After a week spent on Santa Cruz Island (part of Channel Islands National Park, we arrived back in Ventura, CA, looking for a nice dinner to celebrate our trip before wading back into LA-area traffic getting back to Hermosa Beach. Ventura has quite a vibrant dining scene, but since we were fairly scruffy (and somewhat smelly) folks literally fresh off the boat, I was hoping for a spot with good outdoor seating, and that led us to Bright Spark Brewing.
Located on the east side of Ventura, in a semi-industrial area, Bright Spark is a moderately new (opening in 2022) brewery that opened in a space formerly occupied by Surf Brewery (one of Ventura County’s early breweries that operated for quite a few years before closing in 2017). The place is nicely renovated: big brewing setup, a nice service counter, and a spacious dining area. The place was also quite packed, since it turns out that our visit corresponded with “Musical Bingo Night”. That’s really not our thing, but luckily Bright Spark has got a lot of seating: in addition to the main dining area, there’s a nice side dining room, an event room in back, and a reasonably good outdoor patio. After ordering up our food and beers, we retired to the outside area for a combination of quiet and not inflicting our post-backpacking funk on anyone.
Since Bright Spark is primarily a brewery, I had to try one of their beers. I decided to start with their Stratus IPA, a nice West Coast style clear IPA. Fresh, crisp, and refreshing, this was a great beer to enjoy on the patio while our food cooked
My Spicy Chicken Sandwich was the first to arrive at the table, and this was a nice concept: a spicy fried chicken sandwich (both in the breading, and then dipping it in more sauce), with house-made pickles, a tahini ranch sauce, za’atar aioli, pickled onion, and a good kale slaw. This was particularly good sandwich. First, the spicy level was nice and bold. The chicken itself nicely cooked and tender, and the breading perfectly crisped. The combination of the sweeter house pickles, the tang of the ranch, and the zing of the za’atar made for a good flavor combination, and the kale slaw added some nice green notes and texture. To be honest, this was one of the very best fried chicken sandwiches I’ve had, and worth going back for. But to be honest, the fries were good, but nothing stellar. I might get a salad or other side next time instead.
Beau, meanwhile, went for a burger: a double smash burger, with cheese, pickles, grilled onions, little gem lettuce, and a hint of za’atar on a well-toasted bun. This was pretty much exactly what you want in a good smash burger: each patty nicely smashed and crisped on the grill, with cheese just melting into it. A great burger.
Carol, meanwhile, went for a pizza: getting the Wild Mushroom pizza, with wild mushrooms, garlic aioli, za’atar, white sauce, and cheese. The surprise here was definitely the mushrooms, which were indeed wild mushrooms with a good, bold flavor. And those of you taking notes will notice that Bright Spark [i]really[/i] loves za’atar seasoning, since it made ever single entrée we ordered, but it worked here, yielding a very tasty pizza.
Really, I liked Bright Spark. The place is spacious and clean, the staff friendly, and the beer tasty. We all enjoyed our food, and I absolutely loved the spicy chicken sandwich. I’ll definite come back the next time I’m around Ventura.
