Riley’s Brew Pub
What do you get when a third-generation brewmaster teams up with a second-generation restaurateur? A first-class brew pub in Clovis called Riley’s. Open for about a month, Riley’s has been getting good word of mouth. Great beer…good food…friendly service. Some even calling it a family-friendly bar. It was about time FresYes checked it out first-hand.
Many people were already familiar with Madera-based Riley’s Brewing‘s craft beers and hard root beer — which they’ve been bottling and selling for a few years now — before the brew pub opened on October 10. With the new location, existing Riley’s fans now have a place to enjoy their favorite beverages on tap and sample new brews all in one place…with food! And Riley’s newbies like myself can come in and check out what this local brewery is all about…also with food! Here’s how it went when I did just that on Wednesday.
I went in around 11 a.m., right as the place was opening, with a friend and her four-year-old daughter (the relaxed, late morning atmosphere definitely lived up to the “family-friendly bar” reputation I’d heard about). My friend’s friend met us a few minutes later and, after getting drinks from the bar and ordering food at the counter up front (a two-step process which will hopefully be ironed out as time goes on) we settled in at a table on the back patio. The hard vanilla cream soda I ordered was dangerously delicious. Dangerous because I could easily drink about six of them. The Riley’s burger with cheese and side of fries that came out to the table a few minutes later, was simple, fresh, and exactly as I had ordered it. And, while I like deep-fried anything as much as the next person, the fact that Riley’s serves bar food without a side of grease is, well, refreshing!
But halfway through my burger, our “girl party,” as my friend’s daughter called it, was interrupted, by none other than Mike Shirinian, co-owner of Riley’s and the aforementioned second-generation restaurateur. Except he wasn’t there to see me because he knew I was writing a review. No, he came around the back corner of the restaurant, strode through the open patio gate and walked directly up to Violet, my friend’s daughter…completely out of the blue. Pulling out a business card, he handed it to her and asked how she liked the place. And then he offered her a free dessert. Anything she wanted from the two-item dessert menu, he joked. And she lost it! Check out the cute-overload video of the cake being delivered, and promptly eaten, below.
Only after the cake incident had mellowed, was I able to introduce myself to Shirinian and tell him why I was there. And he was as friendly to me as his staff had been throughout the whole visit. Other things to love about Riley’s are its hours (finally there’s a restaurant in Clovis open past 9 p.m.!), great music, sleek wood-and-metal interior, and ever-expanding drink list. The brew pub already has a full bar, but Riley’s recently added its own brand of vodka into the mix, and I hear whiskey, gin and tequila are in the works.
So, you can add this review to the rest of the good word-of-mouth. And you should definitely check out Riley’s and give it your own review. All the information you need to get you there is listed below.
Riley’s Brew Pub, 2674 Owens Mountain Parkway, Suite #104, Clovis; 559-862-2925. Open from 11 a.m. to midnight seven days a week. For awesome pictures of food and drinks, check out @rileysbrewpub on Instagram.
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