Toronado, Toronado. There, I said it twice!

My wife told me the coven of grad students was going on about this place. If all their castings are this good, I'll have to pay closer attention.

My former and now defunct favorite beer joint was the Liar's Club in Pacific Beach. It was a true dive bar. Where we'd opt to sit on the railed in porch to avoid the odor of cleaning solution and spilled festering beer that is so unique to dive bars and mexican dance clubs. The kitchen was a screened off area of the bar. The bathroom had the tub communal urinal. All these things added to the character of the place. They had a great selection of unusual beers on tap and made a great tuna melt sandwich.

Toronado is not Liar's Club. It doesn't smell. The kitchen is a bonafide kitchen. It's clean and organized with space enough. Maybe I'm getting too old, but these are things I've become accustomed to. Toronado seems to appreciate this. A t-shirt for sale read "Too clean? Too bright? Too Loud? Too f**king bad!" It still has an edge, though. That edge is called beer. All over the walls are signs and beer paraphernalia. There are around a hundred vintage looking metal beer signs. I couldn't find one that was just oil or some such to fill space. Get a load of the two cask pump handles mounted on the bar and the two large glass door refrigerators full of all manner of beers.



It's not incredibly obvious how it works, though the bartender/server was happy to help out. On the far wall from the door are chalkboards with menu items and specials. Overhead, over the bar, is the list of beers on tap. In red are the breweries, and underneath written in black are the corresponding beers. Also, somewhere on the bar (or ask the BT) is a list of the bottled selections. Find what you want and order at the bar. (In case you forget where to order, it says so on the chalk boards)




Toronado has beer. The beer has beers. There were beers walking other beers on leashes. There are around 34 beers on tap, unique and good beers.



For example, I had the Allagash Curieux and my wife had Foret Saison. When you ask for the beer list, you will be presented with an, approximately, 8 page list of their bottled beers. From that I had a Reineart Flemish wild ale. Exhausting your options here would be akin to seeing all of the Smithsonian.

They had a short but satisfactory menu. Additionally, there were specials. When we were there they had a list of about 6 types of sausage plates to choose from. I had a cheeseburger. It was good with the proper amount of grease and cheese, cooked to my liking. Simple and quite satisfying. My wife had a grilled cheese that she said was quite good.




The one drawback to the place is the parking. It's street parking and pretty popular due to shopping and apartment complexes in the area. The directions on google basically take you to the back of the building. Just stay on 30th street, you'll see it.

There's a patio out back, but I didn't get a chance to check it out.

If you're a beero, beer aficionado, beer connoisseur, or new to the whole thing, you should go check this place out. If you're looking for someplace to play beer pong and drink as much as you pee, this isn't the place for you.