Firestone Walker's Lion Visits His New Venice Beach Den, and Cans!

It’s been two years since Firestone Walker announced their plans to construct a taproom restaurant in Venice Beach, complete with pilot brewery and all. Many of us have been waiting patiently for this idea to become a reality. While I love my trips to Paso Robles and Buelton, this move South is surely a positive for the Los Angeles beer scene as well as my car mileage. That’s why I was thrilled to learn that the Lion, David Walker himself would be previewing the space, albeit on short notice, with fresh cans of Union Jack IPA (canned just the day before, of course) to walk us through the new space.

A few short highlights, since I was too busy drinking my Union Jack and taking pictures to write any serious notes down (I know, I know, I’m working on my journalism skills):

The facility, located near the Lincoln and Washington intersection in Venice Beach, is set to open sometime in the late summer / early Fall of this year.

The space will have a restaurant with a bar (beer and wine only), lounge area, and be open until midnight. Across the parking lot, under the offices, a retail shop will also have all the great Firestone shwag, growler fills, and bottle purchases so you can skip the trip up the 101. Mr. Walker did allude to some BarrelWorks beers being sold there, so let’s keep our fingers crossed!

Hard at work in the new LA office.

The pilot brewing system will create fresh batches of your favorites as well as one-off batches only available at this location. No word yet on which brewer will be at the helm, however Mr. Walker did say there were a couple brewers from Paso Robles that they were looking at to come to LA. Expect two to make the move.

On another note – Union Jack cans are delicious. I’m excited to try out the Easy Jack as well as one of my favorites, Pivo Pils, also being canned and hitting a store near you soon. Perfect for the golf course or a camping trip. Walker, upon taking his first sip of Union Jack in a can, noted that despite the “freshness craze” going around, he thought the beer was “a little young,” and when pressed noted that he likes his Union Jack, “aged about 45 days. It let’s the malt catch up a bit.”

For those looking for their fresh Firestone fix, you’re going to have to wait out most of the year. In the meantime, don’t forget to wake up bright and early this Sunday to snag your tickets to this year’s Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Fest, on May 30th. Ticket’s are $75 – a tad pricy, but personally I wouldn’t miss this one if I were you.

For more information on building plans, check out Firestone Walker’s web page with a few more details. Check out some extra pictures below:

The Lion’s got style.