Brighten Brewing Company

 

This may look small from the outside, but it's pretty spacious on the inside. I passed plenty of short top tables walking up to the glossy and very large, long L-shaped bar, while the edges of the space are lined by a few high tops. Until I heard the telltale clacking behind me, the front area is wide enough that I didn't even notice that I walked by a pool table on my way in.

Always a good problem to have, the taplist is just long and varied enough to make it too challenging for one person to work their way through in one sitting. I started with a rauch that actually hit the spot, and ended with an impressive barrel aged barleywine. The hazy they had was a passable attempt, and seemingly an improvement over earlier batches based on past check-ins I'd seen, though the haze crazed would still undoubtedly be unsatisfied.

The food was all right. It seemed to me to be heavily Greek influenced, as feta played a recurring role even in dishes that it typically wouldn't be found in. It definitely helped extend the drinking session, but if I wasn't having beer, its pairing with a BLT, for instance, made for quite the amplification of salt.

Overall, this was a nicer than anticipated visit during the kick off to March Madness, which was indeed available on their screens.

Small freestanding brewery just south of the RR tracks. L-shaped bar opposite the entrance seats about 20 with about 2 dozen tables on the floor and on the small sidewalk patio. A dozen beers on tap, I had the 1374, which was solid.