Gordon Biersch

The Gordon Biersch restaurant and brewery in San Diego's Mission Valley is closing after twenty years.  Puesto will take over the restaurant space and it will brew beer, too.  Puesto plans to open this fall.  Gordon Biersch won't close until July 16th, so there is still time to get some of head brewer Doug Hasker's beers.  I did not know about Hasker until I started listening to the Indie Beer Podcast, but he is a local legend, renowned for his lager making skills and willingness to share his knowledge with other local brewers. 

I have not been to Gordon Biersch for ten or fifteen years.  Memory is a funny, tricky thing, though.  I remember the last dinner I had at Gordon Biersch was soon after 9/11 and every TV was turned to one of George W. Bush's speeches to the nation.  I can't remember if was the unifying Oval Office speech days after 9/11, or the "Axis of Evil" State of the Union address several months later.  I further can't remember if it was Gordon Biersch's garlic fries at that dinner, or an Outback Steak House Blooming Onion around the same time that gave the Beer Rovette and I such bad stomachaches we were sure our toddler was going to be orphaned. 

I want to get to Mission Valley and try some of Doug Hasker's beers before Gordon Biersch closes next month. I won't be having garlic fries, though.  I have learned some things in eighteen years: wars in the Middle East are not good, and I need to avoid fried foods.