23rd Street Brewery

23rd Street Brewery feels more like a sports bar than a brewery to me.  Inside, it can get very loud, but it has a great patio outside.  Service is very inconsistent.  There is a bartender named Pat who is awesome.  He knows a lot and is friendly and efficient.  Some of the servers aren't knowledgeable when when it comes to the beer.  For example, my friend ordered the flight.  My friend asked our server about the beers.  The server looked at us like we had 50 heads.  So she goes inside and has the bartender write on a piece of paper the orders of the beer on the flight.

I like the wheat and raspberry wheat.  The food is decent.  I usually create my own burger.  For whatever reason, they have the hottest jalapenos in all the land.  The burgers are big and juicy and they have really good fries.  23rd Street Brewery is not a horrible place, but service could be better and it just doesn't compare to Free State.

This is one of my favorite restaurants in town. Being a brewery, they always have a good selection of beers on tap, great appetizers and good pub food. Their cheesy bread appetizer is one of our favorites to split with a big table. They also have my all-time favorite salad in town: the hazelnut encrusted goat cheese salad, which adding salmon to makes it even more heavenly. However, their food is not stuffy, so my boyfriend can order his Mac and Cheese with Buffalo Chicken on top and also be satisfied.  

The service is always good and they can easily accommodate a large or small group. It can get a little slow at peak times, but that is to be expected. It's a great place to watch a game or play trivia with friends, but without feeling like a typical sports bar, so it also makes a good date-spot. I'd highly recommend this restaurant. It's one of our go-to spots when we'd rather not tackle the parking on Mass or the noise of Free State.

23rd Street Brewery has a nice selection of beer, and the happy hour food specials, including some very nice, fluffy, warm pita and standard, creamy-yet gritty hummus, are laudatory. The waitstaff is remarkably pleasant - our waitress promptly attended to a party of 15 or so, never leaving our glasses empty or our stomaches growling.

The clean, amber-wood interior resembles those sophisticated (I say that non-ironically) family-friendly establishments where Mom could get a glass of Reisling and enjoy her hazel-nut encrusted goat cheese salad, Dad could opt for a soda to slurp with his chicken marsala, and the kids could munch on chicken fingers and french fries.

Next time I'm in Lawrence, I'll check this place out for more than just drinks and appetizers - perhaps indulging in homemade pub chips and a giant chocolate cake, because that's a meal...right?