Napa & Sonoma Reviews Bay Area Reviews e-mail

A Caveat Summary: Good food, lots of beers I had read that the Bear Republic Brewery Co. was one of the better restaurants in Healdsburg (which is saying quite a bit) before our trip. So when we found ourselves in Healdsburg for lunch on a Sunday afternoon in July 2008, I decided to look for the place and have lunch there. It was a good idea; the place was packed at 2 PM and we had to wait for a table, but the food was quite good. The brewery itself looks like what you would expect. It has a large, busy and noisy inside room, and an outside patio next to the street. We decided to eat there despite the heat (it's shaded). I had the Sonoma Burger ($10), which came with bacon and avocado. Mike had the All American Burger ($10) with American cheese and bacon. We both liked them. My burger came with very thick, smokey, tasty, not too salty, bacon - obviously high quality. The burger itself was a bit dry, though it had managed to soak the bottom of the bun, which was very soggy. It was very large. It was served with garlic-Parmesan-rosemary fries, which reminded me a lot of Provenzal fries - I really liked them. Mike thought his burger was more rare than medium rare, but mine was cooked just the same and I thought it was more medium - what can I say? We both had soft drinks and the bill came to $27 after tax. Service by the very young waiter was competent. Bear Republic Brewery Co. 345 Healdsburg Avenue Healdsburg, Ca http://bearrepublic.com/