Audacious Aleworks Brewery - Fairfax City — Restaurant in Fairfax

We visited on a hot and humid weekend day, and it wasn't too busy yet. The place needs some serious paint and updating. Flyers from the autumn season were still posted in the bathrooms. It seemed very unkept. We decided to sit at the bar, and waited. Waited. Waited for the server (I think his name was Kyle) to come over to us. He was the only one behind the bar, it looked like a woman was supposed to be working with him, but wasn't there (her name was on the board to name who the servers were). The server was chatting with a woman who had a billion questions at the other end of the bar top. There was no one else sitting at the bar except for us. After 8-10 minutes he finally got rid of her and he acknowledged us after I flagged him down. We ordered beers and a fancy grilled cheese and some fries (which they were out of I guess, so we had tots). The tots were super crispy, and the grilled cheese was delicious. The beers? Mediocre, and had a chlorine and musty taste to them. After our first round we wanted to try at least one more round. Maybe they were just not our taste. The server was more interested in his laptop at the other end of the bar, facing away from us at an angle. So he had absolutely no idea we needed a refill, nor that two other people were standing to our left waiting to grab some beers. When I was about to grab his attention, 2-3 small groups of people walked up to him at his laptop and he served them. So we waited about another 10 minutes before the chef from the kitchen actually made it down to us to take our drink order. The poor people standing next to us had the patience and waited about 15 minutes for anyone to get them drinks. I would have left. I guess you have to get up out of your bar seat to come face to face with this guy and distract him from his laptop to get a beer. The poor chef was doing double duty. The server also disappeared a few times for 5-6 minutes each time back to the kitchen, maybe to help the chef? It was nice to try a new place, but we won't be returning mainly due to the...

Fantastic!!! We love this brewery so much. We come here all the time. The beers are excellent and the staff are outstanding. We are so greatful they opened in ffx. I love ❤️ their fruity sours, the selter- esp the lemon 🍋 lime one- like an alcoholic sprite but refreshing, and the icy called painkiller. They have pop up food special plates 2 x a month on Fridays and Saturdays [ at each location rotating] that are really delicious and lots of fun. I love the staff as they are so kind and really fun to be around. This is a great place for anyone- singles, couples, coworkers, groups/ parties, Families with kids- including young kids, all ages. They have GAMES you can rent too!

• they have a cooler with cans you can purchase to take home. We buy these all the time. They have sometimes beers in the cooler that they might not have on tap so i always check there. Also now you can buy growlers too of any of the beers on tap. I think on Thursdays(only) one or two beers? you can get for a significant discount on growlers during the happy hour. I don't know how long that will last but this is happening as of me posting this that I know of....

Not sure if it's the yeast strain or grain source or equipment used, but the brews here really taste apart and interesting compared to a lot of other breweries. The PB porter was not available but if it is as good as the ones we fell in love with (Chocolate Orange Sweet, Ardennes, and Pretentious), this is going to be a hit given how limited it is.

Brewery crawls can numb the senses especially after several pints. If you follow the crawl through the numerous breweries that sprout out west of Fairfax, I am of the opinion that the flavors all start to run together and taste the same. For Audacious, this doesn't seem to be the case. The overall environment is welcoming and comfortable. The wall art and festivities are well-planned and utterly fun to experience. The food offered soaks well with the beers however I wish there was a better variety other than brats and grilled sandwiches. Other than this minor food criticism, I hope more people get to experience all the yummy flavors...