Week of September 6th 2010: Blue Barn Gourmet, Universal, 330 Ritch, Beta Lounge

This week was full of new restaurants and bars! I'm just going to go through and give a quick review of each since there are a number of places.

Blue Barn Gourmet:
The Monday of Labor Day weekend I had a lunch date with a former boss, Tim. He likes to check in on me every now and then and as I was hours away from sending Kevin packing, he thought it would be a good idea to check in on me for a quick lunch and a talk about life. Tim has a funny way of giving advice... he manages to simultaneously tell you what you want to hear and ask you really difficult questions. It's a great way to get you thinking about life and I always know to bring my A-game to conversation with Tim.
But back to the restaurant... it's mostly just sandwiches and salads. I got an heirloom tomato BLT with goat cheese and it was incredible. I don't normally get BLT's and I would order this sandwich again in a heartbeat. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I want to run back and get one right now...Tim got a Chinese chicken salad. I didn't taste it but the portion was huge and he seemed pretty happy with it.

Universal
Universal is a little place a couple of blocks away from the climbing gym so it just seemed natural that I would end up there after climbing one day. The food was really good here. It's pretty simple, well-cooked American food. I got a halibut with some vegetables. One friend got a good pasta, and the other got some really nice gourmet chicken. We all washed it down with a couple of glasses of wine. If you're looking for some well-cooked delicious food then definitely check it out. The atmosphere is also really cozy - the place isn't huge but we didn't need to wait for a table at all.

330 Ritch
We went to 330 Ritch for a 70's Cal Party to welcome Colorado to the Pac-10. We were only there an hour or so and most of that time was spent trying to organize a singing of the Cal Drinking Song. The bar itself is nice. It's not a huge location and the size was fine for the number of people there but I could see it getting crowded easily. It's also about 300 degrees in there so make sure to layer!

Beta Lounge
The last place of the week is Beta Lounge in Berkeley. We come here after the game to avoid the crowds and pay a little less than the usual gameday spots. The prices were definitely unbeatable and it was nice being able to easily fit our whole group into a spot. The food was also inexpensive and delicious but it would have been nice to have some more bar-type foods than just salads and hummus plates. The vibe in the place is very cool - very simple with vibrant paintings on the wall. The art definitely was a talking point as many of the painting were rather colorful depictions of the female form (that's all I'll say about that). We ended the night playing a game of quarters which technically was also a first for me until it was time to head home.