Brewings and Eats implies a balance between the two. The food rises to make the balance with the superb beers that I already talked about on Tuesday. I never leave a Dogfish Head joint disappointed with what I eat or what I drink. Sharing that with visitors is a joy, and we began this journey with a table-center appetizer that I had only once before that fateful meal with visitors from distant Illinois. The dogpile nachos are a sight for the hungry man. Chili, pickled jalapenos and onions, cheese, and (yes, and) spinach-artichoke dip dogpiling together on a bed of freshly fried tortilla chips makes for a very promising appetizer. It was made to sit at the center of the table for a group of ravenous youths, not that we are so youthful anymore. We dug in together from the bottom up. Each chip we pulled out had elements from almost every layer. You had to work to really get the whole experience from pickled jalapeno to spin dip, but each element eaten separate of each other via tortilla chip vehicle remained pleasant and delicious. All four of us cleaned the plate without the help of the little man at the table. He was very interested in coloring at the time. Can you blame him? My husband and I shared a favorite that briefly left the Brewings and Eats menu: The Old Man and the Sea. This pizza is the star of Rehoboth Beach to me. It has a soft, crunch on the outside pizza dough covered in crab dip, mozzarella, micro-celery, and pancetta bits. All of it was dusted finely with Old Bay. We have had a lot of interesting seafood related pizzas in Delaware, but this is king. The crab dip is nearly indistinguishable from the thick layer of cheese. It all stretches apart from the pizza after you take your first bite, and the pancetta is a perfect little crispy bit on the top to introduce some porky fat. God, we love this pizza. We love it so much we highly recommended it to one of our guests who got his own: he took the rest home with him. Chesapeake and Maine is right next door to Brewings and Eats, although they have added a souvenir/beer store in the once empty space that stood between the two icons of the beach. You can pick up all kinds of things here, namely the distilled spirits that can be hard to find if you leave the state of Delaware. Once the tourist traffic clears up, I’m worried I’ll wind up down there grabbing a new case of beer every weekend. Thanks, Brewings and Eats, for a delicious meal as always.
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It was a good weekend for myself and food. My husband and I had some semi-unexpected company, and one of our favorite things to do with guests is share the food of Delaware with them. We dearly love Dogfish Head in any iteration, so we brought them to Brewings and Eats down at Rehoboth Beach. Before we ate, we took them to the boardwalk, enjoyed an unusually cool summer day, and fought our way through the crowd. Most of the beach restaurants, including Brewings and Eats, had a wait due to the high tourist population of the July Fourth weekend. I ran ahead of the group (which included a three year old, much entranced by the idea of sandcastles) to get a spot. We waited a little more than a half hour in total, fifteen minutes of which I waited alone. We made it work for us in order to visit a favorite with close friends. Brewings and Eats does not take reservations over the phone, so keep this in mind if you decide to visit during the tourist season. The facility itself is spacious to accommodate the high traffic that comes during season. Second floor seating helps relieve some of the wait, but we were lucky enough to sit in some of their window boxes. Our three year old guest loved the circular enclosure we sat in, and he may or may not have used the crayons on the windows. We didn’t leave it for them to clean up, we swear! To accurately describe to you my experience at Brewings and Eats, my review will be broken into two parts: The brewings and the eats. Today, we’ll have the brewings, what Dogfish Head is known for throughout much of the country. The Brewings For the first time in my beer drinking journey, I ordered a proper beer flight. The brewpub has several beers only available in the building, and the flight is the most efficient way for a self-described connoisseur to try the new and the exclusive. I rarely get out to Rehoboth proper, so I needed to capitalize on the opportunity. In order of preference:
