breweries Archives - Chattavore

Cherokee Brewery and Pizza Company (Dalton, GA)

July 19, 2017

Cherokee Brewing and Pizza is a brewery and pizza restaurant located in downtown Dalton, Georgia serving housemade pizzas and a variety of craft beers.

So…you guys should have gotten this post back in March. Except I got a new phone immediately after I ate there and my photos weren’t in my cloud…so I lost them. Oops.

Philip actually discovered Cherokee Brewing and Pizza Company when he went down there with one of his friends. He brought me back a couple of slices of pizza and I was pretty impressed, so we got back down there pretty quickly. He was not too sad about going back a third time, since they have a good selection of craft beers on tap, some of them that are not available in Chattanooga, including their own brews.

We went a little after lunch on a Saturday afternoon. There were quite a few people in there but I wouldn’t call it crowded. We sat at the bar…if you sit at the bar, the bartender will take your food and drink order. If you sit at a table, you order at the counter and then if you want a drink you can go to the bar to get it.

We each decided to get a salad – I got a house salad with homemade ranch dressing, and Philip got a Caesar salad. The first time we went we shared a large Caesar salad and it was big enough for a family of six. The house salad, topped with cheddar cheese, bacon, tomato, cucumber, and red onion. A lot of thinly sliced red onion. If I had known that, I would have ordered it without the onion…but the salad was delicious otherwise. The Caesar salad was good – fresh, crispy lettuce with creamy Caesar dressing, shaved Parmesan, and croutons (boxed). The small salads were $4 each.

As for pizza, we contemplated the Hot Mess Chick with housemade pesto, pulled smoked chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, mozzarella, and Parmesan ($11.50), the Big John with BBQ sauce, pulled smoked pork, jalapeño, pineapple, white cheddar, and mozzarella ($11), and the Heavy D with Buffalo sauce, smoked pulled chicken, garlic, provolone, and mozzarella ($11.50). Ultimately, we settled on the Heavy D. The bartender brought us some ranch dressing to eat with the pizza as well.

The pizzas at Cherokee Brewing and Pizza Company are a perfect size for two hungry people or three not-so hungry people. The crust is thin, crispy around the edges, and just chewy enough. The toppings ratio was great – not too much or too little of anything. If you’re hesitant to order the Heavy D because you are afraid it might be too spicy, don’t be. It has just a tiny bite, but I had no trouble eating it. In the past, we have tried the Big’s (red sauce, pepperoni, meatballs, ricotta, fresh mozzarella, and Parmesan for $11.50) and the Whig (truffle oil, mushroom, onion, spinach, roasted garlic, risotto, and mozzarella for $11.50). Both were excellent.

Our total before tip was $31.57, which included two small salads, a pizza, and two draft beers (Philip enjoyed both their house-brewed beer as well as the Wicket Weed stout that he tried). The service has always been friendly here and the food is great. It’s a hike down to Dalton, but it’s worth it to try the pizza and beer at Cherokee Brewing and Pizza Company.

Cherokee Brewing and Pizza Company is located at 207-B West Cuyler Street, Dalton, GA, 30720. It’s toward the back of the building so you have to walk around the corner before you see it. They are open Monday – Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., closed Sunday. You can call Cherokee Brewing and Pizza Company at (706) 529-9478. For more information, you can check out their website, cherokeebrewingandpizzaco.com and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Monkey Town Brewing Company

January 13, 2016

Monkey Town Brewing Company is Dayton, Tennessee’s first brewpub. They serve lots of great food and great beer!

I’ve done a couple of posts about restaurants in Cleveland recently and this past weekend we decided to head to another neglected area area-Dayton, Tennessee-to check out a spot that several readers and friends have told me that we need to try. Monkey Town Brewing Company opened just seven months ago in June 2015 as Dayton’s first brewery and brewpub. Started by father and son team Alan and Kirby Garrison, Monkey Town started off serving high-quality food and great craft beer from other breweries while they got their own brewing operation off the ground. It took a little bit to get all the permits and licenses straight but after a few months they were able to start selling their own brews as well.

Monkey Town Brewing Company is located in downtown Dayton. They don’t have a parking lot but there is free parking on the street and in a public parking lot across the street (there is also another parking lot down the street beside the public library. When we arrived on Saturday afternoon around 2:00 p.m. the place was not crowded but there were quite a few tables occupied. We were honestly a little concerned because there was only one server, Jory, working (with a little help from the bartender), but she is pretty good at her job because she juggled all those tables pretty stealthily. The bartender brought us our menus and grabbed our waters while we perused them.

