A Pyramid Made Out Of Cheese

People like booze.  It's a pretty well known fact that a bar in a restaurant can bring in a sizeable chunk of the profits for the establishment on any given night.  Restaurants have begun to create a hybridization, teaming food and beverages together where both are created in the same place.  This has begun to happen on a mostly regional level over the last few decades and breweries have led the charge with alehouses and brewpubs.  Not only do they serve classic bar food, but often they've got some pretty fancy foods (that use when possible the beers made by them) that are served with their in house crafted beverages.  They leave the major booze making to their factories, but these smaller establishments do produce for in-house consumption. 

A mostly western region brewery, Pyramid has opened up a number of alehouses that run along the west coast of the US.  Being in the Bay Area, I've got access to a pair of these, with one in Walnut Creek and the other in Berkeley (which does do tours because of the amount of beer produced there).

Some of the early ideas for this blog were discused out during a dinner with coworkers at the Walnut Creek Pyramid alehouse during a spring evening in 2010.  While the mac I had then isn't the same as the one they have on their menu currently, it was about time that I got back there and gave them an official review and another recent group office lunch gave me that opportunity. 

Brand:
Pyramid's Bacon Mac & Cheese (as served at the Walnut Creek, CA location )

Snapped as I was leaving.  I wasn't able to take any other pictures of the establishment because I was trying to avoid including those in the restaurant just trying to enjoy their meals and not become internet famous thanks to this hip and stylish blog.



Price:
$5 at Pyramid

Yes this is a side dish... Yes I just ordered it as a meal.  No I don't have a problem...

Preperation:
*Find yourself at a Pyramid Alehouse.  There are locations in Walnut Creek, Berkeley and Sacramento in California.  As well as locations in Seattle, WA and Portland, OR.

*After being seated and handed a menu, wait until it's your turn to place an order with your waiter/waitress before you ask for the bacon mac.  Remeber, it can be a side dish to something bigger if you really want to go that route!

*Hopefully you're not the only one at your table so that you've got someone(s) to talk to while your food is being made.  If not, maybe you'll be close enough to the bar to see one of the many TV's showing a multitude of sports ball events.

*Once your server has returned with your food, make sure that you've placed a napkin on your lap before you dig in.  You never know when you'll have an accident.  Better safe than sorry!


And this was the 'side'?


*Commence with the nomming!


Taste:
When the meal was brought out, the first thing that I could smell that belonged to my dish was the bacon. Which if you ask me, isn't a bad way to start out your meal.  The noodles were cooked and the breadcrumbs crispy. The shaved pieces of Asiago cheese on top were mild (for Asiago) and gave it a nice touch.  Digging into the bowl I found chunks of bacon and while nice, they didn't give much flavor to the dish as they were quite soft and somewhat large.  There wasn't much in the way of a sauce and it wasn't very cheesy once you got past the pieces of shredded Asiago that began to melt after I mixed it up.

Final Score:
A serious lacking of cheesy taste alone would have done this meal in, but when you add bacon, the meat of the gods to the dish and squander it's precious powers, you've failed.  I'm not sure how you can have chunks of bacon and not harness any of the taste of it.  I had a similar issue with their previous mac n' cheese dish when I had it years ago (the lack of a cheesy taste).  While the ingredients may have changed, the problems still remain.  Please don't let this stop you from visiting a Pyramid, they've got tasty beers and some other great food, just don't head out for the mac.

Nutritional Information:
Looking both in the restaurant and online, I wasn't able to find anything on the nutritional information of any of their menu items.  While this is a smaller dish thanks to it being a side, it's still got plenty of cheese, bacon and other things that make meals tasty, while doing their best to help sabotage your midsection.