Thursday, February 5, 2009

The Greenhouse in Roseville

Written by Jeff Barber

Recently my wife, Becky, and I visited the Greenhouse in Roseville, a still relatively new organic restaurant and brewery. Since Rick’s post about the Greenhouse was soon after it opened almost a year ago, I thought an update was due. Becky and I are always on the lookout for places that have outside seating and we were frequent customers of the Greenhouse, two generations ago as the still missed River Rock.

I have to say I was very impressed. Scaled down from its previous high-end existence as the Town Lounge, it still is a very comfortable place with a lot of dark wood, and the fore-mentioned out door patio.

The day we were there, they had eight beers on tap, all made on premises by Kevin Pratt, Brewmaster. The most impressive was their Belgian Golden Ale, a very tart, complex 8% ABV ale. I love Belgian strong ales and this was an excellent example. The alcohol is well hidden as well. Becky likes only very mild beers and she loved the Kolsch. Although a little too mild for me, it was very true to style. I also tasted their English Pale Ale, Summer Wheat (more like Belgian Wit), Bock, and Irish Red. All the beers were quite good with the Irish Red being the other standout (lots of bready and caramel malts with some good finishing hop bitterness).

The food also was excellent. Becky had the calamari and I had the shrimp tacos. The calamari was huge (enough for 3-4 people to share), crisp and delicious. The tacos were just a little on the spicy side with some very meaty shrimp.

Service also was good so if anyone is looking for a place to sit outside and sip a beer, or have a meal, in the most of the time beautiful Roseville weather, give The Greenhouse a try!