Port Brewing was on cask along with a few offerings from the Bruery and about 10 other fairly rare offerings. The website seems to be updated on a regular basis so take a look for yourself!

Food was good. I had the fish and chips (as I usually do) and was not disappointed.

Value was good. It was a bit on the pricey side but nothing too over the top.

Overall this was my second favorite place I visited while I was there (second only to Beachwood BBQ but I hear Verdugo is quite nice), and it's certainly worth a stop if you're in the area.

09-04-2009 02:49:45 | More by glid02

womencantsail

California

4.4/5  rDev -2.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $$

After my initial visit (detailed below), I've returned here several more times. Each time I've been more and more impressed with the place and will continue to go back. The service in subsequent trips was definitely improved and the taps are always top notch.

---

Went here with a friend after spending a day doing random stuff in Hollywood. I forgot to check what time they opened, so we got there around 4:45, and had to kill 15 minutes until they opened at 5.

The biggest bummer about this place is the complete lack of parking. You're probably going to end up in the Pantages or Fonda parking lots and pay from $8-$10, or, if you can manage to find a metered spot, it is $2 an hour!

Inside, it's quite a nice place. Good decor and gives a fairly classy feel all around. The place was nice and clean, which was probably helped by the fact that they had just opened. TVs on the walls where we watched the Dodger game.

We weren't too hungry as we had a large lunch, so we just ordered some sweet potato fries to snack on while we had a few beers. They were excellent, and the rest of the menu looked great too. They have wings for $0.25 (minimum of 6) on Thursdays (we were there on a Thursday), but being vegetarian, I did not partake.

Good list of beers, 24 taps and a cask. They also had a decent bottle list, with some impressive choices such as FW10 (for a mere $100 a bottle). I had a Telegraph Reserve Wheat (fairly tasty sour wheat ale), a Bruery Orchard White (will not have this again, it tasted almost medicinal), and a Moylan Hopgarten (not my favorite, but decent).

The service was pretty good in the beginning, but as the place started to fill up, we were ignored for some time (our waitress simply disappeared for about 20 minutes). But that wasn't too terrible.

The prices were pretty good, especially during the happy hour (which was literally one hour--from 5-6). All beers regularly $6.50 and under were $3.

A nice place and I would stop in again if I am in the area.

07-18-2009 21:17:03 | More by womencantsail

VegasBill

Nevada

4.33/5  rDev -4.2%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4 | food: 4.5 | $$

I had lunch here on a Friday, They are only open for lunch on Fri and Sun. The atmosphere is what I would call simple pub comfortable. The one thing that I did like is that they have two large LCD screens showing all of the info on the current tap offerings. No Pliny, Pliny where are you in L.A., but they did have Blind Pig so I am happy. The menu had a selection of sausages so I asked the bartender to help me select two, we decided on Wild Boar and Elk, both were wonderful and the bed of sauerkraut just made it perfect. As for the tap beer I understand it changes often, like weekly.
This is another, if I lived in L.A. I would be a regular.

10-02-2011 21:37:13 | More by VegasBill

charlzm

California

4.9/5  rDev +8.4%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 4.5 | $$$

I have visited twice now, one during the "soft opening" period and again last night, Wednesday August 20th, 2008.

The bar is more or less hidden from the street with only a brass door and some windows hinting at its existence within the Fonda Theatre building.

Step inside (as I did right at 5:00pm sharp - opening time) and enjoy the decor. Tall tables and chairs in the center of the room, shorter ones around the perimeter. The blue lighting and potted palms evoke old Hollywood without resorting to straight out Art Deco. The two story ceiling is a nice way to diffuse the sound within the space, as are the large and well-executed fabric lighting fixtures hanging from it.

A digital jukebox with near-endless selections awaits near the restrooms, ready to swallow your money, money you will willingly fork over for a chance to hear your faves in this great place.

Sit at the bar and marvel at the best beer selection in LA County (sorry, Naja's and Lucky Baldwin's, but I think it is). You could drink all night (and I did) and never have anything bad or the same thing twice. No macros of any kind. Not even in bottles. Nice. And Brian, the proprieter, is serious about his beer. With little prompting, he took me downstairs to his beer cooler and showed me the high tech system for changing out kegs and keeping the lines clear.

The service is excellent, with the whole staff friendly and into beer to some degree or another. The crowd is equally friendly (at the bar, anyway) and beer-centric.

The food, while prepared with care, doesn't quite pass through the ceiling of "very good" and into "excellent". It may seem nit-picky, but there's been one little thing off with each dish I've had. I'm not dissatisfied at all, just saying the food isn't quite flawless. Still, if you have a non-drinking friend with you, they will probably be happy to go here for the cuisine.

Beer and food prices are in line with the type of establishment and the location. This IS Hollywood, after all. My party had two entrees (admittedly, one was a $28.00 filet mignon), an appetizer and nine beers. The total was $104.24.

This is now my #1 beer destination, a short hop on the Red Line subway train to the beer haven LA has been dying for. Many thanks to Brian (and his buddy Gabe from Beachwood BBQ, who helped out) for opening this place.

08-21-2008 17:09:13 | More by charlzm