The menu is divided into appetizers/shared plates, salads/soups, sandwiches, and entrees. They also have an extensive draft beer list and wines/cocktails. There are also daily specials, which, on this day, included Cajun chicken pasta (which I saw a lot of people eating), salmon Oscar, a steak dish, and one other item (I should have taken photos of the specials, apparently, since I can’t remember them now). Philip decided to get a flight (4 5-ounce samples) with Monkey Town’s “Do You Even IPA, Bro?”, Lagunitas Nighttime American Black Ale, Founders Porter, and Black Horse Vanilla Cream Ale. I obviously can’t go into any details about his beers, but he did say that the Monkey Town IPA was very good (and he is not a big IPA fan these days). The flight was $11 (usually $7, but there is an uncharge for high-gravity beers).

We also decided to order an appetizer, beer cheese. The beer cheese is served with your choice of grilled pita, French fries, or tortilla chips. Since we were planning to try the fries with our entrees, we decided to get tortilla chips with our beer cheese. The beer cheese was thick but “dippable” with some herbs mixed in. It tasted fairly hoppy so Philip thought it might have been made with the Monkey Town IPA, but Jory told us that right now their supply just isn’t big enough. I would have liked to have had more chips, but since we didn’t we had some beer cheese left over to dip our fries into. If you go with a group, ask for extra chips or get two orders of beer cheese.

I got stuck between the Philly cheesesteak with sliced New York strip steak, cheese sauce, peppers, and onions on a flour-dusted hoagie roll, or the fish & chips, battered cod served with fries, coleslaw, and tartar sauce. I asked Jory for her opinion and she told me that she would go for the fish & chips, mainly because she’s just never been a fan of Philly cheesesteak sandwiches. I usually go with my server’s recommendation, so I did just that. You can get a full order (two 5-ounce cod fillets) or a half order (one 5-ounce cod fillet) so I went with the half, which I think was more than generous. The batter on the fish was perfectly brown, crispy, and delicious and clung to the fish perfectly, which can be a rarity. The tartar sauce was very good, very “pickle-y”, which I consider a plus, and they had malt vinegar, which is essential if you are eating fish & chips. The fries are very unique-they are cut in a twisty shape and have a crust that makes them seem battered, so they are very crispy; they are also very well-seasoned. The coleslaw consisted of shredded cabbage, grated carrots, a light and slightly sweet mayo dressing, and celery seeds. It was quite good.

Philip decided on the burger, which was served on a bakery bun with lettuce, tomato, and onion. He also added American cheese ($0.50) and bacon crumbles ($0.75). The bun was nice and soft and the meat was cooked to have a nice crust on the outside while still being nice and juicy on the inside. The condiments (mayo, mustard, and ketchup) are served on the side so that you can add your own to get the right ratio. Unfortunately, after we ate, I heard Jory telling the couple next to us that though it isn’t on the menu, you can order the burger with beer cheese…next time we’ll have to try that. Definitely a great burger.

While we were finishing up our lunch, a couple around the corner from us was served a big, delectable-looking hunk of bread pudding topped with whipped cream. We were quite tempted to order some as well (the other desserts available were chocolate lava cake and cheesecake) but we would have needed to be rolled out. Everything that we ate was amazing so we would have loved to have checked out the dessert menu. The prices weren’t terrible either-including beer cheese ($6), fish & chips ($7), a bacon cheeseburger ($9), and Philip’s beer flight (the most expensive part of our tab at $11), our pre-tip total was $35.42.

The atmosphere at Monkey Town Brewing Company has a great vibe, with dark wood and metal paneling and large chalkboards with specials and the beers on tap listed. You can see the brewing space through large windows and Kirby (who is the brewer) gave Philip a “tour” of the brewing space (it’s a very small space and they only brew one type of beer at a time). He also took some time to talk to us about why they chose Dayton as opposed to Chattanooga: they knew that they could have more of an impact in an area that doesn’t have a restaurant/brewery on every corner. I would say that’s a fair assessment. Dayton has some good restaurants but nothing quite like this. If you are looking for a great restaurant with fantastic, fresh food and great beer (and live music or trivia from time to time!), check out Monkey Town Brewing Company!

Monkey Town Brewing Company is located at 287 1st Avenue, Dayton, Tennessee, 37321. They are open Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. You can call them at (423) 775-1800. Check out Monkey Town Brewing Company’s website, monkeytownbrewing.com. You can like Monkey Town Brewing Company on Facebook, follow @MonkeyTownBeer on Twitter, and follow @MonkeyTownBrewingCo on Instagram.

