Foundry

 Someone wrote:
 # I heard a rumor that a new prepub, The Foundary,
 # has opened in the strip recently. Can anyone
 # confirm this and give a short review, including
 # the location?

 Checked this place out on Thursday.  It's several
 blocks up Smallman from the "heart" of the Strip,
 a couple blocks beyond the Spaghetti Warehouse.
 Business was booming, so despite a big gravel
 parking lot across the street, parking wasn't easy.
 They must be getting some good word of mouth or
 something.  The place is very big, with dining
 space upstairs and downstairs.  There were a lot
 of people there, but still quite a few empty tables.
 The music was a bit loud, but at least it was music
 I like, guitar hero rock. :>
 Service was a bit slow, but that can be excused
 since they just opened and were probably busier than
 they were ready for.

 The beer:
 They have a 5 beer sampler for $4 so we all started
 with that.  It's a good deal if you don't know
 what you want, especially since each glass is like
 5 or 6 ounces, a good amount of beer for $4.  They
 have an oatmeal stout and a porter, both of which
 were quite good.  The stout was served at the same
 temperature as the other beers, which is fine with
 me but hard-core enthusiasts would expect it more
 towards room temperature, I think.  I stuck with
 the porter after the sampler.  The price for a pint
 was $3, cheaper than other area brewpubs which seem
 to generally be at $3.50.  I thought the beer was
 second only to the Penn Brewery in the area, but
 others I was with felt the Strip Brewery edged them
 out.

 The food:
 We started with chips and salsa, with chile con queso.
 The salsa was nothing special, but the queso dip was
 quite interesting.  It had a lot of beer in it.  I
 then had corn chowder, the soup of the day.  At first
 I thought it was very bland but after a few more bites
 I felt it was very nicely spiced.  I guess my tongue
 had to come down from the hot salsa and queso.  Then
 I had the portobello sandwich which was very tasty
 also.  Two others I was with had the crab cake
 sandwich which was very big and had lots of crab in
 it, but had been battered and deep fried, an odd
 choice of cooking method.

 Overall, we very much enjoyed it and would go back.
 Total came out to about $20 per person for a lot of
 food and beer.  Joe Bob says check it out.

  -Rick