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| - It's been quite a journey for the Phoenix area microbrewery scene. For the longest time you'd be hard pressed to find 3 or 4 locally based microbreweries in town despite the valley's exploding population. Only in the last 5 years has the valley started to see the microbrewery scene blossom with great local brands. Phoenix Ale Brewery being among them. Having sampled their beers before and having a discount dinner coupon on me, I decided to give Phoenix Ale's Central Kitchen a try with my Dad for dinner on a Sunday night.
The location is set in the back of a completely redone shopping center that I believe at one point was home to a giant Hobby Lobby-type craft store. Its a little hard to find the restaurant if you don't know the area, but just be sure to park in the back and look for the entrance right next door to another restaurant called Okra. The inside incorporates a hybrid look of beer tasting room and sports bar, with plenty of seating both inside and on the patio. This would be a great place to catch NFL Sunday midday.
For my first time meal here, I decided to go with a burger. The one I went with was the Ale House 3 Meats burger. Basically a burger with two types of bacon and mozzarella as the cheese topper. Served with regular fries. The burger was solid as I loved the mix of the leaner Canadian bacon with the mozzarella cheese. But the biggest compliant I have and the reason I docked two stars was the price. For the portion of burger and fries I got, this was pretty pricey at $14. It was a good burger, but I could name a number of establishments that serve up a bigger burger and fries portion for equal or lesser price than Central Kitchen.
Total price for my burger and beer (as well as a regular cheeseburger and beer for my Dad) plus tax and tip came to about $45. For the amount of food we got, that's pretty steep. The burgers were good, but can't say they were OMG good. I had a coupon this go around that docked $10 off my meal, so that softened the blow. But if I came back here again, it would probably just for a beer or perhaps I'd take a gander at their happy hour specials to see if those are a better value. So the moral of the story here is come for the beer, stay for the food only if you're not on a budget.
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