Heading into Beechwood, I was feeling a bit skeptical. Bars in Venice can tend to be a bit trendy, especially the food-serving kind. Once inside, part of my skepticism was confirmed, with strangely shaped lounge seats and a half hour wait even though we had reservations. Oh well, at least they had a pretty sweet beer menu so I could have a little something to drink while waiting. They had a pretty cool-looking wheat beer called Moosbacher from Germany. Since I like moose and wheat, I figured these would outweigh my distaste for Germany, and I was right. It was quite good and came in a huge bottle.
About midway through my beer we were seated. I took a look at the menu and was surprised by the high prices. Since when did bar food become so pricey? Luckily, we were able to order from the special bar menu and I found something that looked great, at least in name. It was called the Amusing Ground Rib Eye Burger and hey, I like to be amused. It came with BBQ sauce, gruyere and arugula. The arugula did not amuse me so I ordered it without and then got it cooked medium. It was nice that even though this was a semi-pretentious place, they were willing to take changes, unlike some gastropubs I know (achem Father’s Office achem)
It arrived and looked pretty swanky. The bun had some sort of swirly design on it that gave it character and was nice and soft. I chomped down and was really impressed. You may even say I was amused. The burger was nice and moist without being juicy and drippy and the house made BBQ sauce went really nicely with it. It was also nice that it came with fries, unlike some gastropubs I know (achem Father’s Office achem).
Overall, I was pretty satisfied. The place in general was a bit expensive and pretentious, but they made up for that with some good beers and quite a good burger. It may never get the acclaim that other gastropubs do, but the Amusing Ground Rib Eye Burger definitely deserves to be up there.