With a few tweaks from the original location in Moraga, Canyon Club Brewery opened its second restaurant and brewery in Danville this month
On a recent Wednesday night visit, the place was buzzing with an after-work crowd filling most of the outdoor seats stationed around fire pits and beneath heat lamps.
Here’s our “First Look” feature:
THE VIBE: Part backyard picnic, part after-work happy hour.
THE VIEW: The spacious outdoor patio looks out towards the parking lot. Dark-wood buildings make the relatively-busy plaza feel like it’s nestled in the woods.
THE LOOK: While the Moraga location has a much larger outdoor area for a classic beer garden vibe, owner Kevin Hamilton flipped the script for the Danville location, which still seats 120 outside but adds another 190 indoors.
It took him a while to find a venue that he felt fit the natural theme of Canyon Club, which he finally found what he described as “an old barn” on Sycamore Valley Road.
“It was like a needle in a haystack,” said Hamilton, who opened the Moraga location in 2019. “It sang to us. We walked in and were like, ‘this place feels like us.’ It’s old school, with wood beam ceilings. You’d never build that today. It feels very old-timey.”
Hamilton said the new spot is a bit more polished than the Moraga location. The big, open space shows off the raw wood, while potted plants hang from a floating catwalk above the bar to add greenery and maintain the natural look.
There are some brewery tanks within sight and the smell of fresh beer is in the air, but it’s not overpowering, and the light-and-breezy vibe with the wide-open front door makes it feel like you’re walking into a friend’s house.
The outdoor patio is where the party is at. Friends sit around the fire with several empty beer glasses next to their chairs. Co-workers look over documents while sipping a cold one. There was one family and two dogs on this visit, but the majority of the crowd seemed like working professionals taking a load off, exactly what Hamilton hoped for when he set out to create a “third place” for locals to gather.
THE TEAM: Hamilton, a native of Boston’s North End Italian neighborhood, began working in restaurants when he was 14. He put himself through college while bartending and eventually turned to real estate. But after he sold his business in 2016, he knew he wanted to open his own place.
THE FOOD: With a bigger kitchen in the Danville location, Hamilton eyed a bigger menu, too, adding pickled eggs ($5), thick slices of millionaire’s bacon ($9) and stout-braised short ribs ($34) to the list.
The most popular menu items are the wagyu burger ($22), fried chicken sandwich ($21) and fish and chips ($26).
Hamilton said it was important to him to find the perfect fish and chips recipe. He went through 15 variations until he landed on the current one, with a house-made batter made made with Canyon Club beer, house-made tartar sauce and flaky cod that doesn’t separate from the batter when you bite into it.
The final product is spectacular. The outside is fried to perfection, so light and crispy you’ll be eating the little pieces left on the plate. The fish pieces are big enough to eat with your hand, making for easy dipping into the creamy tartar sauce that’s just the right amount of tangy. It’s served with coleslaw and fries.
“I had this vision I had to bring to life,” Hamilton said. “We get fresh fish delivered six days a week. I’ve even had guests from New England who said, ‘this is the best fish and chips I’ve had on the West Coast.’”
THE SIPS: The most popular beers are the IPAs and the Kolsch, but Hamilton believes the brewery’s true speciality is the European-style beers, like the “Beta Tested,” a 5.1% ABV Czech-style pilsner dry hopped with European Saaz and Huell Melon. The Belgian blonde “Buddy System” is a spicy 6.4% and the German-style helles checks in at 5.8%.
We gave the Buddy System a taste and were blown away by the lightness. The sweetness often associated with blonde ales felt more subtle, like a dry, white wine, and the floral notes made it the perfect drink for a warm day. We’d especially recommend it for those who may not be regular beer drinkers.
DON’T MISS: The Danville location is currently open for dinner only, but will open for brunch and lunch once the weather warms. Also coming soon is live music, Friday through Sunday in the outdoor beer garden.
“The original business plan was always to expand and take this concept of a third place to other towns,” Hamilton said. “A strong community needs a third place. It worked so well in Moraga and it became the third place for the community. Danville was a natural second choice.”
Details: Open daily from 4 to 10 p.m. at 204 Sycamore Valley Rd. in Danville; canyonclub.com.
