Lark Brewing Co. — Restaurant in Virginia

I hoped to find a new exciting craft brew venue to show off to my visiting friends from Colorado (one of the major locations associated with craft brew). If you decide to trek all the way to Lark Brewing, then one might expect to stay awhile and enjoy several beers paired with beer-elevating food and spacious settings befitting the beautiful surroundings. Before offering more details, my disclaimer to readers is that this review is mainly about the digestible offerings - as the staff and service at breweries like Lark are typically always 5-star fantastic. Afterall, one doesn't come to a brewery for its babysitting services.

The 3x huge service bars, expansive lounging spaces, indoor seating, mini-amphitheater and overall space setup is stellar to say the least. I wish the beer and food will eventually match the stellar planning. The beer is above average and doesn't follow the same flavor profiles that most other breweries east of Aldie maintain (with exception to sours). The wine slushies are definitely a plus. But honestly, driving all the way seeking to imbibe sevwral beers only to have somewhat bland food to order as if it's a privilege to ingest anything other than the beer can be a let down. Wish the food was as magnificent as the setting.

The food tastes like a tourist trap and is extremely pricey. The kitchen menu is absolutely dominated by generic starch-based dishes that can be paired with other starches as you precede your meal with a starch-based appetizer. The mains include sandwiches based on thick slices of bread topped with some meat and cheese while the flatbread seem sourced from local supermarket topped with store bought cheese and meats -- while starch can be gloriously and sinfully delicious, most menu items are rather unremarkable and doesn't seem to elevate the beer unfortunately. The only items that are not starch are wings, chicken tender, and a salad item and none of these are anything to wrote home about. In fact, it feels like most ingredients comes from large frozen bags as very little tastes fresh.

Lark's offering is certainly for those who are only into beer. Unfortunately, my palette desires more freshness and dare I say tastier gourmand offerings given the long trek out and prices set. So I can't wait for the kitchen menu to evolve before I can consider Lark Brewing a candidate to bring potential business customers and/or to show off my visiting brew-enthusiasts...

Wow! Congratulations to the lark owners and team for opening with an absolute home run! Driving into the parking lot all my 6 year old son was saying was how beautiful it looked and he's not wrong! Tons of parking available, the lot was about 3/4 full when we left but it did not feel overcrowded. This is a stunning facility with a plethora of outdoor seating options either under 2 pavilions or some astroturf areas with the massive breeo fire pits. Plenty of other outdoor tables, and you can order with a qr code on the table and they'll bring your beer or food out! This really helped keep lines short.

Service: every single interaction we had with a staff member was positive! For the 4.5 hours we were here any time a staff member would walk past they'd ask if we needed anything or if they could take a plate or glass, or get us another beverage. Steve and Kat at the bar were awesome.

Food: we had the nachos which were delicious, there's no shortage of guacamole on these things! The London broil French dip was also very good, tender, cooked medium rare, the caramelized onions were soft and tender, and au jus was delicious. Room for improvement on the smash burger though, seasoning was OK but reminded me of a frozen Costco patty not a fresh smash burger. Rounding out the food was the truffle fries. Run, don't walk, and get yourself an order of the truffle fries with the truffle mayo. Oh man was it good. Put some on the burger and it made it better.

Beer: the reason we are all here. Sam and the brew team did something exceptional here. Nothing we tried as a poorly brewed beer. I felt like the IPAs were not as good as the other lager styles, or the blonde. The one new England style was crystal clear and reminded me more of a Bells two hearted. My personal favorite was the Helles. Just a very well brewed clean crisp lager. The pilsner was also great, perfect hop bitterness on the finish, no off flavors or aromas. Good puppy was nice as well but less interesting for me.

Overall: we will be back, this is a great spot for families, kids, couples, solo, something for everyone here both in the atmosphere, beer, and food options. Looking forward to continued success at a much needed attraction...

Over priced and over rated. Initially would have given this a 4 out of 5 until me and my friends were berated by a women who claimed to be the owners mother. The food was ok, drinks weren’t bad, and atmosphere was really nice. Drinks and food are overpriced. $8-$10 for a so so beer and $20 for nachos that were meh. What really disappointed me was the so called owners mother who has no customer service and threw a fit for my friends dog who had an accident on turf. We were getting ready to leave and my friends dog ran to the turf. My friends immediately yelled at their dog and tried to pull him to go pee somewhere else but a dog is a dog and he popped a squat to pee on the turf. My friends grabbed multiple cups of water because they knew it was an accident and unfortunately couldn’t get the dog to stop. When you gotta go you gotta go. This older women in light blue pants, a light blue floral shirt, and blonde hair started yelling at our friends “how dare you let your dog do that. I can’t believe you’d allow that”. My friends apologized profusely at the accident and were prepared to wash the pee off with water. No matter how many times we expressed our apologies and said it was an accident the owners mom continued to berate and yell at us. Keep in mind this is a so called dog friendly brewery and things like this happen by accident. It’s a dog for heaven sake. A gentleman walked over (dressed in a navy shirt, jeans, and navy cap) and said “it’s something we try to avoid”. He was very pleasant about the accident and thanked us for pouring water on the pee spot. We were very embarrassed by the dog peeing on the turf and were prepared to wash it away. The owners mother has no business being at this brewery if she’s going to treat customers in this manner when an accident happens. She had no problem with her grand children throwing drinks all over the place and getting customers wet with drinks but the minute a customers dog has an accident, they obviously are extremely embarrassed and sorry for, she yells at them. I’ll not...