We were called for a weekend meeting out in California earlier this summer and many of us got in on Saturday afternoon. I met some of my colleagues at one of the rental car places and we took a drive up to Agoura Hills, north and west of Los Angeles where the meeting was to take place. After checking into the hotel, we were hungry and we found out that we were sort of on our own for dinner that evening. It was late in the afternoon, but with many of my colleagues coming in from the East Coast and Midwest, we were sort of famished. It turned out that there was a restaurant - Twisted Oak Tavern - just down the street from our hotel, literally walking distance from where we were staying. We decided to head there for a late lunch, early dinner.
It turns out that Twisted Oak also houses a brew pub - the Lab Brewing Company. Co-owner and brewmaster Roger Bott had a number of years of home-brewing experience as he worked in the biotechnology field. Co-owner Jeff Walker also had a background in brew pubs before the two got together to open their own brewery on the site of a former dance lounge in the Agoura Hills Town Center in November of 2011.
Sensing a need to re-brand after three years in business, Walker and Bott temporarily closed Lab Brewing Company just before Christmas in 2014. They came up with a new concept that promised a "fresh twist" on a gastro/brew pub. They reopened about a month later under the name Twisted Oak Tavern. The Lab Brewing Company continues to operate out of the facility and in addition to supplying Twisted Oak with a variety of craft beers, Lab Brewing also distributes to a handful of restaurants in the Agoura Hills/Thousand Oaks area.
A group of us made the very short trip over to Twisted Oak around 2:30 on a brilliantly sunny Southern California Saturday afternoon. (see map) We found a high-top table for 8 in the bar area. A young lady working behind the bar came out to give us some menus and to take our drink orders. In addition to the 8 beers on tap made in house by Lab Brewery, Twisted Oak also has a number of other craft beers on tap primarily from California. I got a local IPA that was made with hops from New Zealand. It had a somewhat hoppy, yet smooth taste to it.
The three-sided bar wrapped around the front and into the dining room. Recessed away from the large windows that let in natural light on the other side of bar, the dining area was more dark and cozy with a number of booths along a wall of reclaimed barn boards. Tables with banquette seating lined the east side wall of the dining area.
Off to the side of the dining area bathed in a soft purple light were fermenting tanks used by Lab Brewing Company. There were also a number of tanks behind a glass wall across an entry way in the brewery area. The entry way exited out to a nice little patio where a reunion party was just getting started when we got there.
We really didn't want to eat too much as we figured we would be going out for dinner later on that evening - after 8 p.m. in true European fashion. While Twisted Oak has burgers and sandwiches, they also feature a handful of entrees served during the dinner hour in the evening such as stout beer braised short ribs, a miso salmon dish, and an oven-roasted pig's head that is brined over night and available on a limited basis each day. They also have flatbreads, salads and a number of appetizers.
We sort of focused on the appetizer part of the menu deciding to get a little bit of everything to share at the table. I also got a dinner salad with a raspberry vinaigrette to start out on so I wouldn't overeat so much on the appetizers as It was getting close to 5 p.m. body-time and I was pretty hungry.
My choice for an appetizer were the mahi mahi fish tacos. The tacos featured large grilled chunks of mahi mahi topped with great tasting creamy chile verde sauce on flour tortilla shells. Shredded cabbage and lettuce along with chopped tomatoes were part of the toppings on the tacos. I'm a sucker for good fish tacos and I have to say these were pretty damned good.
We also got a couple double orders of chicken wings for the table. Someone ordered the habanero-spiced wings that I didn't think were all that spicy. And we also got the tandoori chicken wings that I felt tasted like something you'd get at Kentucky Fried Chicken. The chicken wings were pretty underwhelming to me.
Finishing out the food order at the table was a large plate of the loaded chicken nachos. It stayed down on the other end of the table, and that was fine with me. Between the salad, a couple chicken wings and the fish tacos, I'd had enough food to keep me going for the next 5 hours until we had dinner.
While we really didn't do anything other than appetizers on our visit to Twisted Oak Tavern/Lab Brewing Co., I have to say that I was very happy with the fish tacos, but that was about it. The chicken wings were pretty pedestrian. I will say the IPA made from New Zealand hops that I had was very good, and the service for a lazy Saturday afternoon was fine. Twisted Oak was a nice little place to hang out with some of my colleagues when really none of us wanted to give up a summer weekend for a meeting in California.
Comments