Surly Pizza Upstairs

The fancy restaurant at Surly brewing is gone (bummer) and has recently been replaced with a pizza joint. It looks like they reconfigured the room slightly and added a bar near the door. We sat at the bar and just ordered beer and food from the bartenders. Normally, you go thought the line, get a number and the food is delivered to your table.

John had the Spicoli pizza, which was topped with house made fennel sausage, grilled radicchio, onion, red sauce and mozzarella cheese.

I had the I’m Your Daddy pizza, which was topped with pepperoni, sweet and hot peppers, burnt honey, red sauce and mozzarella cheese. It was really good pizza. I love it when the pepperoni get crisp and forms little pepperoni bowls. The crust had a nice char and was a thinner crust and fairly light on the cheese.

The service at the bar was very friendly and helpful and sitting there gave us some time to review the menu while we decided what to order.



Surly Brewing Company
520 Malcolm Ave SE
Minneapolis, MN 55414
Phone: (763) 999-4040
https://surlybrewing.com/

Surly Brewers Table

We went to Surly Brewer's Table the night before my birthday to celebrate and to have a nice dinner. We had plans to go to Jackpot Junction casino on my birthday, and we knew there would be no good dining options there. 

I heard a lot about Brewer's Table when it opened over the summer, but I have not heard much lately. I definitely liked the idea of the food menu being created with beer pairings in mind. The four course menu is $65 per person with the beer pairings included in the price. 

My first course was fiery hell beer with crudo of marlin, tangerine, cashews. The marlin was raw and not at all fishy. The dried peppers added spice as did the fiery hell beer, which is quite spicy actually. 

John's first course was Oktoberfest beer with squash soup with camembert, mole, poblano, pepperonata. The soup was extremely rich tasting and very flavorful.

My second course was watches hat beer with huevos motulenos, a poached egg, smoked ham, harissa sauce, black beans. This had a nice smoky flavor as did the beer this was paired with.

John's second course was  West coast IPAwith cauliflower and carrot puree, thai vinaigrette and peanuts. The cauliflower was a bit on the salty side, but very good.

My entree was cacao bender beer with market fish which was lobster. The lobster had to have been poached as it was prepared perfectly.

John's entree was Surly smoke beer with pork with guajillo, candied rutabaga, salsa verde. Some of the pork was a very juicy and tender pork chop and some of it was like pork belly. All of it was excellent.

My dessert course was darkness beer with the chocolate tasting, which was chocolate 5 ways. The ice cream was a bit bitter and the brownie was good. The best was the long rectangular item, which was soft and had the consistency of cheese, but I can't recall what it was called. The darkness beer has a very high alcohol content, you can almost taste it, though it worked well with the strong sweetness of the chocolate.

John's dessert course was Surly bender beer with apple brioche with ginger, buckwheat, darkness ice cream. This was good, but we both thought we should have tried the s'mores dessert.

It was interesting to do a beer pairing menu, as we have never done anything like this before. I thought all of the menu items we tried went very well with the beers they were paired with, though we both thought the desserts were the weakest part of the menu.

The service started out a bit slow, but improved after we ordered drinks. The pacing was excellent and we were never waiting long for the next course. The restaurant was pretty busy by the time we left, but not when we arrived. I would suggest making reservations, especially if you have a larger group.

Surly Brewing
Brewer's Table
520 Malcolm Ave SE
Minneapolis, MN
(763) 999-4040
http://surlybrewing.com/breweries-tap-room/tap-room/

Surly Beer Hall - revisit

We went back to the Surly taproom recently with John's mom and her husband Al, when they visited us for the week. We were there during the week and it wasn't too busy when we arrived so we were seated right away. It filled up quickly though.

I had the brisket with a side of corn. The brisket had a great smoky flavor and was very tender. They had two BBQ sauces, one sweet and one spicier. The spicy was quite mild. The corn had poblano, cotija, lime and it was a bit spicy. All of it was great and I'd order the brisket again.

 Al had the smoked polish with caraway kraut, kale salad, bootees mustard. Al had never tried kale and liked it a lot. 

 Surly burger for John's mom. It was a double cheeseburger with thinner patties. 

John had the chopped brisket sandwich topped with slaw and a side of fries

The food was all very good once again. I'm looking forward to going back and trying more things on the menu. It also seems like they change up the menu every so often, which helps keep it interesting. And the tap list seems to change often as well. There are always a few selections available at the taproom that we've never seen elsewhere.

Here is a link to our first visit: http://whereshouldwegomsp.blogspot.com/2015/04/surly-beer-hall.htm


Surly Tap Room
520 Malcolm Ave SE
Minneapolis, MN
(763) 999-4040
http://surlybrewing.com/breweries-tap-room/tap-room/

Surly Beer Hall

We are so out of the loop when it comes to visiting new places. The Surly tap room has been open for quite some time now, December of last year I think, and we just recently visited. Guess this blog is not the destination for reading about new, trendy restaurants. Oh well.

We seated ourselves at the bar and perused the beer list. They have enough taps for 20 different beers and the bartender said many of them are only available at the tap room.

I tried the Surly Hell and the Surly Mild. John had the Doomtree and the Todd the Ax man.

The space is very large and there are garage doors that open up to a large outdoor patio area. The place is quite loud and boisterous, but the atmosphere seemed fun to me, not overly loud.

They also offer a full food menu. We were not very hungry, so we shared a couple small plates.

The pretzel comes with pimento cheese dip and a spicy ale mustard dip. The pretzel was freshly baked and quite large. We did not care for the pimento cheese dip, but the ale mustard was quite spicy, flavorful and addictive.

We also ordered the smoked mushroom, goat cheese, garlic and thyme pizza. It is more of what I’d call a flatbread, with a thin cracker type crust. The smoked mushrooms were divine, tons of smoky flavor and they worked well with the goat cheese. This was a really good snack or entrée and I’d order it again. I love goat cheese a lot though.

The rest of the menu has a wide range, from salads to seafood and a variety of BBQ options too. I was scoping other people’s food and the brisket looked quite good as did the shrimp and grits.

It should be noted that there are no TVs in the tap room. We had hoped they would have the Wild game on, but no dice.

Also, tours are offered on Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays at 1pm and 3pm, and Fridays & Sundays at 1pm, 3pm and 5pm. You need to sign up in the company store one hour before the tour, cost is $4 per person and you get four samples, a tasting glass and a donation to Open Arms Minnesota. Tours last one hour and you must wear closed toed shoes.


Surly Tap Room
520 Malcolm Ave SE
Minneapolis, MN
(763) 999-4040
http://surlybrewing.com/breweries-tap-room/tap-room/