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| - I visited Cabarrus Brewery for the first time recently with a group of 18 people. The place is very casual, inviting, loud, fun. With such a large group, I had a chance to see most of the menu personally: All food is served from a food truck, an offshoot of the original Smoke Pit restaurant, also in Concord, NC. The food is excellent. I heartily recommend the Dragon Tacos (brisket tacos were good, but Dragon edges 'em out), the Brewer's Apprentice sandwich (smoked sausage and mustard slaw), and the Pulled Pork Nachos (next time I'd order extra queso for the nachos -- and I'd like to see them add a half-order in the future; the nachos are appropriate for 6-8 hungry adults to share, so it's not something a couple would want to order). Plain BBQ sandwiches are also delicious, and do consider the sweet potato tots as a side dish. Note that quantities are massive: An adult can make a meal of four wings, and two adults can share a sandwich plate.
Prices were $10-12 for a sandwich and sides, a single taco (which is pretty large) is $5, and ALL our food was excellent. The monster-sized nachos were $13.
The beer drinkers in the crowd enjoyed all the options, and the flights were particularly nice. The group's consensus seemed to be that the Reed Gold was a winner. Everyone liked the local tie-in concepts.
The whole place was very clean. I noticed the employees working hard at sanitizing tables between groups.
However, delicious food is only part of any eating establishment, and Cabarrus Brewery falls short in some rather significant ways:
- I get it. It's a brewery, and it's about beer, but these days, every party includes a designated driver, and that's usually me drinking a Diet Coke. However, the Brewery doesn't have ice! Really, who doesn't have ice? So I enjoyed a nice warm soda (served in a styrofoam kiddie cup) along with my meal. The kids in our group wanted refills on the small sodas, and refills cost extra! I understand the majority of the beverages being aimed at beer drinkers, but a bar can't afford to so completely alienate the non-drinkers; I did not consider this to be a small thing.
- You must go to one location to order your drinks and a second location to order your food, which is kind of odd. Not a deal breaker, but also less than ideal.
- The menus need some attention badly -- I don't mean the menu choices; rather, I mean the paper menus. They're dirty (to the point that we all made a trek to the bathroom to wash our hands after making our choices), and many items were marked off with a Sharpie pen. Other people have made lists of their choices on the back. It's just messy looking and doesn't lead to a good start to a meal.
- Finally, the place is not at all vegetarian-friendly. The two vegetarians in our group enjoyed a dinner of French Fries. Sure, one doesn't expect a great deal of vegetarian food at a place that specializes in BBQ, but Cabarrus Brewery is designed to be a casual, meet a group of people for dinner type of place. You'd expect at least one good meal choice for the vegetarians among us -- I'd think BBQ tempeh, which is easy to grill, would be a natural choice and would make a great Dragon taco.
Would I go back? Yeah, I gave it three stars, which is listed as A-OK. However, it wouldn't be my first choice for a family dinner. If I were invited to go back with a group of people, I would go -- but I'd bring my own adult-sized iced tea, emphasis on ice. My vegetarian sister says she would not return. Yeah, from her viewpoint, I get it.
Again, the food quality is excellent, and the beer drinkers enjoyed their beverages, but while this fledgling eatery has good quality food and drink, but the overall experience has room for improvement.
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