The Gourmez

The 411 on Fieldwork #

Address: 100 West Juana Avenue
San Leandro, CA
Website: https://fieldworkbrewing.com/san-leandro/

The Vibe: San Leandro’s Fieldwork Brewing is one of nine locations throughout the greater Bay Area. The San Leandro outpost opened around the time I moved back to this corner of the East Bay. Its large, open-air beer garden boasts many picnic tables and lounge chairs close to gas fire pits. Trees stretch toward the vaulted, open ceiling. Indoor seating is also available, but the patio is the draw here. On a weekend, it can get crowded.

Ordering via QR code is preferred, and unlike at many other restaurants, the Toasttab system functions well and you can keep your tab rolling until you’re done. No need to close out with every new round. Hurrah! But ordering at the bar is also an option if you have questions or just don’t want to deal with ordering by phone. I prefer using my phone here because it links up with the website that offers more detailed descriptions of the beer and food.

The menu is focused on pizza, and you can order any specialty pizza as either a Neapolitan style or Detroit style pie. There are also wraps, salads, and unique appetizers like honey Calabrian wings and shishito peppers tossed with furikake, lemon, and smoked salt, served up with miso-flavored aioli.

This is actually their roasted brussel sprouts, but you can imagine them as shishito peppers, right? 😏

The bar offers 25+ taps, most of them Fieldwork experiments that change often. They do have some guest taps. They also make a nonalcoholic root beer and offer a line of supertonics, which are nonalcoholic, herbal, and fruity drinks that I really need to try sometime.

My Take on Fieldwork Brewing–San Leandro #

The Food: I prefer the Neopolitan-style pizza, as their Detroit isn’t as heavyweight as at other spots. Look, if I’m getting Detroit-style pizza, I want a brick of cheese melted all over that edge and not as much char as you can see here:

fieldwork hail mary detroit pizza

That picture is of the Hail Mary, featuring beer-braised chicken, caramelized onion, cotija, honey, and Calabrian chiles. Those chiles make many appearances on the menu. I appreciate how many inventive pizzas Fieldwork offers like the Hail Mary. For example, there’s also the Dad Joke with garlic, corn, ricotta, those Calabrian chiles, red onion, sausage, and green onions.

Char is welcome on Neapolitan-style pizza for me!

fieldwork pepperoni pizza

The pictured pie is a classic pepperoni with fresh ricotta dollops. No complaints, though I do usually prefer my pizza swimming in toppings, which is why I like the range of toppings here so much. This pie worked great with just a few, however.

I’ve strayed from the pizza menu, too. The chicken caesar wrap hits all the classic notes you’d expect by incorporating parmesan croutons and an extra crunch from radish. There’s a great tang to the dressing, and I appreciate gherkins as a side.

fieldwork chicken caesar wrap

Though I also appreciate the fusion aspect of serving pepitas with hummus—

fieldwork hummus

—the hummus itself lacks flavor for me. If you’re going for a pizza dinner, you probably want to avoid the parmesan pizza bread that the hummus comes with as it’s just too much bread altogether. But I am quite impressed with their crispy cauliflower appetizer!

fieldwork cauliflower

It’s not buffalo cauliflower—curveball, I know! Buffalo cauliflower is everywhere these days. Rather, it has a tempura-like batter and is served with a lemon aioli that screams springtime. Recommended, for sure.

Both the chopped kale and fieldwork caesar salads have been excellent, especially when enjoyed alongside the pizza.

The Beer: As always, I am not a huge beer drinker, but I LOVE trying new things. A beer flight is catnip for me, and so is being able to pick and choose what I’d like on that flight from their extensive tap list. Fieldwork Brewing in San Leandro has the largest hazy IPA selection I’ve seen, taking up 9 out of the 25+ taps. I wish there were more dark beers on offer, but I understand that I’m that rare weirdo that thinks, “Mmm, stout!” in the in middle of summer. To my credit, it is an “extra” Bay Area summer this year, chilly and overcast and even a little rainy in July and August.

fieldwork flight

On my most recent visit, I was pleased by each beer on my flight selection. Here are my thoughts, left to right:

Churro Cream Ale: Nice wash of cinnamon on first sip. It’s subtly sweet, which shows restraint. I imagine flaky pastry from the mouthfeel. A pleasing, light dessert in and of itself.
Gamma Attack: This hazy IPA has a pleasant, fruity beginning with guava and strawberry. Plenty of bitterness tempers that start, but it all flits away quickly after the sip.
Night Maker Double Oat Stout: Reminds me of a very bitter chocolate brownie. You know, the ones with even more bitter chocolate chunks inside that you love at first bite but quickly become too much? This beer is meant to wash away those memories. Yes, it’s more delicious than the brownie.
Narrow Seas Imperial Porter: This was a special experimental release. Flavor punches you on first sip, like root beer syrup and European salt licorice, the kind you can barely bite into. That licorice flavor melts into the brew, so it works, if you’re a licorice lover like me. Mint and fig notes, too, and a hint of cream. You must be a real lover of dark beers to enjoy this intensity. Luckily, I am.

Will I go back? I admit, I prefer Sons of Liberty just across the parking lot, as I appreciate cocktails more than beer. But the casual atmosphere, fun pizza, and sunny patio make San Leandro’s Fieldwork Brewing a great choice for meeting friends. Or for working in the sunshine on a less busy weekday afternoon.

Reviewed multiple times 2021–2025.