new brewpubs

 I visited Valhalla (Smallman & 11th St in the Strip) 2 weeks ago on a
 Saturday night.  I just happened to be passing by, it was open, & I
 thought I'd check it out.  I was there kinda late, & the place was
 packed... it wasn't easy to find a table.

 I sat out on the deck, which was a lot quieter than inside.  I was there
 the first night that they opened the deck, and the management hadn't
 figured out how to assign the wait staff to the outdoor tables.
 Needless to say, the service was terrible, but I'm willing to chalk that
 up as growing pains.  Probably not a valid excuse, but hopefully they've
 got their act together by now.

 I thought that the decor was pretty cool.  The building has a strange
 shape (kinda triangular), & they worked well with it in designing the
 interior.  The place is well lit, has a clean & modern feel, as well as
 a funky Norse motif.  There is a variety of furniture: tables, bar
 stools, some big comfy leather sofas upstairs, patio furniture on the
 deck. The downstairs has a very open feel with a couple big garage doors
 that open up.  The deck was nice, the view isn't spectacular, but fun
 nonetheless.

 I did not eat any food, but the menu looked very interesting - certainly
 a notch above the other brewpubs in town.  I do like the food at 3
 Rivers, Churchworks, and Fuel & Fuddle, but Valhalla's menu seemed to
 have more exciting dishes.  Some folks around me were eating; based on
 what I saw the food presentation appeared to be excellent.  I can't
 recall offhand what the the prices were like, but I don't think that
 they were too bad.

 As for Vahalla's raison d'etre - brewing beer - they have 3 permanent
 styles & one monthly special.  I tried the 4 beer sampler, which I think
 cost $3.50 or so.  I don't exactly remember the names of the beers (they
 all had names to fit the Norse motif): there was a dark, a red, a light
 pilsner, and the monthly brew - a wheat beer.

 The 2 darker ones were excellent, whole-heartedly recommend them.  They
 were not overpowering, so if you usually prefer light beers, I think
 you'd enjoy these anyway.  Near as I can tell, the pilsner is an attempt
 to cater to brewpub first-timers; it's a bland, light bodied beer just
 like the major brewers produce.  If that's your thing, then the pilsner
 is a safe bet, but otherwise, no reason to order it.

 The wheat beer was terrible.  I like wheat beers, and have even brewed
 them myself, but this one was incredibly yeasty.  My date thought that
 the beer was rotten becuase of the smell (still fermenting yeast?).  Not
 sure if that will go away as the beer ages.  Even still, the wheat beer
 was too watery for my liking: just not enough flavor.  (Just to
 calibrate you, I do like strong beers, but usually prefer lighter ones
 to dark ales.)

 On the whole, it's a pretty cool place.  The location is fun, the
 kitchen deserves a try, and assuming that the service and monthly beer
 improves, we're only left with the boring macrobrew-like pilsner to
 complain about.

 Anyone know where the Stip Brewing Co. is located?

 -Matt

 Went to Valhalla twice; once for Sunday lunch, and again for Friday dinner.
 On Sunday, my party was of about 3 in the entire establishment.
 Service was good.

 On Friday, my party was one of about 60.  Service was horrible,
 horrible, horrible.  When we got there, there were easily 10 tables in
 plain view that were completely empty.  Even so, we were told it would
 be a 45 minute wait.  We left names at the door, and said "we'll find
 you when your table is ready."  We sat in the bar for two and a half
 hours.  I went to ask "hey, what about our table?"  They said "Oh, we
 looked for you, and couldn't find you."  Jeesh.

 We got food in the bar, and that took about an hour on it's own; they
 said the kitchen was backed up.

 That said, the food was excellent.  On Sunday, I had Eggs Allegheny,
 which is kind of a fancy Eggs Benedict with poached eggs on small
 toast rondelettes with turkey and hollandaise sauce with a pretty cool
 caviar garnish.  I got a chicken salad on Friday, and that was damn
 fine as well, served in a fried dough trumpet with yummy dressing.
 Also had a couple of wings, which were somewhat expensive but very
 large and way tasty.

 The beer was also good.  Of the four styles, I have the most to say of
 their pilsener and weiss.  The pilsener was perhaps the most excellent
 pilsener I've ever had, with the light golden color but a fantastic
 hoppy nose and excellent body and taste.  The normal bittering
 protocol for Bud/Michelob/etc beers is to employ a hopback, where the
 newly fermented beer is quickly washed over the hops, minimizing
 extraction and maximizing nasty taste.  No hopbacks at Valhalla!

 The mis-named weiss was probably the most accurate weizen I've ever
 had.  High ester, strong wheat, beautiful color and body (yes, it's
 supposed to be hazy) -- very stylish.  Highly recommended to anyone
 who's only had nasty bottled wheat beers from Texas.

 The brown and dunkel (forgot the names) were okay, but a little
 lacking in body, taste, and seemed a little rushed in the fermentation
 for me.

 Where's the Strip brewery?  I'm losing track of all the excellent
 things happening in the brewpub from here.

 Doug