Ladies and Gentlemen...I give you Beer

No, my daughter is not drunk in the picture to the right. That was taken during the meet Santa Claus brunch at Brewer's Alley and she was drinking orange juice. She looks like she's drunk because it was early and she was still a little tired (but she had a blast meeting Santa). Now, speaking of Brewer's Alley...

This weekend will mark the first time that the Maryland Brewer's Spring Fest will be held at Harry Grove Stadium rather than at the Fairgrounds. The move was made in order to allow the event to grow and accommodate more revelers. For tickets or additional information, click here. For you reggae fans out there, local group Jah Works will be playing the event (as they always seem to).

It's a good time, and something you can certainly bring the kids to...just make sure someone is the designated driver.

The festival starts at noon and runs until 8:00 PM. I have gone every year since I have moved to Maryland and enjoyed it every time.

According to the Keys Web site - Advanced tickets are $17 for adults or $20 each at the door and include six tokens for 4 oz. beer samples plus a souvenir mug. Youth (ages 13-20) and designated drivers may enter for $10 each. Children 12 and under are free. Tickets are available at the Keys box office at Harry Grove Stadium, by phone at 301-662-0013, or online.

Brewer's Alley Revisited

Brewer's Alley
North Market Street
Frederick, MD

Anyone that visited the site over the weekend knows that I lunched at Brewer's Alley on Saturday (see post entitled "I Thought it Was Just a Mirage"). Brewer's Alley has been a favorite destination of mine since I moved to Frederick County almost three years ago.

Recently BA changed up some of their menu choices, keeping certain standby items such as the Smokehouse Macaroni and Cheese (highly recommended) and dropping other items like the Osso-buco (which was one of their few dishes that I have been disappointed with), and, unfortunately the crawfish springroll appetizer. While it's commendable that BA changes their menu in order to keep offerings fresh, change isn't always good. I ordered the BLTC (bacon, lettuce, tomato and cheddar sandwich, $6.95), which in the past was served on a nice country white bread, but this time came out on two pita rounds. The pita, which was uncomfortably chewy, dominated the sandwich in a way that bread should not.

My wife had the Po'boy of the day (priced daily based on the main ingredient) - oyster this past Saturday and stated that it was "nice quality bread, tasted fresh but they were skimpy on the oysters though. Usually the sandwiches are overstuffed, I could have used double."

As always, their beer was excellent. Currently the seasonal is the Scotch Ale, which is a personal favorite, but it's hard to go wrong with any of the beers here.

Service, as always, was good.

Brewer's Alley is also a reasonably priced respite for the entire family if shopping in downtown Frederick. Three beers ($2.85 a glass), a root beer for my daughter, 2 meals off the regular menu and an order of the Chicken Dinosaurs ($3.95) off the kids menu ran $40.00 which included a healthy tip. In spite of some of the issues, I would definitely return to try some of the other new additions to the menu (am looking forward to the opportunity to try the Crawfish Mac and Cheese).