The first and favored beer in my flight, Faithful COmpanion, was aptly named. This classic American Ale was first released June 13, 2018, and it is exclusive to Brewings and Eats. It has the taste I prefer in a beer, running a little bitter with caramel flavor in the back. On the upside, it's only 3.5 alcohol by volume (ABV). I knew right away this would come to the front of my rankings. It’s highly drinkable, not too busy, and a faithful companion for the summer. 2. Festina Peche Festina Peche came in as my second place beer among the flight. Originally released in 2007, it reappeared for the summer season, May to August. It is classified as a Berliner Weisse, a type of beer that I often gravitate to at any brewery. It has a slightly higher ABV of 4.5 compared to Faithful Companion. Given that I had such a small amount, I didn’t notice the ABV difference. It was slightly acidic and fruity comparatively. These are the kinds of beers that got me comfortable with this type of alcohol overall.. It’s a good beginners choice for a first timer to Dogfish Head Brewings and Eats. 3. Midas Touch This one wasn’t new to me. I had it during my last visit, and back then I thought it perfect. It’s described as ‘an Ancient Ale’, and it clocks in at a heavy 9.0 ABV, twice that of the Festina Peche. They say it’s somewhere between a wine and beer, which I can confirm. It runs a little sweeter than the other beers in the flight. After just six months of growing more and more used to beer, it runs a little sweet for me. I wouldn’t say no to a bottle, but its not my first choice. 4. Fruit-Full Port I went way out of my box testing this bad boy. Dark beer usually isn’t for me, and I have to tell you, I would have been better served trying something else. It’s a Belgian style beer with a strong 50 IBU, way too much for me. I couldn’t appreciate the berry flavor behind whatever it is that the IBU brought to the table. It’s a new release, part of the reason I grabbed it, and if you like a dark, strong beer, it might be worth checking out. Coming later this week: The Eats. The beaches of Delaware are home to more than a few local chain restaurants serving tourists and townies alike. Arenas is among them, spreading inland into the less touristy locations. Milford is home to one such location, and my husband and I are frequent visitors. There is much to this inland food stop located just a block off of the main downtown drag. It’s the kind of place you can fall back on, and we all need that when we aren’t interested in cooking. I fall into this trap more often than I care to admit, but it helps to know I have a place nearby to back me up when I am bitten by the laziness bug. Not only can we eat well, there’s a lot to do there. Every Friday is trivia night. Although we have never participated, we nearly always wound up eating there on a Friday night after work. It gets very busy. We often have to wait for a seat. Even the bar is full. The building is lively and people are happy. Families come to take part in the festivities. Star Wars trivia night was perhaps the greatest example of this. Parents brought their kids to do trivia while they had a few beers in a nearby corner. I loved it. The Arenas in Milford has a standard bar food menu: burgers, wings, and the like. Nothing here is particularly out of the ordinary. If you don’t look hard at the menu, you won’t see the hidden gems or the healthy options. Their main menu is large, but not unwieldy. The options fill diet needs for pescetarians and vegetarians like me. It definitely makes the menu look bloated, but the benefits of that outweigh the negatives ten to one. It’s good to have vegetarian options that don’t make your vegetarian friend HATE your restaurant choice. No iceberg lettuce, please. There is, however, a particular item on the menu that I will order every visit without fail, likely to the frustration of my husband who just wants to eat something else: Mac and cheese bites. I know what you’re thinking: “Oh my god, mysterious blogger, every bar has mac and cheese bites.” You would be right, but those mac and cheese bites are not Arena’s mac and cheese bites. Does your local dive shape their fried mac and cheese into a triangle? Do they serve that delicious cheddar mac with a side of SRIRACHA RANCH? No. They do not. That sriracha ranch totally makes the mac and cheese bites pop with just enough spice to cut through the fatiness and the oil on normally gets from this bar food classic. I could eat them forever. You may as well call me Nibbler, because there are few things I like more than a good appetizer. It’s places like Arena’s that have helped me to understand what the local community is really eating and really likes to eat. When I go in there, I see a variety of food and a variety of beer. Both of those are very good things for me. They encourage drinking locally, featuring brews from 16 Mile Brewing, Mispillion River Brewing, and Dogfish head just to name a few. There may even be more on the list since my last visit! Arena’s first opened in Rehoboth in 1990 and has expanded since to seven total locations in Delaware. It absolutely is a staple of the local community. You can check out their main website for further information about their locations, or you can find them on facebook. Arena’s Milford Facebook |
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