ness io olibhia K.
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started coming here years ago with an ex who would bring me for bingo on wednesday nights, and then everybody would go over to legionnaire for karaoke afterward. it was a nice little ritual and a cute community. there's still interesting events here all the time; i promise i'm going to keep coming for star trek trivia. and i recognize that the modern internet review economy asserts that five stars means anywhere from "nearly perfect" down to "pretty ok", and even one fewer star means the establishment is hell on earth. bars and restaurants live or die on their google reviews. i understand this. unfortunately, i'm trying to have integrity on here, and we HAVE to talk about something. before we do, i want to acknowledge that maybe i am getting a little curmudgeonly, because this place is slowly morphing into something i don't recognize anymore. for years, there was a sign saying "no, we don't have fries; we have never had fries" or something to that effect, and people would somehow always still ask for fries. one day i showed up here and they were serving fries?! it feels like the character started draining from the spot, even though this is objectively an improvement. then i was over there the other night, and nobody is even checking IDs. apparently this isn't even a bar anymore; kids are allowed in here? that isn't technically a problem, but it does feel very odd. anyway, all of this really seems like it is a ripple consequence of the real issue, which is that beeryland seems to be going through an identity crisis as it is swept along by the winds of gentrification. and as a customer, you have to pay for that. the slushy mixed drinks are always so fun, and they serve a surprisingly strong veggie burger for somewhere i still consider to be a place for drinks first and food second. but two people, having just those things, are going to pay EIGHTY DOLLARS. at a quirky little patio bar. we all recognize that this is objectively wackadoodle, right? when are we going to stop putting up with stuff like this? i can get a much nicer dinner than that, with a more sophisticated beverage, at a number of other places in oakland. it feels like beeryland (which i still think of as "telegraph beer garden" — not sure of when the formal name change occurred) is now catering to a different crowd; it used to feel like a sociable working class millennial type of scene, and i don't know that the age demographic has shifted that much, but i'm definitely getting the sense that the clientele is now made up of more recent-arrival-techie types who are insecure about whether or not they are cool, and i don't know what to think about that. you could argue that this is ultimately less of a bar review and more of a reflection on my reluctance to handle change, but i don't know about that. i think we need to normalize three-star reviews. three stars should be at or above average. i cannot think of an establishment that embodies three star energy more fully than present-day beeryland. it's good, but if they want to earn a fourth, they need to bring those prices down or put more sincere effort into classing the place up. because can we please be for real?? eighty dollars. madness.