Aviator Brewing Company Tap House

First off, this is a review for the Tap House as a bar.  I understand that they serve the same food as the Smoke House across the street (carried over from the Smoke House), but I'd go to the Smoke House to eat, and the Tap House to drink.  And as for drinking, the Tap House is awesome.

Beer: They have all of the Aviator brews (I think all the pints were $5) including seasonals.  To be expected.  I'm a fan of a lot of the specialties (if you love heat, try the habanero saison - you may need to chase with a water).  But I assume you wouldn't be interested in going to the Tap House (a bar owned by a brewery) unless you were specifically looking for Aviator brews, so enough said.

Service: Bar service was prompt.  Bartenders were really helpful in recommending beers to try and giving samples.

Atmosphere:  The atmosphere is awesome, which is why this place gets five stars from me.  It's in Varina Station, a cute historic area of Fuquay-Varina (which I'd never been to before, but I found quite pleasant).  The decorations--all aviation themed--inside were great--think old-fashioned-looking aviation posters on the walls and miniature airplanes hanging from the ceiling.  The interior was dark, but not too dark to have a conversation.  There's a big bar area with plenty of seating, plus high two-person bar tables along the wall, and some long tables with benches.  But, the best part in my opinion was the area outside--there were two huge porches - a deck out back and a patio out front.  On a beautiful NC summer evening, it seemed that the whole community was there.  From a group in their 50s catching up to the late-20s after work crowd to couples of all ages on dates, the place had a great atmosphere around 6:30 on a Friday night.  Can't say I'll regularly be leaving Raleigh to go down to Fuquay-Varina on my weekends, but I'd try it again for sure.

We like to come here when it's a nice sunny and hot day to get some yummy Devil's Tramping ground beer.  Great place to hang out and sometimes has live music which is an added plus.

Love this beer.  Especially the Black Mamba bourbon stout.  I get it whenever I can in DC and stop by the tap house.