I recently took a trip back to my hometown of Sonora, CA. Although the selection is somewhat slim relative to what is available in the Bay Area, there are a few restaurants in town that get the fat kid stamp of approval. One of my all time favorites is
Diamondback Grill- cannot go wrong with the grilled chicken salad or the sweet potato fries. Diamondback's owner has opened a few restaurants over the years, including Blue Collar Pizza and Coyote Cafe. All were great, so I was super excited to hear that they were opening a new restaurant called
Standard Pour.
For those that know Sonora, they opened up in the old Snowshoe Brewery location, which I absolutely love. They did a great job at renovating it. For those that don't know Sonora, the building is located in a historic company town for the Standard Lumber Company and I think it might have served as a train station at some point. The building was well preserved and is one of my favorite historic architectural landmarks in Tuolumne County.
From what I can gather, Standard Pour is a beer drinkers version of a wine bar. All of the meals can be paired with a beer. They have a great selection of beers, mostly domestic microbreweries, but also some great imports as well. They offer beer tasting flights throughout the week, but on Wednesday nights, the flights are only $4 with the purchase of a meal.
Although the beer was good, the food was great. Much like Diamondback, Standard Pour's menu features salads, burgers and sandwiches. Most of the ingredients are locally sourced or at least California based. Reasonably priced- everything is between $6-$12. We started out with the bacon cheddar hush puppies with maple sour cream. Absolutely fat kid approved.
Sorry for the blurry picture, but wanted to show what the insides looked like. The hush puppies were very well done- crispy outside, soft and moist inside with bits of yummy bacon mixed in. I can acknowledge that this California girl might have a limited palate for hush puppies, but I am willing to bet that these would pass the test among Southerners.
I had the Spicy Indian Eggplant Sandwich with Jalapeño, Cilantro, Ginger, and Peanut Spread, Cumin Yogurt Raita, and Pickled Cucumber. I chose salad with roasted tomato vinaigrette. Overall, it was great. The eggplant was great and I loved the jalapeno spread. My only complaint is that the bun was too bulky. Absolutely impossible to take a bite with both side together, so I ended up eating it as an open faced sandwich. Not a big deal. I think this is a great choice for vegetarians and could easily be adapted for vegans as well.
M had the half pound kobe beef burger with Point Reyes blue cheese and homemade pesto. He chose the sweet potato fries with significant urging on my point to make this selection. This was AMAZING!
The burger had just the right amount of blue cheese. Most times, restaurants put either way too much or way too little. Not here. The pairing with pesto just sealed the deal. M loved it so much I barely got a few bites in before it was gone. We would recommend it to anyone.
Oh sweet potato fries, I love you so very much. You are the near perfect fat kid food- I can justify eating you because you are so nutrient rich and pretend that I am being healthy, even though deep down I know that you are just fried goodness. The Standard Pour uses the same recipe as Diamondback, which is great. I am a fan of shoestring rather than wedge fries. In my experience, most places don't do shoestring sweet potato fries, but Diamond and Standard Pour can deliver. They provide a great ratio of crispy outside and soft sweet inside.
I'm definitely planning on going back. The Standard Pour has special tasting events and I think they even host a trivia night. I just wish this stuff was going on when I was living in Sonora....
