A beer pairing board matches elevated bar snacks with select beers.

If there’s one thing I knew for certain heading into Burgeon Beer Company’s new downtown tasting room, it’s that the beer would be fantastic. That’s been the case with Burgeon beers, pretty much across the board, since the Carlsbad brewery first opened in late 2016. The new taproom, dubbed Burgeon at the Arbor, finally offers downtown area beer fans the opportunity for to belly up to a Burgeon bar south of the 8 freeway. The keys to a successful visit are this simple: try everything, uber home.

However, there’s more than beer to Burgeon at the Arbor. The taproom sits on Kettner Boulevard at A Street, less than a block from the south end of Little Italy. Plants hang from the rafters, while large windows open to the street outside, part of Burgeon plan to make the place, “feel like an outdoor beer garden transported inside.”

Burgeon Beer's newest taproom is just outside Little Italy.

And furthermore, a restaurant has also been transported inside.

Which isn’t to say the team behind Burgeon decided that being good at making beer qualified them to create a restaurant menu. Wisely, they looked outside their business to install meal service in their new location: they partnered the Good Seed Food Company.

Inside Burgeon at the Arbor, plants hang from the rafters.

If that name sounds familiar, chances are pretty good you have gone drinking mead and cider in Miramar. That’s where Good Seed operated over the past few years, operating out of the tasting room shared by Serpentine Cider and Lost Cause Mead. Led by Chef Chuy de la Torres, Good Seed used its time in Miramar to establish a reputation within the craft beverage community, behind a menu that varied from bar snacks such as wings and deviled eggs, to hot sandwiches and more adventurous fare including mussels.

By moving in with Burgeon to the Little Italy area, the chef and his food should find a larger audience. Even if it means having to call the place The Good Seed Food Company at Burgeon at the Arbor.

Chef Chuy of Good Food Seed company at work in the Burgeon taproom it shares

As it was in Miramar, Good Seed’s kitchen is hidden behind a service window in one corner of the taproom. I’m guessing it’s a bigger kitchen, though. While the old favorites remind — mussels ($15), deviled eggs ($6), and those dry-rubbed “stupid wings” ($12) — there’s a broader fixed menu at work. One that features regular items including a burger ($15), jambalaya ($20), and whatever local catch seafood is in season ($20).

And if, like me, you’re a huge fan of both ribeye and tacos, you can hit the motherlode, with three ribeye tacos for $15. Whatever you order, you’ll find a suggested Burgeon Beer pairing. The tacos suggest one of the house hazy IPAs. The burger is said to go well with a piney west coast IPA.

Three ribeye tacos, served with pickled radishes, chimichurri and roasted salsa

If you’re really keyed up about beer pairings, you can choose to experience chef Chuy’s playful creativity by checking out the Beer Pairing Board. For $20, you get four, four-ounce tasting samples of Burgeon beers, plus a small snack intended to complement the beer. At my last visit, that meant pickled black grapes paired with a pilsner; chorizo-cured ahi with hazy IPA; and curried kimchi with that clear west coast IPA. Set up by the chef and Burgeon’s resident cicerone (think beer sommelier), these are more brazen pairing than you’ll find most places, offering strong flavors that challenge clean drinking beers with increasing pungency. To wit, the fourth pairing on the board pits blue cheese with a hoppy double IPA.

It’s a good time to be had at a restaurant that happens to operate within a beer venue. Where, basically, success follows the same formula: try everything, and plan to uber home.