Atlanta Recommendations

If you go to the Porter, hit up Wrecking Bar too. Really close to each other. Porter will usually have some Orpheus on draft, and orpheus is only open for tours Thurs, Fri, Sat. Also highly recommend Brick Store in Decatur.

 

Greens on Buford is right near Phipps, that is if you are looking to buy beer. My favorite place to buy craft. When will you be in Atlanta?

 

Greens is closer to Phipps, but Hop City is a great spot to visit for bottles as well. Good thinking on Porter Beer Bar. Decatur has a ton of great spots as well and it's practically Atlanta- Brick Store Pub, Three Taverns, Taps). Cypress Street and Taco Mac in Midtown are great spots as well.

 

Keep in mind that brewery laws are different in Georgia. While Wrecking Bar and Five Seasons can sell you pints of beer because they are brewpubs, Orpheus and Sweetwater can only give you tours. Production breweries sell you a tour and a logo glass for usually $10-12 and that will come with 4-6 sample tickets. Samples are defined as 8oz or less, so you're really getting 2 or 3 pints for the $10-12 price. The tour is optional. Just something to factor in when you're planning your destinations.

 

Technically, the tour and beer are free, but we sell the glass. We can't even require that someone buys the glass to get their free beer, so we give out pixie cups to freeloaders. There's actually a 32 oz limit also, so places that give six 8 oz pours can be fined. That's why we use a smaller glass instead of trying to do partial pours in a pint glass. It's not the best state to have a brewery...

 

I try to phrase it such that people expect to buy the glass. It's kind of crappy if you have to serve up free pints to everyone. I didn't know about the 32oz limit, but I'm sure the breweries doing 8 samples are being careful not to exceed 4oz per pour.

I haven't been up to your place yet, but I am excited to see it has started arriving in Macon. Had a good conversation with Chuck about Georgia beer at H. Harper's awhile back.

 

Brick Store. Go there twice. Brick Store has the best beer list/food/parking.

Greens on Buford and Greens on Ponce. Best selection/price at those two spots to buy beer.


All of these should be on the shelf.

Westbrook Gose, IPA
Terrapin Liquid Bliss, Hi-5, Rye Cubed, Pumpkinfest
Sweetwater 420, IPA
Weyerbacher Insanity
Three Taverns Quasimodo, Free Spirit
21st Amendment Hell of High Watermelon
Red Brick Brother Leo

 

If you're brewery hopping, skip Sweetwater. You won't miss anything.

 

No, Brick Store does not have the best food. I won't argue about their beer selection (the cellar list is probably the best in the state), but the food is subpar when compared to The Porter and Wrecking Bar. Not to mention they received an abysmal health inspection score recently. Luckily, they're in Decatur and there are a ton of choices for great food within a very short walk.

Still, if you're asking for recommendations strictly based on beer, then it's definitely Brick Store, The Porter, and Wrecking Bar. I highly recommend hitting up Orpheus if time permits, and I agree with what others have said about Green's and Hop City in regards to purchasing bottles.

Also, if you just so happen to be planning this trip a couple weeks in advance and are here on September 5th, you'll want to be at Wrecking Bar around 7 pm... Just saying.

 

And if you're here September 5th, hopefully you're also here on the 6th, because that's the Porter's 6th anniversary! The list should be nuts.

 

Brick Store has since rectified their health department score. I disagree about the food, but whatever.

None of the beer places in Atlanta have great food if you are focused on food.

 

A number of places have received low scores recently, and after speaking with some people in the food industry it sounds as though any place can fail on a given day depending on the mood of the inspector. BSP received a big deduction for the bartender serving a beer without a hairnet...for his beard, or a beardnet if you will.

Failing twice in a row is cause for concern, but if someone fails once and then scores a 95 on the next inspection (I don't know BSP's actual subsequent score, this is just an example) then you have nothing to worry about. If you're that worried, check the actual reports that are public domain and see exactly what the issues were, for instance I believe that a fruit fly in the restaurant is scored the same as roaches on the walls.

 

Oh, I know, I used to work in the restaurant industry. Not sure want their follow up score was. It can go both ways, too. The restaurant I worked for had a fairly lackadaisical inspector that did the majority of the inspections. A new one came in and the restaurant received a 60. Next inspection they got a 95 (from the new inspector) and maintained at least that score until I moved on. Sometimes a restaurant needs a wake-up call to get them back on track.

Still, I don't think BSP's food is anywhere close to the same level as The Porter and Wrecking Bar insofar as quality is concerned. IMHO, Terry Koval and Nick Rutherford could easily be serving up their specials for higher prices at much nicer restaurants and no one would think twice about it. The same cannot be said for BSP (do they even have specials??). Plus, their normal pub fare is better than the majority of BSP's pub fare.

Don't get me wrong, I love BSP. Like I said, their cellar list is amazing for a GA bar and it's one of the neatest bars in Atlanta. Argosy's is probably the closest that compares for ambiance. I just don't think their food can be called the "best" in regards to the bars that have been mentioned in this post. I will still go there and drink beer any day out of the week.

To each their own, though. Everyone has different tastes. We all know this just by reading a few of the threads on the main page of BA or checking out reviews for any one beer. Let's just hope we don't start seeing "who has the best food" threads popping up. We have enough of those for IPAs as it is. However, we can all agree that BSP is still a place that needs to be checked out for any "beer geek" visiting Atlanta, and that's what really matters in this thread.

 

If you are looking for good food as well as beer, I would add 5 Seasons Brewing to the list.

 

If you're in L5P and want great food, The Porter and Wrecking Bar are it. Travel to Edgewood, and the Corner Tavern has the best burger in Atlanta (people swear The Vortex is better, and they're full of shit too). You can also hit Noni's, best Italian cuisine and nightlife in the area.

Decatur, there's no way not to find great food. Virtually every place kills it, and beer lists are solid most places too.

 

I have nothing to add, except that your avatar is amazing.

 

Hit up Wrecking Bar last night.

Steady Hopper, Rose Gose, their Pale Ale and some chocolate bourbon barrel Belgian strong ale.

All the beers were solid. The rose Gose and the steady hopper were probably the best I had. The Belgian strong ale was underwhelming. No real chocolate, boozy, no carb, Just sort of sweet boozey beer.

Also the crowd was significantly older than I was expecting. lots of grey hairs and then some weird old guy/young girl couple came in and where deep tongue kissing and asking for miller lites at the table next to ours....weird.

Oh and the food was meh and the veggie gyro wrap was inedible.

Thought that I would give it another shot based on the big talk from a previous poster, but will stick to porter or brick store in my opinion.

On the plus side for wrecking bar, free valet parking.

 

On belhalf of all we grey hairs...I am deeply offended !

 

I'm a little surprised with your Wrecking Bar experience, the 4 or 5 times I've been have all been positive experiences. Overall they have one of the nicest bars in L5P, so it makes sense that an older crowd patronizes it.

If I'm hitting all 3, I'm getting boiled peanuts at Wrecking Bar, vinegar popcorn at Porter and pretzels at Brick Store. I think they all have good food, and they're all doing something different so it's nice to rotate. If you make me choose one item, it's vinegar popcorn. Best bar snack ever.