West Coast Beer Trip

That's one helluva list you've compiled! That might keep you occupied for two weeks with travel time...
Not sure about the food thing though, seems a lot of breweries have food trucks cater in the parking lot. Not a bad thing. RR is full service and has pretty decent food, the problem is getting a table, or a parking spot.
Heck, I'd settle for Ritz crackers and cheese slices for meals between breweries!!!
Enjoy your travels.

 

I'm hitting 5 of those in one day all on Friday

 

Which ballast point? Which stone?
Great sushi near the liberty station stone.
Italian near the ballast point in little italy

Hess in north park. And some of the best food in town are near there. Eat at smoking goat drink at Hess, go to toronado.

I will go back and see what I like and give you suggestions. Also look up marina kitchen it's inside the Hilton or Marriott downtown. Never been but I met the director of beverages in a bar. Knows his stuff and the website has good looking food.

 

Solid list!

In San Diego, George's California Modern is a great high end restaurant (try and do the TBL3 set menu/table experience if you can) with a decent beer list. Nothing crazy or special but some good standard local offerings. It's worth going for just the food though.

Coi in SF had a decent beer menu and amazing food when I went. That was a few years ago though so I'm not sure if they've kept the beer around but it'd be kind of surprising if they didn't.

The French Laundry has some solid beers in addition to an incredible wine list.

I'm not sure of anywhere that has a beer list like Eleven Madison Park in NY though.

Some good moderately priced restaurants with good beer selections you might want to check out in San Diego: Alchemy, Lion's Share, Ritual Tavern (or whatever the new name is), Waypoint Public, Tiger Tiger!, Blind Lady, Craft & Commerce, Neighborhood

 

On black Friday last week my wife and daughter went "shopping" and my son in law had to work, so I went on a "fact finding mission". Started at Ballast Point, then to Societe, then AleSmith, ending at Green Flash, it was grueling, but someone had to do it!

That evening we went out to kind of an ultimate bacon joint. If you like bacon, you might like this place called Slaters 50/50. They offer specialty burgers that are 50% bacon, 50% beef. The net weight of the burger is AFTER cooking, a nice twist. I had the 50 50 with bacon, cheddar, and a fried egg on top and it was fantastic.
Oh, they have an extensive tap selection too!

 

Father's Office in Los Angeles (Culver City location) for a good beer selection with excellent food. Would recommend it if you can make it in the off hours, I don't typically bother going for dinner because its crowded.

 

Le Trappe in SF for dinner and beer. Firestone Walker Barrel House in Buellton, amazing food and FW sours. Check hours!

 

That seems to be somewhat of a circuitous route - going to Societe first may have save you a few miles.

 

Might want to try & hit Drake's while your in the SF area.

 

Yes, I agree, but Ballast opened at 11, Societe at 12, AleSmith's site said they opened at 2, Green Flash was open at 3, so I had to hit them in order or opening. What I didn't know was that AleSmith now opens at 12, but my web information told me otherwise...worked out, GPS got me where I "needed" to be!

 

My recommendations (mostly just additions to your list) by area:

In Santa Rosa Flavor is next door to Russian River and from everything I've heard has pretty good food (never tried it, I just go for the Moonlight ticks when in town). On your way to or from Santa Rosa on 101 you could stop somewhere for the view ambiance. Marin is right near the water and if you wanted to do that on a different day you can actually take the ferry from SF. It's not cheap ($15-$20 round trip) but it's a nice ride to do once. Mill Valley Beer Works is a cool place (house beers are whatever but they have a great guest lineup) and Mill Valley is reasonably scenic. No beer stops but Sausalito is awesome.

For Santa Cruz I'll add two potential stops: Discretion Brewing which is only a mile or two from Sante Adairius, and Aptos St BBQ which is a mile the other side of Sante Adairius. Discretion is a new brewery and is just decent but they're getting better and have potential. Aptos St BBQ is some of the better BBQ that I've had in a while and they have several dozen taps as well as live blues most nights.

You don't have anything listed actually in SF. I agree with the La Trappe recommendation above, if you don't mind paying $20-$25 per plate. It's a short walk from both Rogue and Church Key as well. Cellarmaker (off to a great start) just opened near the Civic Center BART station and is literally a stone's throw from City Beer. One stop further south on BART and you can walk to a whole pile of places around Mission. Southpaw BBQ, Abbot's Cellar, Monk's Kettle, Rosamunde, and Pi Bar for food/beer. It's a longer hike to MateVeza but it's a cool place to check out if you have time. Bender's and Zeitgiest are similar to Toronado (grimy, gruff service, King Diamond on the jukebox, constant Pliny tap, and cash only). Southern Pacific for ticks. Or take the 6 or 71 bus and hit all the places along Haight (Toronado/Noc Noc, Magnolia, Alembic, and Social Kitchen). I could go on about SF, but I'm sure some of the local residents will chime in with plenty more info. Lots of good stuff in the east bay too.

In Paso Robles there are 3 or 4 other breweries now. Barrelhouse Brewing is beautiful. I've only been once so far but the beers are decent. Might be worth a stop since while the beers are good at Firestone my experience at the restaurant wasn't great. If you have a couple extra hours you can take highway 46 out to Cambria and check out that brewery. Even if you don't want to drink the beer (I was really not impressed) it's an awesome view in that area coming over the hills on 46 and you're right on highway 1 near Hearst Castle.

I'm running out of characters so I'll stop but I'll quickly add that Bootleggers is right up the street from the Bruery as are a handful of other bars around Fullerton. Also on your way down 101 from Paso heading to LA check out Hollister, Ladyface, and Wades Wines / Malibu Sundowner. If you feel like lunch in Ventura do Anacapa. The beer is meh but the food is good.

 

Didn't realize that Ballast Point was open at 11 - the extra hour of drinking is the key there. I think you did well...

 

tip of the day: tasting room in at Firestone Paso Robles opens at 10am. AM ale

like someone said above, check hours for Barrelworks. pretty sure they're only open Fri-Sun, from 10 or 11am to 5. definitely worth a stop

lots of great restaurants in Los Angeles. depends on what kind of food you like

 

www.beerbybart.for SF transit options as well.

 

Flavor in Santa Rosa. You are not far from Bear Republic in Healdburg, BTW.

Paso Robles, go to Barrelhouse for a change of pace, good beers and atmosphere. We didn't stay to long at Paso Robles Brewing, sort of a nano with a lot of guest taps. For food we liked Thomas Hill Organics for dinner, and Cowgirl Café for breakfast.

 

If you're planning on visiting SARA, be mindful of the hours cause they're super limited. Because of that, I'll second the plug for Aptos St BBQ. Aside from the awesome food and great tap list, they seem to always have one or two SARA beers