The Brix is located along PCH in Sunset Beach California.
We have driven by this place numerous times and we finally decided to stop in a check it out. We had seen this place on the TV Show "Bar Rescue"and they had given it a nice makeover and a new name. It was renamed the Pacific Coast Wine Bar for which the interior signage is still displayed. The bar went back to the old name The Brix shortly after the show aired. The owner that was shown on Bar Rescue recently sold the bar as we meet the new owner who was really nice. He referred to it as "The Meeting Place" (A Third name perhaps?).
The Good
The inside of the bar looks great and they have a cool chalkboard showing what flights they currently offer.
Here is a sample of one of the wines we tried.
Carmenet was a decent Chardonnay
The Great
Enjoying a glass of wine in a place that has nice atmosphere and great music!!
The performer Kurt Hunter played a set that perfectly fit the wine bar setting. He was excellent.
The Burnt
Even with a new owner The Brix struggled in the food department.
The bar has gone back to the strange Deli menu that in no way matches a Wine Bar. We had already had lunch in Huntington Beach so all we ordered was some Truffle Oil Popcorn with shaved Parmesan. Truffle oil makes everything better...But no matter how good the Truffle oil is it can't save burnt Jiffy Pop Popcorn. Is this a warning of things to come??? I mean if you can't even get popcorn right ---what must the other food be like.
Gordon Ramsay would have had a field day with this place. They were having a special party on their outside patio and decided to bring some free samples around to the bar patrons. Probably not the best idea!!! I guess the popcorn was just the precursor of what was to come. They started bringing out some severely burnt food. So badly burnt in fact, it was nearly unrecognizable. We were pretty much laughing as they passed it out to customers watching their reactions. We quickly became giddy with excitement to see what was going to be next? Your guess is as good as ours as to what this was....some sort of chicken perhaps??
You can see some soogy potatoes amongst the charred remains. We wondered "I hope the special party wasn't getting burnt food like this". Someone should have had the common sense to look at the food before handing it out as a "Freebie" to the paying customers. I couldn't imagine being a server walking around with these blackened lumps of coal and pretending to be proud of the chef's creation. Perhaps the waitress who wandered around sipping from her giant goblet of wine (bigger than any of the customers) passing out the samples was her way of dealing with the traumatic food offerings. Handing out burnt food samples isn't the best way to get people to order off the menu. Hopefully the new ownership will get things turned around . And a new chef can craft a menu that will fit the cool vibe of this wine bar.
If we see that their menu has changed we may go back and check it out again, since other then the food we felt it had great potential.
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