Southend Brewery & Smokehouse

atmosphere: Wooden bar and interior structure. There is a more casual dining area by the bar. This is separated from the main, larger dining room by a glass encased brew room with a few fermentors. The main dining room is overlooked by the exposed kitchen area. Located in downtown Raleigh, the place sees a pretty diverse crowd. In general, the atmosphere is casual to semi-casual.

quality: Most of the beers are average...some slightly better, some less so. At the time of this review I believe their beers are contract brewed by a NC company.

service: Pretty good service. The waiters are sufficiently attentive. The bartenders are as well, but are sometimes lacking in knowledge of their "house" product.

selection: There are usually at least five or so beers to choose from, with a slowly changing selection of one or two seasonals. Almost always on tap are an american wheat, a red, a brown, an ipa, and some form of stout.

food: Above average on the bar food scale, with selections ranging from more expensive dinner entrees to well priced specials.

Southend Brewery & Smokehouse located a block off of trendy Glenwood Ave and across the street from 42nd St Oyster Bar. Not too difficult to find but parking can be trouble unless you use the parking garage in the back. The restaurant/bar is in a rather cool looking warehouse building. Very large ceilings and decorated nicely. There also is a small little brewery set up behind a glass curtain. From my understanding they no longer use this equipment as they outsource their beer making. The building had three distant locations. The restaurant, the bar, and a small outside area. The bar was very nice and trendy with lots of tv’s but limited games (they did have Golden Tee and Trivia).

Southend had about 8 taps or so. At they time we went they were out of their seasonal. So why advertise that you have it then? The staff was very friendly and more upscale then what you would see at a normal bar. The price was a little high although Glenwood is more trendy and so it fit the location well. The food was good and they made sure there was plenty of food for the biggest of appetites.

So about the beer. They only had their own brew on tap. Which is find with me. Decent brews (minus the availability issue). Mental note about the 6% cap in NC. Truthfully I lived in NC for a short time and this was one of my favorite places to visit. Worth a try if you come to town.

Located in an old warehouse with most of the steel girders still up, it has an old feeling but with a modern, clean look. Lots of shiny glass and steel around the brewing kettles. Rsutic looking bar area but since we were there for dinner, we sat in the restaurant area. Couple dozen tables and I believe there was an upstairs area. There was about 6 or so beers on tap and the couple I had sure tasted fresh. Service was cute when asking the waitress to describe the beer. She kind of stumbled through memorized descriptions but someone else came out and talked beer with me for a bit. I got the burger and was very happy with it. I would consider going back for its close proximity to where I stay when in Raleigh.

a great setting near Glenwood south, in an old warehouse. Large restaurant and bar area. Service very bad, waitress attractice but unfamilar with food and beer and very unfriendly to my family. Beer was bad, I had the IPA and Almond Stout. Almost couldn't finish the IPA, tasted like it had some sort of cleaner in it, maybe lines were just cleaned? Friend had the brown and the blonde, both were bad and tasted "funky". The Almond Stout I had was ok compared to IPA. Our food order was wrong, buns on sandwiches were old and bottoms were too thin to hold burger, pork or chicken we sampled. Very disapointed. Too many other establishments near by to waste time here.

Southend is located across from 42nd St and just a block off Glenwood South. I tried all the beers they had on tap and they just were not anything to write home about. The place has been in constant flux the past few years since their Head Brewer left and people have been in and out. I hear rumors the beer is being brought in and they no longer brew on the premises.

They were serving eight drafts at the visit. Their Oatmeal Stout has always been worth the trip, but on this visit they had replaced it with an Almond Stout that just didn't cut the mustard. Only two of the beers were really worth a second look, the Downtown Brown Ale and the Powerhouse Pale Ale. The service was quick and attentive. The prices however were pretty steep for beers that were not that wonderful. The selection for a brewpub was good with 8 drafts, but since they were not great drafts I cannot rate them that high.

Southend Brewery used to be a favorite place to stop for a nice meal and a good pint. Over the years the menu has changed and on my last few visits the food has not been stellar anymore. Since I have not had it in awhile, I did not rate it on this review.

The Raleigh location is in a rather large building. When I sat for dinner, I could people watch those walking on the street. I could see the kitchen area all combined in a very large open air feeling dining room (very large room with high ceilings).

The food was very good, I had the mussels. I felt they did a very nice job with the food considering the price. Our waiters service was good.

Beerwise they had a selection but nothing that stood out to have any defining taste.

If other people suggest we went here I would go but this would not be a likly destination for me.

We came here on a pretty crowded night to eat in the dining area. The bar area had quite a few tables, but they were all packed and the bar was pretty much elbow-to-elbow. The dining area was nice though---white tablecloths, etc... although the tables were pretty close together.

The beer was ok...nothing to write home about. The blonde was pretty weak, the brown ale was also lacking, just a straight forward watery, medium roasted maltiness that was almost too sweet with nothing to balance it... the amber was the pick of the three that we tried, although it too was nothing special..just had a little more to it than the blonde and the brown--fairly balanced, although still a little light for my taste. They had a few others also that we didn't get to.

The service actually was good, even at the busy bar. They were moving quickly serving a lot of people. When seated in the dining area the waitress did a more than adequate job as well, giving us a lot of attention. The food was pretty good.. I had a combo of their ribs and chicken, and it was enjoyable. No one else in my party had any complaints either.

When driving east from Greensboro I would probably look at some other establishments before going back, but I wouldn't discourage anyone from trying it. Maybe they'll find something I didn't.

We visited the Charlotte brewery once before, and had a pretty sub par experience. We found a local on here, so we thought we would give it another chance, so this is a review of the Raleigh location.

Located in an old warehouse, it’s very large and open, tall brick walls go way up to the very high metal roof. When entering there is a small bar area to the right with requisite pool table, electronic dart board and golden tee. To the left the large open dining room, and in the center a glass in area with the copper brewing vessels, that looks like its never been used. The smokehouse smell fills the room, and you can see the large open fire oven in the kitchen area.

The menu at first seems large, but still somewhat limited food wise. The food was all decent though, served warm fresh and prepared well with decent sized portions. Prices are approaching the medium high side but still reasonable. For beer they have seven regulars, and a seasonal. Being summer they had a Belgian white for the seasonal. They do offer samplers of all 8, in 5 ounces servings of each. The majority of beers were pretty bland, the stout annoyingly buttery, but the Belgian white was pretty good.

We went late afternoon on a Saturday, and the place was empty, at one point we may have been the only customers there. The service was pretty good, attentive, pleasant, and explained the beer offerings.

Overall a much better experience then we had at the other location. Their beers are below average though, so although we had a nice time I can’t highly recommend this place.