American Craft Beer The Best Craft Beer, Breweries, Bars, Brewpubs, Beer Stores, And Restaurants Serving Serious Beer.
The newspaper industry had William Randolph Hearst, the automotive industry had Henry Ford, and the Los Angeles craft beer industry has Tony Yanow. Each had a huge influence on his respective industry, but Tony is probably the only one out of the three who doesn’t know how to do the Lindy Hop. Tony may be one of the most influential craft beer entrepreneurs in LA, and he accomplished this feat in a surprisingly short amount of time.
With a passion for microbrews, Tony opened two beer bars serving local craft brews: Tony’s Darts Away in Burbank and Mohawk Bend in Echo Park. He also wanted to have a small brewery to make amazing beers for his bars, so he opened Golden Road Brewery. This small brewery has now grown into one of the largest craft breweries in Los Angeles and is pointing the way for the local craft beer movement.
Tony and I had a quick chat at Tony’s Darts Away in Burbank during their anniversary weekend in April where he laid out his story and explained his passion. He grew up in Canada, but visited England when he was 15 and 16 years old. He would sneak out to the local pubs with a fake ID to get “munted” with some “blokes”. This experience turned Tony on to the pub atmosphere where he acquired a taste for real ale that was brown and interesting instead of piss yellow and boring. After graduating from the University of British Columbia, he traveled following the Grateful Dead. Tony has a love for dank, highly hopped beers that closely resemble liquid marijuana, which one would assume was derived from his days as a Deadhead.
When he moved to LA sixteen years ago, he started a little website called music.com, did the whole “I’m a CEO” thing for awhile, left the website, and got into some other successful entrepreneurial ventures. He knew that LA was a tantalizing opportunity for craft beer because while people loved it, they couldn’t go many places to buy it at the time. Tony then made it his goal to open four to five local craft beer bars, and he started with Tony’s Darts Away.
The original Tony’s Darts Away was established by another chap named Tony in 1972, when it opened without a license. The bar was officially established in 1978. The original Tony left it to his daughter, Maria, and Maria sold it to Daniel. Daniel begot David who begot Jebediah who then begot Joseph the Carpenter – Sorry I trailed off for a moment. Let’s back up – Daniel changed the name to “Darts Away” and painted over the “Tony’s” on the sign. But people still called the bar Tony’s and eventually the paint washed off, revealing One Eyed Willie’s pirate treasure map. Wait, sorry (trailed off again – I was thinking of another bar in Astoria, OR) – revealing the “Tony’s” on the sign. Tony came into the bar almost four years ago and ordered an Alaskan Amber, but noticed there was an off smell to the beer. He found out that the bar was keeping their glasses in their meat fridge. Tony decided that enough was enough and bought the Miller/Coors bar, intending to make sure that the only porterhouse in his pint glasses would be the house porters served from local craft breweries (I get one bad pun per article folks).
Wanting to present something better than a burger and fries place, Tony used his plant-based diet to influence his menu, turning his newly purchased acquisition into a vegan-friendly eatery as well as a California-only craft beer house that featured 37 taps. Every group has that one friend who is vegan or vegetarian – you know who I’m talking about, Vegan Vince. “Sorry guys, we can’t go to the Slaughterhouse Meat-Emporium and get that bacon-wrapped T-bone steak stuffed with pork ribs that we’ve all been craving because Vegan Vince is coming with us tonight. I guess we’re going to have to go to the Green-Bean-Stalk, again.” No need to worry about pleasing your vegan friends while satisfying your carnivorous needs, because Tony’s Darts Away has a balanced menu of gourmet local organic meat and vegan sausages. I got my meat fix on with an apple sausage with griddled onions and mango salsa and some mad sweet potato fries on the side.
As you would expect, Tony’s features all of Golden Road’s available brews. For the anniversary weekend, Golden Road brewed a special double IPA called Darts Away IPA that was the smoothest and most refreshing IPA I’ve had with an ABV over 9%. Tony was also impressed with the anniversary craft (being a lover of IPAs). Tony gets emotional about his beers, and drinks the Golden Road Point the Way IPA 20 hours a week. I told him that I sometimes put a lime wedge in the Point the Way when I’m eating Mexican food for a festive beverage, and I think he wanted to punch me in the face. (He’s actually a nice guy and he would probably never do this, but I could see it in his eyes).
Tony achieved his goal of opening four local craft beer bars in LA, but I’m sure the craft beer lovers of Los Angeles (including myself) wouldn’t mind it if he continued to open more because the beers that he provides to the masses are oh so good. In addition to Tony’s Darts Away and Mohawk Bend, Tony opened up a brewpub and a separate private dining room named Chloe’s at the Golden Road Brewery. Currently, Tony Yanow is enjoying the moment and doesn’t have any ambitions to open new restaurants or expand his craft beer empire. Yes, his bars and brewery have been extremely successful, but keep in mind that despite Henry Ford’s first success, he didn’t stop making cars after the Model T.
