| The
Quest for the Holy Grain - Best Brew Pubs |
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Tampa Bay Brewing Company Amongst Ybor City's restaurants, bars, tattoo parlors and cigar stores is Tampa Bay Brewing Company. Located in the faux-mall-like Centro Ybor, Tampa Bay provides choices from the usual suspects: blonde, weizen, red, pale ale, IPA, porter, stout. We tried three and I can only recall the IPA - it was exceedingly OK, as was the hummus appetizer. The place is spacious and dark and a welcome relief from the Florida heat. Still, this was our second time here and neither trip left us with much to write home about, or to even write a Questor review. When in Ybor there's better food elsewhere (The Columbia and Bernini's) and much better beer at New World. |
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Cigar City Brewing As if the beach were not enough, it's worth a trip to Florida just to visit Cigar City Brewing. It's a classic craft brewery - a bit hard to find, situated in a light industrial building, limited seating, dart board. Since they only serve beer and no food, it's technically not a brewpub, but food is secondary to beer anyway. Most beers are in the 8% and above range - see what I mean about being worth it? We tried the Jai Alai IPA (a keeper), Guava Grove (a bit sour for me), a very cherry tasting scotch ale, and Marshall Zhukov's Imperial Stout (reason enough to make the trip). Most beers are available to carry out: the IPA in a six-pack, Marshall Z's and a few others in bomber bottles, and most all beers in growlers. Get a sitter for the kids and stop by before the place loses that new brewery smell.
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BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse BJ's Restuarant and Brewhouse is a stand-alone restaurant in front of a shopping mall. Part of a very large chain, they actually make no beer, although they have 5 propriatary beers on tap. They also have 28 guest beers, 14 American craft brews as well as 14 European brands. The interior is all open space with a very large bar. The BJ's beers are tasty and seem true to style. The food comes in large portions and is quite reasonably priced. |
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Seven Bridges Grille & Brewery Seven Bridges Grille and Brewery, part of the Gordon Biersch group, is a large stand- alone brewpub near the trendy suburban shopping area just outside Jacksonville. The main door opens on the hostess-stand and the restaurant portion that has perhaps 50 tables and booths. To the left, the large bar area also has booths, tables and about 50 seats around the bar and near the perimeter shelves. The four year-round beers are dictated by the larger corporation, but the two seasonals and the hand pull are unique to this restaurant. All the beers were tasty and seemed true to style. The brewing operation is visible on the upper balcony. The barmaid said the manager would be glad to give me a tour, but because of time constraints, I had to refuse. The food looked good and the portions were large, but seemed quite pricey.
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Big River Grille & Brewing Works Disney World's only brewpub is in the Boardwalk development and a short boat ride from Epcot. On tap at Big River are a set of year-round "signature" beers: light lager, pilsner, pale ale, red ale, brown ale and wheat. During our visit they were joined by a seasonal winter bock. After a Space Mountain-quality wait for a table we split a plate of nachos for a late lunch and sampled the bock and pale ale. While the placemats acknowledge a couple of GABF medals, the atmosphere, food and beer had all the charm of a school cafeteria (...what, your cafeteria didn't serve beer?...). The beers were uninspired, hopless thirst-quenchers at best. Don't go out of your way for this place, which is one in a small chain owned by Gordon-Biersch - what are they thinking? Head back to Epcot or Downtown Disney if you're looking for beer (...c'mon, after a few hours at Disney who's NOT looking for a beer?...)
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You driving to Florida? You gotta stop at River City BC and have some beers. At $2 a pint from 4 to 7 PM a twenty dollar bill can get you into some serious trouble. Here you will find some of the most flavorful beers this side of Portland, Oregon. That we did not care for any of the styles the first time through the beer list, reflects poorly on us. After the first $10 was gone those beers got better and better. Jackson Pale Ale, Amber Bock (A seasonal), Riptide Porter, Red Rooster, and Jackson Light rounded out the microbrews, while the locals drank from the Bud suite of swill. Go figure.
A glass-walled bar and generous deck provide indoor and outdoor seating with spectacular views of the city, its shoreline and bridges. A tacky black-stuff-and-wood motif is more than offset by the fermentation tanks and works of the brewery on display in a glass enclosure that looks like a giant beerquarium. There is a dining room and the staff wear Florida shirts, i.e., Hawaiian shirts with less color. And the waitresses got legs, man they’ve got legs. |
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Ragtime Taproom and Brewery Also known as Ragtime Tavern Seafood & Grille, this local landmark packs ‘em in more nights than not. Half dining room and half pick-up bar/club the Ragtime takes up a full block along the city square, one block from the Atlantic Ocean. What distinguishes this from other local establishments is four standard microbrews and a seasonal. If you like the street names in Columbia, Maryland you’ll love the beer names at Ragtime. Red Brick Ale shows no originality but A Strange Stout piques your curiosity and any chick will say “Awwww!” when ordering a Dolphin’s Breath Lager. The other standard is a pale ale. The seasonal on our visit was a Seinfeldesque “Big Pilsner” that was an impressive imperial pils. Let the record show I paid for the Big Pilsner. But make no mistake...these are beach beers. Like beach music they want to make you happy. No heavy themes in beach music, no driving rock, no heavy flavors or get up and dance beers here.
The food is good by Atlantic Beach standards, okay by most others. They are a Cajun wannabe. There are three bars and varying decors all working with wood and brick. No offense to Pete’s Bar (the place to be since ’33) but this is where you want to drink beer in Atlantic Beach.
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