Moonraker Brewing Co.

For those of you who have read the “What is Shake and Date” section located in the “About” page on this website, you’ll know that DIY projects tend to take precedence over everything else going on in our lives. Lately we have found ourselves once again fully submerged into getting something done at our house within a limited time frame. It is for this reason I didn’t think Shake and Date was going to happen this week. Okay, “technically”, it didn’t. What did happen is I used my noggin a bit, and came up with a solution on how to slightly cheat the Shake and Date game. Actually, I don’t condone cheating, so let’s re-word that a bit and say “bend the rules” instead.

The hubby and I agreed that Shake and Date just wasn’t going to happen because we had too much to get done in too little of time. So Shake and Date did not happen. HOWEVER…what did happen was my son’s 31^st birthday gathering. Now, here’s how I rationalized about bending the rules of Shake and Date. First of all, Moonraker was initially in our bottle, and we did in fact shake it out a few weeks back. However, we couldn’t find anything on their website about having a Happy Hour. So Brian gave them a call to find out before we headed up there and he did indeed confirm they do not have a Happy Hour. We ended up tossing that piece of paper aside, wrote Moonraker onto the reject list and shook again. I guess I need to clarify…DIY projects take precedence over everything except family events. We don’t miss those. So I slid Moonraker into the weekly spot where Shake and Date normally would hold so I could at least write about somewhere.

Truth be told, I never finished writing it up. Shake and Date not happening “this week” was actually last week now, and I’m not sure if it will happen again this week. We’re almost done with our project, which is a full garage renovation, but we have another deadline coming up that will also be taking precedence. We have some modifications to make on our camper van before hitting the road for two weeks. It’s undecided yet if Shake and Date will also be hitting the road, but if it does, I most likely won’t write about anything until after we return. What I’m trying to tell those of you who do enjoy reading my posts (in way more words than necessary) is…Shake and Date posts (after this one) may be on hiatus for a few weeks.

Now for my brief evaluation of Moonraker. The place is amazing. The size of it was very impressive with plenty of room for everyone, and there were quite a few everyone’s there. They have expansive indoor and outdoor seating. According to their website, their menu changes all the time, but I had heard about their pizzas before, so I’m guessing those choices mainly stay the same. We decided to try the “Pickle Pie” since we discovered we liked pickles on a pizza from when we frequented Corner Tavern & Grill and my son had also highly recommended it. It was good, however, it’s hard to do a true assessment of it because it wasn’t cooked thoroughly. The dough was still very doughy. Also, after having the pickle pizza at Corner Tavern & Grill…this one didn’t compare. My only other lasting impression from it is that it left my fingers very sticky. I’m not a fan of that feeling. (It may have had something to do with the hot honey topping…) I would like to go back and try the “BeerBQ Chicken” pizza next time, as I’ve heard it’s fantastic and the toppings on it sound amazing. And yes, there will be a next time regardless of our undercooked pizza. I’ve heard too many great things about this brewery to evaluate it off our one mishap.

Moonraker offers a variety of different beers, some hard seltzers and some wines. We sampled the “Sea Thrift” and the “Desert Star”. Both of them were pretty good, but I believe the “Desert Star” won out by a bit and we both got that. I consulted with Brian and he thinks the same thing, however, I didn’t have my trusty mini composition notebook companion with me, so I’m not entirely sure. Since this was a “bend the rules” Shake and Date, I didn’t bring that with me. Not only that…we didn’t wear our Shake and Date shirts for the occasion and Brian didn’t even wear his hat. I guess now we can call it an “In Disguise Shake and Date Bend the Rules Adventure”. But there’s nothing wrong with that…right?

Well that is all I have for now. I will miss this and everyone for the next few weeks. Hopefully someone misses this and us as well. Until we meet again, take some of your own adventures while waiting to join back up with us on ours, and as always, if you discover someplace you think we need to check out, let us know so we can add it to our bottle. Remember, scootability factor gets bonus points!

And just like that…quicker than lickety split… another week has gone by before I’m finally getting this posted. …sigh…