NATICK, MASSACHUSETTS
Just about fifteen miles outside Boston, Natick’s hotel-bound OWEN O’LEARY’S (1996-2008) eventually moved to Southborough and expanded to include a second facility (with brew tanks) in nearby Westborough during 2018. The initial central Natick barroom featured wood stools, multiple televisions, and wood-carved sampler trays during April ’05 sojourn.
The blue-green sided Southborough locale (with striped red-white poles) duplicated the Irish pub atmosphere of Natick with wood-laden furnishings crowding the central bar (with low ceiling, Edison-bulbed bronze tin tiling and multiple TV’s). Sports memorabilia lines its small side dining room.
Owen O’Leary’s Southborough brewpub occupies former popular hangout, Piccadilly Pub.
For lighter thirsts, wheat-soured apple-candied Light Lager, yellow-fruited soft-hopped Eagle Eye Golden Ale, and fizzy-yet-coarse stone-fruited green apple-soured Marzen will suffice. Caramelized-to-souring pumpernickel-licked vegetal finishing Winter Strong Ale, dry earthy-hopped Irish Sunsetter Red Ale, red-fruited deeply hopped IPA, and nut-roasted coffee-espresso-lingered Irish Stout were more profound. A decade hence, the beer menu’s been boosted by newer, better recipes. So I needed to return.
At dinnertime, June ’21, I imbibed five previously untried soft-toned blue collar easygoers.
Lemon-rotted orange peel souring enveloped tart banana-clove, dried plantain and musty floral herbage for light-bodied Belgian White.
Mild fruited spritzer, Blueberry Ale, maintained a floral blueberry Seltzer soapiness above pithy cracked wheat.
Musky English-styled Session IPA brought dry wood-toned Chinook hop herbage and perfumed citrus bittering to raw-grained pale malts.
A delicate mango spritz faded for Mango IPA, picking up grassy hop astringency to contrast relegated floral spicing.
Demure oats-charred cocoa dryness engaged dark-roasted chocolate malts for Oatmeal Stout, leaving plum-dried resin.
