El Sueñito

Owned by the same couple that owns Frelard Tamales in Seattle (and which is also open in the location here in Bham), they've only been open a couple weeks. The atmosphere is kind of typical for our times, a big, square room overlooking the brewhouse (great if one is a stainless steel and hose nerd), with some additional outside seating.

I had 2 beers on my first visit, a Wit beer that was very disappointing, and a Pale Ale that was quite good (reminded me of the OG version of Bale Breakers Field 41).

It's hard to rate the service, as you do much of the work your self; order at the counter, they hand you your beer, go pick a table, and bus your own table. if you order food, they bring it out to you. On the day of my visit, the beerslinger was trying to impress folks in line by repeatedly saying he was from Ballard. Hoo-fucking-ray for you brotatochip.

The beer selection was OK, 5-6 of their own brews and a collab with another Bham brewery. Their focus is on Mexican lager styles, they had a couple of those on, but there were other styles as well.

I had a chicken verde tamale that was very good, but a bit on the small side. The menu is tamales and tacos. Frelard Tamales is widely known in Seattle for their tamales, and deservedly so.

April 2025 update: I revisited El Sueñito yesterday, and they’ve definitely matured since I first visited on opening day. Service and vibe are still great, but the beer selection is a lot wider now: Kölsch, two IPAs (hazy and non-hazy), blonde ale, Mexican dark lager, Mexican pale lager, pale ale, prickly pear cream ale, helles, stout. The tamales remain, of course, outstanding.

— Original review —

El Sueñito just opened up this last weekend, and I happened to be in town so stopped in to check out this promising new brewery! Build out is a medium sized convivial taproom with the brewhouse in full view. An industrial, but welcoming, space; they've also got some outdoor seating (but could invest in a little wind protection, I think).

For opening weekend, they had 5 beers on tap: 3 are theirs alone, the blonde, IPA, and pale ale; the Gose and Horchata stout are collabs with other Bellingham breweries. They also have premixed cocktails (margarita specifically) in slushy machines - a nice accompaniment to their food option.

Overall, the beers are fine. Nothing was particularly outstanding, nothing particularly bad. That said, this is opening weekend, and breweries rarely hit it out of the park on day one. I plan on returning to El Sueñito in the next six months or a year and giving them another shot, because I really think the potential is there. The beers on their "up next" list looked interesting -- I'm excited to see where they go!

For food, they have a location of Frelard Tamales on-site, and it's great. I had the pork roja tamale and it was delicious; tamales and beer are really an outstanding combo. Service is very enthusiastic. They're a little bit disorganized on account of it being opening weekend, but everyone was friendly and engaged.