Root Beer Field Trip: Root Beer Joe's

Seriously, how did I not know about place until now???

I first learned of Root Beer Joe’s existence from a Grub Street Los Angeles posting about its possible shuttering. Since there seem to be no further accounts confirming or denying such a claim, I figured the smart move would be to pay it a visit before it shut its doors to offer additional business so that perhaps it would not need to.

A little bit of background: Root Beer Joe’s was started just this past April by a guy named – you guessed it – Joe from San Francisco who decided to trade in his bean counter (assuming accountants still count beans…) for a sandwich counter. The name came naturally, as Joe is a big root beer fan and regularly stocks his establishment’s refrigerator with a variety of root beers (and other vintage bottled sodas) sourced from Galco’s Soda Pop Stop (more on Galco’s in a later Root Beer Field Trip).

From his storefront way at the end of the very quaint Burlington Arcade – which is just as easy to miss as it is quaint, despite being in the middle of Pasadena’s Lake Ave shopping district, possibly accounting for Root Beer Joe’s potential closing – Joe serves up NorCal style garlicky sandwiches on Dutch crunch bread, as well as frozen yogurt.

Behold: the roast beef garlicky sandwich with everything on it, on Dutch crunch bread. The sandwich is indeed deliciously garlicky owing to a generous slathering of killer garlic pesto, and the bread is satisfyingly crunchy (though I can’t comment on its relative Dutch-ness).

Since we were at Root Beer Joe’s, I was obligated to get a root beer – I went with Faygo (in a can!), while the Missus went with an Americana Honey Cream.

Here’s a close-up of the Faygo (in a can!):

We capped off our visit with some cookies n’ cream yogurt whilst strolling through the rest of the Arcade, which really is rather quaint.

Best of luck to you, Joe – Pasadena is a better place with you in it, carrying the root beer banner. Hopefully you can stick around and carry that banner for a while longer.