Chattanooga Brewing Company

November 24, 2014

Chattanooga Brewing Company is serving great bar-style food and fantastic micro-brewed beer on Chattanooga’s South Side, by Finley Stadium.

I’ve posted about Chattanooga Brewing Company before, but I didn’t have much to say because I don’t drink beer and at that time they didn’t serve food. However, last week a reader responded to one of my Facebook posts and told me that she’d eaten at the new CBC location and had some very tasty chicken tenders. Some of you may know that Philip recently started a blog, Path of Brews, to chronicle his journey into home brewing and post beer reviews. Seemed like a perfect opportunity for a great tag-team blog post to me, so we headed down to the new Chattanooga Brewing Company location (across from Finley Stadium and next door to the Chattanooga Jump Park) for a Saturday lunch.

First things first…there’s parking on the street or you can park in the big gravel lot behind the building, which is what we did. Of course, the first thing that we noticed was how gigantic the new location was in comparison to the previous location on Frazier Avenue, where there were maybe four tables. The new building has upstairs, downstairs, and outdoor seating and you just seat yourself. There were quite a few other people there, but still plenty of open seating. We picked a two-seat table by the downstairs windows. Our server, David, brought us each a beer list and a food menu.

Of course, I don’t care for beer, so I just had water. Philip decided on a 5-sample beer flight including Imperial Pilsner, S.A. IPA (infused with habaneros), Dunkel Vice, Winter Warmer, and Hefeweizen. I can’t tell you much more about that, but you can read his post on Path of Brews about our visit here.

Since my reader mentioned the Chickbock-battered chicken tenders, we decided to order those as an appetizer. There were three nicely browned, crisp-crusted tenders in the basket. The batter had quite a bit of spice to it, but not so much as to make it difficult to eat-instead it just added to the flavor. The tenders were perfectly cooked through and the honey mustard served on the side was a nice, cooling complement.

I had a hard time decided between the CBC burger and the Rivers sandwich (grilled sourdough with applewood bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayo, and balsamic Vidalia onion jam) but finally decided, since I’m trying to decide on my top ten burgers so I can update my list one of these days, to get the burger. With beer cheese for good measure. Since David told me that the waffle fries were not housemade (I asked) I decided to get house chips instead. The burger was good-sized but not grossly oversized, served on a fresh bun (Niedlov’s, I’m pretty sure) with lettuce, tomato, pickles, mayo, and the beer cheese. The portion of chips was basically gigantic. The chips were delicious and fresh, perfectly crispy and seasoned with salt and pepper. The burger was cooked just right with a great grilled flavor. The beer cheese had a great beer flavor (interestingly I do not like to drink beer but I like the way it tastes in food preparations).

Philip decided to try a stuffed pocket, AKA a homemade hot pocket. He had a hard time narrowing it down to one because he thought they all sounded good, but finally decided on the Hot Chick, with mozzarella, Buffalo chicken, blue cheese crumbles, and ranch dressing. It was all stuffed into a pizza-type dough. It was pretty messy because the ranch and buffalo kind of flowed out a little bit, so he had to use a fork for a lot of it. However, it was very tasty, with good seasoning and a nice balance of spiciness from the Buffalo sauce, creaminess from the ranch, and tanginess from the blue cheese. The dough was nicely crisp around the edges. Philip decided to get sweet potato waffle fries, which, while they may not be housemade, were well-cooked, crisp, hot, and tasty (particularly dipped into the honey mustard that I saved from the chicken tender basket).

In case you’re a new Chattavore reader, you should know that I’m pretty low-rent as far as my food preferences go. I love an upscale restaurant from time to time, but I definitely prefer bar food, burgers, and the like for an average meal out.

There isn’t a huge food selection here at Chattanooga Brewing Company, but there’s definitely something for everyone and the food has good flavor and does a great job of incorporating the house brews.

And if you like beer, you definitely need to go here for some great (so I’m told, anyway) local beer. The prices aren’t too bad either-for our appetizer, two entrees, and Philip’s flight, it was $31 and some change pre-tip.

Chattanooga Brewing Company is located at 1804 Chestnut Street, Chattanooga, TN 37405. You can call them at 423-702-9958. They are open 4 p.m.-10(ish) on Wednesday and Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10(ish) Friday-Sunday. Check out Chattanooga Brewing Company’s website, like Chattanooga Brewing Company on Facebook and follow @chattabrew on Twitter.

