Canned Seafood Specialist Eight Bells Alehouse Cleverly Trolls Its Critics

Expo Park's recently opened Eight Bells Alehouse is bucking all sorts of bar food norms — but it seems the menu of pricey canned seafood imported from Spain isn't quite resonating with all the bar's patrons.

While the bar's Yelp reviews are overwhelmingly positive thus far, the lone outlier is a two-star review that states, "We ended up ordering the peppers stuffed with tuna. I'm pretty sure everything on that dish came out of a can or a jar . . . We were not impressed." (Eight Bells posted a screenshot of the review to its Facebook page, commenting, "We knew it was coming but this is priceless.")

Now the bar is subjecting its Facebook followers to a little good-natured trolling, advertising a new "special" that involves PBR and Bumble Bee brand canned tuna:

Those who haven't yet eaten at the bar might not get the joke: The focal point of Eight Bells' menu is indeed seafood served from cans, but this is not the Starkist tuna your mom made your childhood sandwiches with. The sardines, mussels, octopus, and tuna belly served here is high-grade, carefully selected and packed by hand in olive oil before being imported from Spain, where it's a common — and prized — item on bar menus (culinary explorer Anthony Bourdain is an avowed fan of the stuff).

The imported product doesn't come cheap; the cockles (mini clams) are the most expensive item on Eight Bells' menu, clocking in at a whopping $40, with most of the other canned seafood offerings hovering around $20. For those uninterested in shelling out the cash to sample these unusual imports, the menu's also got cheese and charcuterie plates — but if you want wings or a burger, you'll have to head to Ten Bells. Or, you know, literally any other bar in town.