Toronado

Not too impressed...Expected so much more, expecially after seeing their sister Toronado in SF on the Bourdain show....Granted they have a great brew selection, but there's a lot of competition in San Diego when it comes to Gastro Pubs, especially in the North Park area. Didn't live up to the hype I guess!

We came in on a Friday afternoon.  There's street parking which is pretty standard I think but there are also some bike racks right in front which is good.

When you walk in there are a few tables and a lot of bar seats.  There were only two people in there other than us.  The bartender didn't really greet us, but it's not like we didn't know what to do.  The tap beer selection was pretty big, with probably 40 beers plus an impressive array of cask beers which was a great touch.  There were a lot of bottles in the cooler behind the bar too, but we were here for draft beer.

The bartender was pretty quiet and patient, but one thing I noticed is that he was hyper responsive to questions when asked and could pretty much just recite exactly what style each beer was without looking at anything.  This is really important because the tap list while impressive has no indication as to what the beer is.  This basically guarantees that you have to engage the bartender unless you yourself has an insane beer knowledge.

The draft list was largely west coast, but had a smattering of other beers.  This I also liked.  One thing that bothered me a little is that there's no flights available.  It would be nice to try a bunch of different beers.  That being said, they will do half pints of the beers that come in pints.  At first he said he couldn't do halves of the ones that come in 13 oz glasses but then he changed his mind and said he could do it.  Be sure to press this if you come in and you want to taste a lot of beer.

I started right off with Pliny the Elder, because when in Rome, drink the best stuff the Romans have.  Honestly, though, what was really cool is that this probably wasn't the highlight of the experience.

The bartender was nice enough to let us know they had a patio in the back and we went out there.  This patio is set up biergarten style with long picnic tables and is pretty much completely fenced in with high fencing from the outside world.  There is a trellis over the entire patio for shade, but it would be nice if the fence weren't there to keep the breeze out.  It's possible, though, that the view is really bad so the fence is needed.  Regardless of no wind, it was pretty cool in there.

We met some friendly folks on the patio and talked a little beer, and drank a bunch of beer.  Overall it was a nice time drinking great beer.  My review is really more a 4.5 stars with the only thing keeping it from 5 is the absence of tasting flights.

Awesome beer selection.