Hop Alley Brew Pub

Really liked Hop Alley for a place to have a beer. Nice atmosphere. However, we had three appetizers. Fried pickles- over-battered and bland. Charcuterie Plate was small and frankly should be taken off the menu. The shrimp and grips were awesome and will order again. Maybe they were just having a bad food night as we saw several plates being brought back to the kitchen. The other thing they need to do is dress up the plating a little. Everything looked tossed on the plates with no garnish...The burgers looked great and we will definitely be back to try them. The service was excellent and we will be back but the kitchen still needs work.  Love having this place and look forward to trying out the deck.

Try the fried pickles :)

2 stars for service  |  3 stars for beer  |  4 stars for food

Alpharetta's newest brew pub has been open just a few weeks as of my visit and review, so it should probably be assumed that any dining establishment will still have kinks to work out in its first month.  Hop Alley is certainly no exception--although the food shows incredible promise.

We stopped in for lunch on Saturday and were greeted at the door by a completely unenthusiastic hostess.  Perhaps "greeted" is the wrong choice of words here.  We were given a shrug and a mumble that sounded vaguely like "table or bar?"  We opted for a table for two and were seated near the front.

After being seated, we waited for about ten minutes before our presence was acknowledged by anyone on staff.  To kill time we played a game of "guess who your server might be?"  Waiters kept walking past us but they refused to make eye contact.  Were we being ignored, or was our server perhaps detained in the bathroom?  Guessing games can be fun, although they are less amusing when you are hungry and haven't even been given a glass of water.

Finally our server approached the table and offered to take our drink order.  He was a nice guy but a bit soft spoken and reluctant.  Once he finally attended to us he was fairly quick in taking our orders and bringing out our food and drink, although he didn't really check on us during our meal to make sure everything tasted okay.

I ordered a flight of beer ($6), which consists of four 5-ounce pours of the house brews.  That's a very reasonable price for a flight of beer totaling 20 ounces.  Unfortunately the beer was mostly underwhelming.  The blonde, the saison and the rye IPA lacked any kind of distinctive flavor.  They weren't bad, but they weren't brews that I would order again because they were just bland and unremarkable.  I was glad that I hadn't ordered a full glass of any of these.  On a positive note, the ESB "Fugglest Otter" was tasty and it's something that I would order again.  For those keeping track at home, that's 1-out-of-4 for the beer flight.  Not a great record.

After sampling the beers I wasn't sure what to expect from the food.  Fortunately it exceeded expectations.  The chicken salad sandwich is made with pureed avocado instead of mayonnaise which makes it light and flavorful.  The Bacon, Asparagus and Tomato sandwich is Hop Alley's twist on the BLT and it's a refreshing option that is different, but still comforting and not too heavy.  The bacon was thick and crispy, the bread was perfectly toasted and  the garlic aoli was a nice substitute for mayo.  Do they even have mayo in the restaurant?  I wouldn't complain if they didn't.

The sides also shone.  The sweet potato fries were fresh and sweet with a coating that tasted like brown sugar.  Not too much batter or fry on these.  The cheese grits were remarkably creamy and they didn't come covered with a waxy coating of cheese--the cheese was well mixed and the entire bowl was perfectly seasoned.

Prices seem quite reasonable for both beer and food.  House beers are $3.50/$5.00 per pour.  That would be a phenomenal deal if the brews were just a little better.  Perhaps given time, they will be!

I'd like to come back later after they've had a chance to work out some of the kinks, to try out some other beers once they've rotated in a few new ones, and to sample some of the other menu items.  The 50/50 burger made with equal parts beef and bacon is particularly intriguing.

For now this place rates a solid 3-stars.  I can definitely see it rating higher very soon if they address the service issues with additional training and refine the beer program.  Hopefully that's exactly what will happen--we need great brew pubs like this in Alpharetta!