Showing Resolve Up at that Rock House

In the never-ending battle against lame food, I was almost handed a defeat today.

I was up at 3:15 to catch a 6:00 am flight from the east coast to Reno for an afternoon meeting, and from there, another flight to San Jose, California.

By the time I set foot off the plan in Cali, it was almost 9:30 eastern time.

I was beaten. Tired. Whupped. And I still had an hour drive.

The situation screamed for a quick drive-through stop at McDonald's.

But after seeing this horrible brand-new space-robot sculpture thing in the San Jose Airport, I changed my mind.


After all, if an "artist" can spend hours and hours and hours on a stupid-looking white robot thing, the least I can do is spend an hour relaxing, drinking beer with some good food.

So I chose the Rock House Sports Bar and Grill in Livermore, California -- about halfway between the airport and my final destination of Lathrop.

Of course, as usual, I was the only suit in the place. What else is new?

Rock House has your typical sports bar decor and looks like THE place to be during football season. First, the inside is huge with television sets everywhere. I was only in the bar area, so you can't tell just how large it is from the photos, but there had to be at least 50 TVs in the place.

There beer selection was great too. I counted 20 beers on tap, and the only American puke beers I saw were Coors Light, Bud Light and Budweiser. Everything else was either a nice import, a microbrew or a specialty beer.

I began sipping on a Anchor Steam -- I nice medium-bodied beer out of San Francisco -- while I perused the menu.

The menu is very expansive by sports bar standards. They had your usual fare -- like burgers and wings -- but they also serve pastas and have an entire page of Mexican dishes.

They also serve garlic fries which is a favorite of mine.

I considered those briefly along with the fish tacos, but settled on the beef burrito.

Unfortunately, that was a mistake.

First, it came with a foil wrapper, which is just a pain in the butt. Second, the tortilla wasn't you're standard flour tortilla. It was green. And not Mexican green either.

I strongly suspect they used a either a sun-dried tomato basil tortilla, or at least one with Italian spices. The flavor wasn't overpowering, fortunately, but it didn't go at all.

Also, the burrito wasn't cooked evenly. Some of the rice was still hard and stuck a little in my teeth when I ate it.

For California, this is unacceptable. Seriously, you can't find a Mexican anywhere to make a beef burrito? I hear Arizona is trying to get rid of some.

So is Mexico for that matter.

Of course, hitting any sports bar on a Monday during the summer is iffy. The crowd was sparse and mostly in their mid-twenties to late-thirties. I'm sure they were more interested in drinking than eating.

Fortunately, so was I. After all, any day when you get a good tall ice-cold Anchor Steam on draft is a good day. And I got out of there for less than $20 with a tip, so I can't complain too much.

I'd go back, but I'd definitely try something else -- either the fish tacos or maybe those garlic fries.




Rating: Would wear their shirt, wouldn't buy one.