Recon Brewing at Hastings — Restaurant in South Fayette Township

You could say my wife and I are brewery experts and until recently we spent numerous years in Asheville and the surrounding areas, visiting over 100 breweries in WNC, so maybe we were spoiled. Having recently moved to the area we are starting to venture out to explore the local brewery scene in WPA. We visited Recon later on a Friday afternoon, hoping to relax and enjoy trying some of their beers and left before we even putting in an order. The brewery is located in a residential development and it quickly surfaced to us that this was a playground for kids while their inattentive parents stood around drank beer. Kids were running inside, in and out of the bathroom and inside and outside of the doors to the brewery itself. We tried sitting outside and there were kids running around out there, playing in the landscaping, shaking the newly planted trees, with unleashed dogs wandering the property. We went back inside to see if we could find a 4 top for us and our friends that were joining us, but the tables inside away from the kitchen and bathrooms were mostly being utilized by kids drinking water and soda. The waitress did greet us with a menu, but we told her that this was not our vibe for our type of brewery and decided to leave and head to Monday's Brewery (another first for us, which was really nice). So, I can't rate the beer or food, but I can definitely say this is not an adult oriented brewery (Hastings location) and if you go, be prepared for kids to be running around while their parents are talking amongst themselves not paying attention to them. I'm just connecting some dots that this might just be a family hangout for people that live in the community there and in order to cater to the regulars that bring their kids in, the brewery is more kid/family than a brewery wanting their beer to get into the hands of adults looking for a chill brewery vibe to relax at after a long week. I will say the waitress was apologetic when we told her we were leaving and she did acknowledge that this is pretty normal. We won't be going back, nor would we recommend this brewery to those people that look to us often for our brewery insights. A couple of suggestions based on what we have seen work at other breweries that had feral children running around that became an issue (Hi-Wire and Zillacoah Brewery) - have adult only hours after a certain time so people know they can come when it isn't in daycare mode. Create a section that is a "child free" zone for adults only. Insist that parents actually parent their children and keep them with them at all times - there were several families there where the parents were actually parenting. Advertise when "no children" hours are, so people that want to come and relax during those times can hopefully have a better experience. Maybe don't advertise to be a brewery and instead just call it a family...

The Landings at Hastings is a multi-use development and has single family homes as well as condos and an assisted-living facility. To make it feel more like a community, they developers also included a small retail section. Part of this retail section is a combination restaurant / brewery outlet which we came out to try. The brewery is called Recon which originated in Butler while the kitchen is run by Steve & Benny’s who also operate a food truck.

The four of us tried some of their beers and some of the food during our visit. We tried the PGH Burger with regular fries and the upgraded Garlic Parmesan version. One of the wraps with a side of cole slaw and the Summer Salad. We also went for two of their beers – the Baja and the Raven. Everything (Beer and food) was reasonably priced and decently flavored, but not exceptional. The PGH burger has a pierogi on it. As you can see from the photo, the pierogi is too small for the patty. They should either provide two, or get the larger pierogies. The $2 for the garlic parmesan upgrade on the fries was not really worth it as it turned out to be some garlic salt and parmesan cheese sprinkled on the regular fries, as well as a toss of scallions. The fries themselves are super-crispy which was really nice – until they cooled down and became somewhat less nice. The Cole Slaw, wrap, and salad were nice. So, overall, we liked the food. The beers were smooth and tasty. They were nice.

The waitress was super knowledgeable and on top of things. She offered us advice on the beers and on the menu. She could not have been a better emissary for the restaurant.

Our biggest complaint was the noise level. The place is built along the industrial model: i.e. cement floors and no insulation on the ceiling. So, when people came in and tables were moved, there were awful screeching sounds as the metal legs were dragged across the floor. By the time the place was half full, the noise level was atrocious, so that’s when they turned on the background music and cranked up the volume! No thank you. We could not hold a conversation any more and could not wait to leave. It was also cold in there for some reason, so we ate in our coats.

If we ever come back, we’ll pick a nice day and sit on their patio where the noise level is bound to be much less. On the other hand, less than a quarter mile away is OTB with a wider menu and wider beer selection, so maybe we won’t come...

Super cute brewery in a calm neighborhood!

Pros: Excellent beer and cocktails! I got their coconut rum spritz and I could honestly drink about ten of them! Lovely patio, nice calm neighborhood with green space and suburban sprawl. Super dog friendly - they even have a dog menu with pup cups and pumpkin purée quesadillas! Service was prompt and friendly, and the staff were so kind and engaged with our baby and other guests’ dogs.

Cons: The food is just bad, everything we had was bland and had a terrible texture. We got the buffalo cauliflower and it was just oily and slimy and soggy. The fried chickpeas had some good spices but no salt so it ended up just bland and almost sweet. The mac and cheese bowl with pulled pork was truly giving school lunch and the fries were over cooked to the point of being very dark and also totally unsalted. We said something about the fries and they took them off the bill which was very nice.

We will definitely be back if only for the great drinks and to see how they hopefully incorporate some improvements to their...