Wrecking Bar Brewpub — Attraction in Atlanta

INTERSTELLAR EXPERIENCE ! My wife and I were recently wandering around the eclectic Little Five Points area in Atlanta late on a hot & steamy Thursday afternoon. We were on vacation here for a few days visiting from California and staying in a rented condo in downtown Atlanta. I said to my wife that I could really do with a nice cold beer right now. I looked up Google Maps on my iPhone and next thing I see this place called the Wrecking Bar Brewpub. Gee the classy decor and cold beer photos sure looked inviting. We used the GPS on my iPhone to find the place eventually after walking for ages. We gasped when the huge white stately Victorian mansion on Moreland Ave appeared before us. After walking closer to the huge house we realized that the Wrecking Bar Brewpub was in the basement. How cool ! It was about 5pm...not too early for a good cold beer so we ventured inside for a look. The place was beyond beautiful....timber & brick plus lovely and cool. I fronted up at the huge ornate bar and asked Kelsea behind the counter about fruity hazy IPA'S ..my current favorite type of beer. Kelsea suggested 2 on their beer menu and gave me a sample of both. One was called Horology IPA and the other one was named Galaxial Temples IPA. They both tasted really good! In the meantime my wife was checking their dinner menu and suggested we should eat here right now. We were shown to a table near a window overlooking the front patio and I ordered an Horology IPA immediately. As we sat there and looked around at the enchanting interior we both agreed this could be really good. A lovely man named Tim took our dinner order after we had taken a few minutes to digest their wonderful and diverse dinner menu. For starters we ordered Okra, Corn, Whipped Cotija and for mains my wife chose the Scallops while I picked the Gnocchi. My amazing ice cold Horology IPA was disappearing quickly and pretty soon I ordered a Galaxial Temples IPA. Both of these incredibly juicy hazy IPA'S would win awards anywhere on the planet. Very soon all of our dinner order arrived and as we do my wife and I shared our meals a tad. Everything tasted way better than our wildest expectations. After all we thought this place was just a brewpub not a Manhattan fine eatery. We devoured everything in front of us and we wanted more.....yep we wanted dessert. If their beer and meals were this good then their desserts could be totally decadent. My wife ordered The Wrecking Bar and I chose the Apple Galette. Before long Tim ferried my wife's dessert to our table. When I inquired as to the whereabouts of mine Tim said it was coming soon. Wow my freshly baked while I wait steaming Apple Galette appeared in front of me. My wife was going crazy about her Wrecking Bar and gave me a small taste. Mmmm dark chocolate and Nutella....what a devastating combo ! Not to be outdone my Apple Galette tasted sensational. We were utterly and completely satisfied ! My wife and I thought that our dining experience here was simply the best...the beers, our amazing dinner, the service from all the staff and the chill laid back basement vibe. The previous evening we had a fabulous dinner at the Highlands Bar & Grill in Birmingham, AL. It had just won the James Beard Award for " Most Outstanding Restaurant in the USA " on it's 10th visit to the finals. We told the staff here that we thought our experience at the Wrecking Bar Brewpub was better ! And we came back here for dinner 2 days later before...

Interesting looking government building in the front, but you enter on the side. A really good smoky smell comes from the building so I was eager to try the food before I entered after finding the entrance. A little disc in the middle is where a waiter greets you but they’re not always there. You wait a little until someone reappears which is fine. It’s just a little odd placed. The restrooms are really nice and the atmosphere is really nice with old brick/rock and wood with darker mood lighting. Servers are perfect. Many sections in this place all around so no matter where you sit it’s a good vibe.

The only thing I didn’t love was the brisket Reuben. Great idea, It had good taste, but it was very oily. Touching it with my hands left much oil on my hands and I felt a way eating something so oily. it looked amazing and very appropriate- just oily. This was my only negative. The kimchi bok choy was very unique and delicious. I could have ordered an extra side of that to go.

Loved:

The steak grain bowl was just what I wanted. A 6 ounce steak over fresh food. I want more hummus and more salad, but it was tasty and perfectly cooked to order. Farro is a healthy grain that tastes like nothingness. I cook Farro so I knew what to expect whereas I’m sure my friends would not love. Great choice over rice in my opinion.

the fries were delicious. They are $10 but we ate every single fry and loved the dipping sauces. Even the ketchup had an interesting taste along with Cajun sauce and horseradish sauce. The fries were delicious. They are $10 but we ate every single fry and loved the dipping sauces. Even the ketchup had an interesting taste along with the Cajun sauce and horseradish sauce. I did not like the green goddess sauce, taste too complicated. All good- someone may like it.

The African peanut soup was amazing. The peanuts in there didn’t push through the flavor of the sauce (I prefer it this way)-the peanuts on top were so perfect. I could’ve eaten a big bowl of those peanuts. It was the perfect dish. It taste like chili but more elegant lol. Definitely try the soup.

The greens have pork in them, they were tasty also. They had a little extra oil on them, which wasn’t a negative, but something I noticed. Usually when we finish a bowl of greens there’s pot liquor in the bottom. There was oil in the bottom of mine like olive oil-again they are delicious.

Drinks-Strong and Atl prices. Drinks really drive a ticket up and a bunch of smalls actually can also.

Great menu for a bar. Not your average pub. Feels like a restaurant more than pub but they have a huge bar so u can get pub feels. They have charcuterie, board meets and cheeses, which I’m not a fan of you may be though. I could come back here again and I’d recommend. See receipt for pricing and you can gauge how much you would spend by what you get. The burger looked interesting as well as other menu items like trout. I’ll definitely be back to try the other things. I see why this place has high reviews. There wasn’t a ton of parking in the lot, it was decent, but we parked closer to Little five points and...

So this place is probably my favorite restaurant when it’s good, I have gone probably 5 times in the past (3 of which were for my birthday). And every time I have gone in the past food, service, and atmosphere have been great and I had a great time each time. However our most recent time was not good to say the least.

I went again for my birthday this past Thursday the 26th. We are about 25-30 minutes away without traffic, but at the time we went it took us about an hour to get there (as well as everyone else in our group). Setting up our reservation, as well as the manager who helped me set up my reservation were great! However food that night was not good. Food took 35-40 minutes, which I can understand because they seemed busy because of the Inman Park food festival. However, you would think that since the food took so long that it would come out hot and fresh, but that was not the case at all. Every single plate that came out was cold and not fresh at all. We decided not to mention anything because we were all extremely hungry and we figured it would take another 35-40 minutes for the food to be remade (Which was not really an option because we had a 2 kids in the group and two people who had to go to work after so we did not have the time to wait again).

Service was slow and not good either, which is also surprising because it has always been good in the past. My cousin mentioned to the server that we had a birthday in the group and she did not offer to do anything. She simply came by with the check and said “happy birthday” and that was it. All the times we have come in the past for birthdays the servers either brought a dessert or at least offered to but this server did neither. Some of the drinks (peachy something) that were ordered by members of my party were described as being very good. However, The two drinks I ordered that night (in the park, with grapefruit) were not good either and did not taste like they had any alcohol at all.

Overall, I am pretty disappointed with our entire food and service of that night given that it was my birthday and we all drove an hour or more to come. I talked to highly of wrecking bar because of all my great experiences of our past visits, however my party and myself were not impressed. We are not super close to Wrecking Bar (especially not with traffic) so I do not know if we will take another chance and make that drive out there to try it again. Not really the way I wanted or expected my birthday dinner to be, especially for this being my go to spot for my birthday and whenever I am wanting to have...