Just in time for the weekend, Filling Stations is a weekly post that highlights one of Los Angeles’ destinations for craft beer, be it a bottle-shop with a great selection, a restaurant with great food to go with their beer list, or a bar serving excellent beers.

Beer Belly

• Neighborhood: Korea Town View Larger Map
• Type: Gastropub
• Yelp Page
• Selection: 3/5 Price: 3/5 Staff: 5/5

Beer Belly is located off Western Blvd, and the bar is housed in a stocky white cube of a building decorated with colorful street art and two graphic signs pointing you to Park and Drink. Just to be clear, Beer Belly features the rarest of accommodations for a LA bar, especially in the Korea Town neighborhood: a parking lot. Free valet parking even! Once you enter the cozy space you can grab a stool at the short bar or seat one of the small tables arranged around the perimeter of the room. And then it is time for beer.

Beer Belly is dedicated to showcasing the best in LA and California’s craft beer, and at any time they have 12 varieties ranging from $6 to $8 a glass. There are often some hard-to-find treats on the list, and there it is always a tough decision when ordering the first glass. They also offer the Beer Belly Flight of 4 beers for $10 if you really can’t decide on just one. The tap-list is well curated and covers the bases from sessionable ales to big imperial brews. There is an extensive bottle-list covering everything from 12oz cans to 750ml Belgian champagne-bottled beers. And that’s not counting the “rare beer list” that houses some very special treats pulled from the owner’s own cellar.

Once you have your beverages sorted you would be remiss to not take advantage of the high quality comfort food coming out of Chef Wes Lieberher’s kitchen. Gastropub favorites like hot wings, fish-and-chips, and mac-and-cheese get the special Beer Belly treatment and the staff is more than happy to recommend food to pair with your beer (or beer to pair with your food). We’ve yet to sample them, but the Duck Fat Fries have a reputation of awesomeness and were even named some of the best fries in Los Angeles by the LA Weekly.

The joint was started by two LA beer-nerds, Jimmy and Yume Han, just one year ago. The couple has built a loyal and rather large following over the last year, and Beer Belly can get packed; especially during one of their many special-events. These One-Night-Stand tap-takeovers and special brewery dinners are some of the reasons that Beer Belly is such an outstanding craft beer venue in a city that seems to have a new beer-focused location opening almost weekly.

With excellent relations to the local craft brewers, an inventive and daring chef, and a lot of love and devotion, the Hans have made Beer Belly a great spot for a beer and a bite in a lively neighborhood. And did we mention there’s free parking?  No excuses for not stopping in for a flight and some Duck Fat Fries!