Walk through the downtown streets of San Luis Obispo, California and you might come across a curious looking barbershop with an open door. It’s known as Mike’s Barbershop, but it’s much more than a place to sit back in a rotating chair, get your bangs cut, and slick back your hair like your grandpa did in the 1930’s. No, this doorway is ready to help you relive the 1930’s in a completely different way at the Barrelhouse Brewing Speakeasy, located at 1033 Chorro Street.
Speak Softly
Barrelhouse Speakeasy is a local branch of Barrelhouse Brewing, a regional brewery headquartered in nearby Paso Robles, about 30 minutes to the north. The beer is shipped here for enjoyment by the residents and tourists who frequent San Luis Obispo and admire it for its scenic beauty and thriving craft beer scene.
Once you enter the door, you walk down the steps into the basement, where Barrelhouse Speakeasy is located. There is no natural light, of course, and it does have the feel of a dark basement, which is part of its appeal. There are wooden tables with stools for seating, a leather sofa and chair, and a bar area with about 16 taps waiting to serve. What looks like a shelf full of library books, behind the bar, is actually the secret door where the kegs are stored. And to find out what’s on tap, you just look above the bar at the electronic board, displaying the available beers.
Select Your Beer
Like I usually do when I visit a new brewery/beer bar, I went for smaller samples so that I could try more beer. They had many tempting options on the menu and I ended up trying nine of them. Here they are, listed alphabetically by name and followed by my Untappd rating, out of a possible 5 stars:
- Barrelhouse Rye IPA, 4
- Barrelhouse Stout, 4
- Big Sur Double IPA, 4.5
- Curly Wolf 2017 Maple Vanilla Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout, 4.25
- Mango IPA, 4
- Night Ryder, Imperial Black Rye IPA, 4.25
- Pineapple Blonde Sour, 4.00
- Snakebite, 3.25
- Sunny Daze Clementine Blonde, 3.75
Among my samples, I loved the Big Sur Double IPA the best, followed closely by the Curly Wolf 2017 Maple Vanilla Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout. Big Sur Double IPA packs in 9.6 percent alcohol by volume and features flavors such as pineapple, citrus, cantaloupe, and yeast with a slight malty presence to tie everything together. Its alcoholic strength is deceptive and it is quite a delicious brew. Curly Wolf 2017 Maple vanilla Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout offers a completely different flavor profile, with tastes of vanilla, whiskey, maple syrup, oak, roasted malt and coffee. I don’t smoke, but this delectable stout seems like it would match up nicely with a fine cigar.
Relive a Bygone Era
Barrelhouse Speakeasy in San Luis Obispo is a tribute to the infamous era known as prohibition. As many alcohol historians already know, Speakeasies got their name because entry into these secretive drinking establishments often required knowing a special password. You were supposed to ‘speak easy’, lest someone overhear you and possibly try to cause trouble.
Barrelhouse Brewing has moved the past forward to the present with this modern- day speakeasy and it was one of many places I looked forward to visiting when I spent a few days in this quaint college town as part of a west coast beercation. Speakeasy’s are a not uncommon theme for a bar, but I have been to very few and thus I greatly anticipated my visit to this downtown bar.
Finding this establishment is easy if you know what you’re looking for, but it could be quite the surprise for someone who doesn’t realize that a craft beer bar is located down the steps. I already knew what I was looking for and the barbershop frontage made it easy to locate. I walked down the steps into the basement, ready to meet the Barrelhouse Speakeasy team, drink beer, and imagine what life must have been like for revelers back during the days of prohibition.
Barrelhouse Speakeasy does get you in the speakeasy frame of mind, but they don’t overdo the theme, and I think that was a good idea. I have been in only a few speakeasy themed bars, but I notice that many of them go all- out with the theme. They post pictures of gangsters on the walls, use prohibition era words in the naming of the beer and other drinks, play Great Depression era music, and otherwise immerse the guests in the world of 1930’s America. Barrelhouse Speakeasy doesn’t go quite that far, but there is no denying that a speakeasy theme was the full intention. The bartenders dress the part, too.
I spent most of my time at Barrelhouse Speakeasy talking with some of the personnel and, like with most any brewery, the bartenders and staff were friendly, chatty, and knowledgeable about the product. I was here for close to two hours and I got to know a good deal about the San Luis Obispo area, the beer scene, and other things that make the area uniquely its own. I like to soak up the local culture when I visit a new brewery and, of course, I like to meet the people and discover the often interesting nuances that set one part of the United States apart from the rest.
Visiting the local barbershop is a routine all men must go through. I’m sure the males in San Luis Obispo are more than familiar with this once-every-two-month process of grooming, but they have something more to look forward to besides greater comfort and a confident, stylish feeling. That something is beer, and Barrelhouse Speakeasy is an excellent place to sip on local suds while reliving America’s dark past. Head down the stairwell the next time you’re in San Luis Obispo. And tell them Great Beer Now sent you.
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