Around the Mohawk Bend

Craft Beer Los Angeles

Mohawk Bend unleashes a California craft beer torrent on Echo Park.

Mohawk Bend is just about ready to throw its doors open wide to Los Angeles craft beer fans. 72 taps. Two of which will be cask. Primarily California brewed, but they will rotate in a “guest” brewery as well.

Enough about the beer. If you have been to Tony’s Darts Away, you know Paige Reilly and Tony Yanow will cover your every beer need. Let’s talk about the rest of Mohawk Bend.

The former Ramona theater space has been broken up into four distinct zones. Just past the marquee is an outdoor seating area that I foresee being very popular in summer. Inside the restaurant are first some booths and tables. Then you get to a big communal concrete table with the kitchen on one side and the bar on the other. You can sit on the kitchen side and watch the furious action or you can choose the bar side and gaze upon the taps. And if you are need of a beer break, you can select one of the six on tap wines or some California spirits that make some spirited cocktails. Finally there is the Ramona room at the back. Dominated by a big fireplace that is flanked by trees on either side, this is a calm oasis like spot to sit down for dinner.

The restaurant has two separate and passionate executive chefs, Sera Pelle and Randal St. Clair and they have crafted a menu that is filled with goodies to please even the pickiest of eater. The Flatbread and the Dungeness Crab and Roast Corn Rolls are excellent. Or you can go for the Dork, a duck/pork burger. You can get IPA battered Fish & Chips or other seafood like clams and mussels. All the seafood will have to meet strict standards of sustainability.

And then there are the pizzas. Over ten to choose from with all sorts of toppings. Potatoes to mushrooms. Blue cheese or goat. Serrano ham or Italian sausage. The combination of beer and pizza is just marvelous. The Holy Trinity, the Mohawk version of a Margherita, is quite good, especially the crust. A slice of that with Alesmith IPA is a great interplay of flavors.

What really shines through at Mohawk Bend is that you can eat organically and sustainably, and eat well. You can put leave less of a footprint on the earth and still drink great hand crafted spirits. And you can do it while also putting a spotlight on all the great food and drink that is produced here in California.

For the craft Beer of the week, I recommend Port Hot Rocks. I wanted to suggest a nice summery but not light lager that evokes the heat of SoCal in July. And this beer fits that bill. It is “made in the German “Stein Bier” tradition, this smooth, robust dark lager is brewed with the addition of glowing hot granite to the kettle.” This makes for a roasty and dark lager with some great caramel notes to it.

Keeping with the Port Brewing theme, your Homework is attending the Blue Palms Brewhouse Flip Flop event. What do flip-flops have to do with the award winning brewery that stretches from San Clemente to Solana Beach? Each Port tap handle looks like a brightly colored flip-flop. The 24-tap-takeover will highlight beers from all the Pizza Port brewpubs and starts at 5pm on July 30th.

Find more of Sean Inman’s writing on his blog, Beer Search Party.

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Sean Inman

Find more of Sean Inman's writing on his blog, Beer Search Party.

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