Lunch on Gilman Street: Berkeley, CA
On the last day of my trip to the bay area I had nowhere in particular to be until my flight home that night, so I wandered the streets of Berkeley for a couple hours. I wasn’t totally aimless though as I had a mission to see 924 Gilman Street, the D.I.Y. venue that over the past three decades has become iconic in punk culture for birthing bands like Operation Ivy, Green Day, more.
The venue was pretty easy to pass up if you weren’t looking for it.There is no signage or fliers shouting to the world “Hey! Did you Green Day used to play here before they could sell out stadiums?” because selling out to major record corporations and forsaking quality and grit of the songs for fuck-tons of money is not exactly encouraged in the scene. It was only marked with a simple 924 and covered in band stickers and fliers for shows taking place in the future somewhere else. Luckily for me, a 942 Gilman Street Project volunteer clad in punk attire (studs, spikes, patch covered vest, etc.) was sitting on the ground outside eating a burger. They let me in and gave me a free shirt for which I am very grateful.
With 15 minutes successfully killed poking around the empty venue and explaining to volunteers that I wasn’t from around there, I left and finally noticed the fine establishment right next door. Gilman Street Brewing Co.
Their brewery is located, as the companies name suggests, on Gilman Street in North Berkeley CA but they also have a taproom in nearby Daly City (just south of San Francisco). I started with a Hot Carl Hazy IPA. It’s 7.7% ABV but did not have the bitterness that accompanies most heavy IPAs. Instead it was surprisingly sweet and floral. In the glass it was an translucent gold color which really put the “hazy” in hazy IPA.
I followed it up with Cubano sandwich and a Green Eyed Devil American Lager. This is just an all around classic beer. I love when craft breweries still take the time to keep it simple and pump out Lagers. Green Eyed Devil is 5.5% ABV, making a little stronger than your average domestic draft, but keeps that party beer in 30 rack flavor. The bartender even said it was their homage to PBR! Perhaps it’s not for you snobs out there but it still blew PBR out of the water.














