Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar

I've been meaning to order some crowlers from here via DoorDash, but since I have a massive procrastination issue (also, the cost of those crowlers would have been pretty damn high), I just wound up stopping in instead. The place is essentially a higher-end-feeling chain restaurant/brewpub kinda thing, all stone cladding (no, I don't think it's true stone features, sue me if I'm wrong here), woods, screens, and vinyl like all sorts of places these days. Gotta love the inherent creativity of architecture firms these days. I bellied up to the bar: a hemi-ellipse sticking out from a wall of backlit liquor bottles that serves as a wall for the patio section outside, plenty of screens, and slight padding on the seats. The beers feel pretty standard if not a touch sub-, as though some of the offerings from the Ram locations I sampled over a decade ago had been repackaged for the spiffy surroundings. They're not bad, just nothing I would ever go anywhere out of my way to have again. The bartender was pretty busy, hence (I surmise) why he consistently dealt with me by shouting from a distance over the mild din around us (the place was pretty busy, and the space inherently tends toward the echo-y), but he seemed pretty into the suds he was slinging. Didn't have any of the food, but it looked to be the usual brewpub/chain restaurant fare of burgers/steaks and whatnot. Gotta say, for the area, this isn't all that much of an addition, I'm afraid, much like a good amount of the hoity-toity shopping center it's part of. I would recommend Half Day a bit south on Milwaukee or Mickey Finn's a bit north, and those are mostly if you want something close to here or are stuck on the bus.

Typical chain with bar seating, tables and a patio. It's clean and comfortable. The quality of the beer is average. Service was friendly and helpful. There are 16 different beers on tap. Food was fine.