Boulder Creek Brewing Company

The difficulty in traveling with family is finding a place to get a decent beer and pub food. First off, it can’t be a biker bar. Second, they have to actually let children in the front door. Third, it has to be non-smoking. Forth, it has to be about as quiet as any ordinary restaurant. And fifth, it has to have good food, beer, and a kid’s menu.

While camping in the Santa Cruz hills we stumbled upon Boulder Creek’s version of family pub heaven. It’s a hippy place, more or less, with an old-timey feel (and look). There are three distinct areas to this establishment: a beer bar, a restaurant, and a fairly extensive wine bar in the back.

The head brewer, Peter Catizone, is an all-grain brewer for this tiny brewery. The entire brewery sort of tucks behind the bar.

They had four beers on tap: Thom’s Bee Beer (named after the Assistant Brewmaster) is light and flavored with honey from Camp Joy, a local apiary. The Festbier is their Oktoberfest offering. For a hoppier red ale, the Redwood Ale was on tap. The Redwood Ale was the most popular of the four beers available. Rounding out the styles was Harvest Dark Ale, a mild porter.

The food was very good. They specialize in vegetarian and vegan (no meat and no dairy) dishes, and are known for their pizzas. You can still get a big, juicy hamburger or baby back ribs there too. The chicken pesto pasta was outstanding and their raspberry ice tea was highly aromatic. (See, that’s the thing about traveling with family - not everyone drinks beer.) My son enjoyed the french fries and flirting with other children.

There’s a small stage in the front window for occasional bands. There are pool tables in the back room. Our waiter had the amazing talent of memorizing each drink and dinner order (we had a table of five, and they have a huge menu) He didn’t write anything down, and somehow got everything right for each person.

One block down the main street (Highway 9) is a homebrew supply shop. Across the street is a liquor store packed with microbrews I had never seen before (yes, they even had an espresso stout).

The Boulder Creek Brewery and Restaurant is high on my list for places to visit again - and bring my family too.