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| - Funny little place, this restaurant. I can save you most of the review about the fact it's an old church converted in to a restaurant - other reviewers have covered in depth. Novelty aside, some of the dishes are misses, but most of the items we chose were spot on.
ATMOSPHERE: (Psst... it's a church :). You'll get just what you expect for decor - an abandoned church, the altar "desecrated" by a massive hopper and other brewery equipment. The church aisle is largely untouched, while the sides are made into a dining area (using old pews for the booth sections. While most of the church components are largely in tact, I felt myself dissapointed that they didn't do MORE with the church theme - the organ was broken, for example, the menu's could have been like hymnals, the plates to look like offering dishes, the dishes named after hymns or had some reference to church / holy ingredients / so on. That said, you absolutely still get the picture of eating in church, to the point serious church goers might be offended (we weren't).
FOOD: There are some gems on this menu, and some unimaginative stinkers. Luckily, we listened to others and stuck to the bar menu, although many of the "premium" dishes looked very good walking by (very small, but still appetizing). We had:
1 - Spinach, Feta & Smoked Gouda Dip - It was "fine" tasting, but I expected a revelation (pun intended), and what we got was a spinach-artichoke dip in disguise that you can get at any chain restaurant anywhere. Our first impression was a dull one with this... they need to amp up the feta / gouda aspect, or do something more to make this dish stand out from others.
2 - Traditional Cheese Pizza - REALLY good... some genius brought a wood fired pizza oven into the church (come on - there's a marketing concept about flames here they missed...). The sauce was flavorful, the cheese-to-dough-to sauce ratio heavenly, and the crust was perfect thanks to the wood-firing. I dreamt about this pizza days after we left... good thing for me we live in Illinois or I'd be a heifer!
3 - Cinco Fromaggio Pizza - Good. The menu didn't say anything about sauce, so I guess I expected the traditional red. This pizza comes instead with a green basil-pesto sauce which, for us, was much too sparse and didn't have enough of a punch of flavor. This left the pizza quite dry (especially with the feta and powdered parmesan cheeses), and while we enjoyed the cheese combo, found ourselves sneaking the kid's cheese pizza instead the moment they were full. Considering the Cinco is a "premium" pizza, it's a shame that standard cheese kicked its butt.
4 - Church Works Brew beer flight - Must try, do not miss it (you simply cannot go to a craft brewery and NOT sample the wares... it would be a sin!). Plenty of drink, enough variety to keep you interested, and the different flavors / styles are worth it!
SERVICE: The table service was great. Our waitress was a sweetheart, and catered to our children in a way few servers do (taking their order instead of ours, talking to THEM about what they were doing in town, where THEY were from, etc.). She made menu suggestions, brought drinks quickly, refills for kids and adults as soon as we were empty (The result was a very enjoyable evening for them - happy kids = very happy parents = great tip.
Side note - the bartender's service was less than friendly. There is a SMALL gift shop behind one corner of the bar where you can get t-shirts, 6 packs of the beer, etc.... while I appreciate the need to serve customers sitting at the bar, and there were several, I took GREAT offense to him telling me that they were more important... I believe his exact words were "one minute --- gotta take care of the paying customers first"... Listen bub - when someone walks up and drops more than $100 on the "gift shop", screw the guy on the stool and his $4 beer. (holy crap, you say? We bought a number of mini-kegger beers to serve the party of 14 at our final destination-week in VA Beach). Bottom line, our last impression was this bartender and his poor attitude, and he should be ashamed of himself.
VALUE: All jokes aside, if you want good value you're going to have to be smart about the menu. We ordered from the bar menu only - as other reviewers warned, the dinner menu was very high pricing with very small portions. What we paid for what we got was worth it and then some... if we'd have ordered the dinner entrees, I suspect I'd feel differently.
If you are anywhere in the general vicinity of this place, stop by and check it out - you'll be happy you did.
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