The Yard House (Long Beach, CA)

Ah yes, The Yard House. First stopped in here around the same time as a beer `fest was being setup across the way (near the Long Beach Convention Center, `97). And again quite recently, with my friends for the Long Beach Gathering/Pubcrawl. And each time, I always left a bit disheartened.

"But dude! They have something like 2,000 taps!" Well, actually, it's closer to 200, of which about 150-170 actually in operation at any given time. Now, that is certianly nothing to sneeze at, but in my mind it all boils down to Ratios. For example, The Great Lost Bear beer-bar in Portland ME has (if I remember correctly) 50 taps, of which a full 40 or so I would enjoy drinking (a 1:1.2 ratio). Roughly speaking, I found only 30 beers out a beer list of 155 at The Yard House that I could be interested in ordering -- a rather unimpressive 1:5 ratio. So while the sheer number of taps is quite impressive, when it comes down to the nitty-gritty there isn't a whole lot here that you can't get in other, much smaller places. For example, does the place really need to have well over 100 variations of BudMillerCoors & Molson on tap?

In addition, on a personal note, it's not a good thing for a hophead like myself to ask the server what do they have on tap for IPA's, and get the response of "Um, maybe three..., I'll find out". Out of 200 taps? Come on...!

Worth a visit, but try to not set your expectations too high. Your one-stop for all your beer drinking needs, this isn't.
//TB