The Empire Tap Room (Part Noelle)

I’d like to add a little to Josh’s review of the Empire Tap Room. The main problem with the place as a bar is that it’s really not a bar. Despite what the name suggests, it’s more of a restaurant where patrons can find rich food in a fancy pub setting. Tables with tablecloths take up more of the room than bar seating. On one occasion, I actually went there for lunch and enjoyed a really lovely warm goat cheese salad and polenta (this expedition documented on my food blog). On warm afternoons, you can sit in the courtyard, where there are sunshine, vines and a fountain.

And if you’d like a beer with your meal, by all means…

Empire Tap Room
Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/empire-tap-room-palo-alto
651 Emerson St
Palo Alto, CA 94301
(650) 321-3030

The Empire Tap Room

Across the street from the trendy frozen yogurt bar Fraiche sits this even trendier bistro/bar. I’ve been trying to think of a word other than “yuppie” for this place, but so far, I’ve been unable.

Normally, I’m very pro-yuppie atmosphere. I love me some coziness. Oak finishing, softly lamp lit tables, I’ll take it all. But there’s one part of the yuppiness I can’t tolerate (not anymore, at least): Stuffiness. As soon as their goofy, awkward, coke bottle-bottomed bespectacled waiter approached me, I knew. The place was a morgue. It was where white collar, Silicon Valley folk go to die, at least for the night. The rotund bartender managed to disprove my theory that all porky people are jolly. The end; don’t go here.

651 Emerson St
Palo Alto, CA 94301
(650) 321-3030

Lots of beer on tap. $4 for 10oz, $6 for 20oz. No idea how the cocktails are.