Odell Brewing Sloan's Lake Brewhouse & Pizzeria — Restaurant in Denver

Odell Brewing was always one of my favorite breweries during my time living in Denver. They still do not distribute anywhere near my home in Ohio. When visiting Colorado now, one of the first things I typically do is find an Odell beer on draft somewhere. On our latest trip to Denver, we decided to check out their Sloan's Lake Brewhouse.

This is a very casual spot with a great location with views of Sloan's Lake. Orders are placed at the bar. There is a great variety of beers including beers that are made in-house on their 10-barrel pilot brewhouse. I always start with their flagship IPA and go from there.

My family and I split some food, starting with the chicken chopped salad. This featured Altius Farm's greens, oven-roasted chicken, bacon, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, and asiago cheese topped with honey mustard vinaigrette ($11). This was a pretty big salad, easily enough to share with a pizza. The dressing was really excellent!

We also had the Margherita pizza ($16) and a kids cheese pizza ($8). The crust was pretty thin, but still managed to be chewy with a light char to it. The toppings were fresh and overall we enjoyed the pizza.

Odell has awesome beer and the food at their Sloan's Lake Brewhouse was pretty solid. Easily worth a visit and I will return on a future...

Poor coordination with private events left our group feeling alienated. When we walked into the bar at 5:15pm we noticed there was a clothing swap event happening downstairs which limited seating. We asked the bartenders if the upstairs was open and available they said yes. After ordering drinks and dinner the upstairs barstaff soon after told us we would need to go back downstairs due to ANOTHER private event happening upstairs (Cool down run club). We understood but asked if we could finish our drinks and food before having to stand awkwardly downstairs. The employees were adamant that we had to leave the area and were unnecessarily confrontational basically saying that we lied and the downstairs bartenders would have never recommended upstairs seating. (But yet we were served food and drink by the same confrontational bartenders in the area we were being kicked out of. huh?!) Disappointed that the staff was more concerned with being right than just simply being sympathetic or...

Views are incredible. Beers everywhere. Pizza that delivers. This is how you do a brewery right - lake views, massive beer selection, food that actually complements the drinks instead of just existing.

Sunday Broncos games here hit different. Big screens, energized crowd, perfect weather, cold beer. This is peak Denver sports watching.

The vibe is exactly what a brewhouse should be - relaxed but alive, casual but quality. Staff knows their beers and actually cares about the experience.

Pizza's legit - not just "brewery food," actual good pizza that stands on its own.

Location on Sloan's Lake means you get scenery with your beer.

Novel concept: drinking quality craft beer while looking at something beautiful instead of a parking lot.

This is what happens when a brewery focuses on doing everything well instead of just the beer.

Great energy, great location, great execution across the board. Go for the beer, stay for the views, keep coming back for...