McHale’s Brewhouse & Pub-November 26, 2011

November 27, 2011

We visited McHale’s on my brother’s suggestion. The place was pretty much empty; 0f course, it’s a bar and we were there between 6 and 7:30 on the Saturday night following Thanksgiving, so pretty much not high time for a fairly new pub in a fairly suburban area.

McHale’s is located on Ashland Terrace, in the former location of The Rusty Duck, which is now a few doors down. It’s a dive, don’t get me wrong. Since it’s a 21 and over establishment, of course there are some of the smoke issues that you will always encounter with a place that allows smoking, but it was faaaarrrrrr from being the worst that I have experienced. There are a few tables in the bar area, right when you walk in the door, and more tables (quite a few more) in the other room, where there are also pool tables and dartboards. We were greeted when we walked in the door by a very friendly server, who gave us a menu and a beer list (I’ll get back to this in a minute) and told us that, while fried pickles were not on the menu, they were available….so I quickly ordered some. I LOVE fried pickles and was so very upset when Durty Nelly’s, my favorite place to order this treat, went out of business a few years back.

The menu was fairly limited: a handful of appetizers, including Scotch eggs (a boiled egg wrapped in sausage, traditional Irish pub fare), mozzarella sticks, and chili cheese fries (among a few other things) and a few entrees: Cornish pie, Irish Stew, hamburgers, sloppy joes, and a chicken finger salad. Since we hadn’t heard anything about the food, we decided to play it safe and try a burger.

The fried pickles arrived without fanfare with a cup of ranch dressing on the side. They were good, not great-very hot, fresh out of the fryer….but not Durty Nelly’s. The burgers arrived pretty quickly, and they were pretty average as burgers go: standard bun, standard patty, a little greasy (not necessarily a bad thing), with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle, and, in Philip’s case, onion, with fries that I don’t doubt came out of the freezer. This was not a culinary masterpiece, but it also wasn’t a disaster. Typically, a non-disaster would not qualify for a blog post, but I decided to focus instead on their brewing operation. After all, McHale’s, like most other bars/pubs, sells food secondary to their libations.

My brother made the recommendation to visit McHale’s because he is friends with their brewmaster. When you walk in, you look to the left, and you see their brewing operation in a room behind a glass door. This is true microbrewing. Philip and I actually joked about a bunch of Mr. Beers sitting in a back room, and, of course, this is much more sophisticated than that, but it is true small-batch brewing, much smaller than the other microbreweries that we think of (Calhoun’s, Big River-nothing wrong with those, but this is a much smaller operation). Our server told us that Adam, the brewmaster, has been brewing at McHale’s since January 2011, and in May won a Pale Ale contest at the Chattanooga Market for Best Pale Ale in Chattanooga. McHale’s offers a variety of house-brewed beers that rotate on a regular basis. If you “like” their Facebook page, they announce the brews as they offer them. On this particular visit, they were offering a stout, a stout injected with nitrogen, “Bloody IPA”, “Black Pixie”, a Scottish ale, McHale’s light, and a red ale. A pint is $4.00, or you can order 6 4-oz sample glasses for $6. They also sell growlers for $14, and you can take your growler back for a refill for $10. Their bartender, Mike, has also created several original well drinks that include the house-brewed beer and spirits. He and our server spent a lot of time talking to us about the drinks, the history of different beers, and the advantages of small-batch brewing. I realize that this is something that probably wouldn’t happen if the place had been busier, but could you go to Big River and have a chat like that? I won’t say it isn’t possible, but I will say it’s probably unlikely.

Look, I’m not a beer-drinker, so I can’t make any recommendations about beer. What I can say, however, is that I have not seen, heard, or read anything from anyone who has tried McHale’s beer (or beer brewed by their brewmaster) that has been negative. This is the real deal, and from all accounts, Adam knows what he’s doing. These are down-to-earth people trying to make a small-town establishment work. Since Philip and I didn’t shop at any local shops for Small-Business Saturday, we saw our jaunt to McHale’s as our way to promote small business. I love to support local business, and I am fascinated by the idea of homebrewing and microbrewing and I love that McHale’s is confident enough to do true microbrewing. I will recommend McHale’s to anyone who is looking to try a truly different beer that they can’t get anywhere else. And look, if bars start to sell more food, they will start to focus more on their food. I am not likely to become a regular here at this time, but if someone asked me to go back, I would. Support your local microbrewery!

McHale’s is located at 724 Ashland Terrace, Chattanooga, TN 37415. You can call them at 423-877-2124, check out their website: http://www.mchalesbrewhouse.com/ or look them up on Facebook.