I've been back to both the Strip Brewery and Valhalla recently. My concusion: Valhalla has better food, the Strip has better beer, but both are quite good. The Strip Brewery has about the best beer in the city with the possible excpetion of some of the Penn Breweries special offerings. They also have the biggest selection of styles -- including milds, pale ales, IPAs, Scotch ales, and stouts. Their hoppy Hopus Maximus is a very nice hoppy ale. Their stout could be a tad chewier, but is still a good rendition of the style. And their Scotch Ale is very nice. They sell samplers, and also grolliers (jugs) for take out (and unlike so many places, that do clear grolliers, the Strip has opaque grolliers). The food is pretty good Pub food. I had the reuben, which was pretty good. A friend had a burger and liked it. Valhalla is the brew pub I visit most. It's close enough to work that I can make it over there for lunch at least once or twice. They are also one of the few good mid-priced restaurants in the downtown area that's open on Sunday (making them a good place to go in conjuction with Steeler games). Their beers are all German style beers. The best is probably Big Olaf, a dark lager. They had a Marzen as they special last month, and it was also pretty good. Their Eric the Red is also worth trying. On the negative side, their Pillage Pilsner is only worth trying if you like Miller Genuine Draft. It's their attempt to do an American style, not a German or Czech style, pilsner. The food at Valhalla is very good, and some of it is quite inventive. They make several good burgers as well as things like a ratatoille in a peasant loaf, "eggs allegheny" (egg's benedict, but with a few twists) and so on. Overall, I'd recommend both brew pubs. I have not yet been to the newly opened Foundry. Perhaps I'll make it over the holidays.
Pittsburgh, PA
The Strip Brewery and Valhalla
We went to the Strip Brewery last Saturday for dinner. We arrived around 6:30 and had no problem getting seated immediately even though they had closed off the upstairs for a party that evening. The atmosphere was very "sports bar"ish as they had the end of the Steelers game on tv (which was fine by us...and the rowdy cheers from the bar area were entertaining as well). We started with the quesadeas (sp?), which were quite good. The tortilla seemed a bit different, but I couldn't but my finger on what is was. They were not very spicy and were accompanied by a typical salsa, but were a nice beginning (about $3.95). I had their ribs ($12.95) and my wife and a penne with vegetables and a ceasar salad ($8.95). The "rack of ribs" was more like a half-rack, but the sauce was very good and it came accompanied by a bushel of french fries and a creamy cole slaw. It was certainly enough to fill me up. The pasta was very good as well. The only problem was that their ceasar dressing tastes more like an Italian than a traditional ceasar. She asked for a different salad and dressing and the server was understanding and happily complied. As for the beer, I was tempted to get the sampler but ended up choosing a pint of their Scotch Ale, which the server said had just been brought online Thursday last week. It was a very good beer. To top it all off, the price was right...even without the Entertainment Book discount (oh, and they didn't punch the card either). We really enjoyed it and look forward to going back again sometime. Regards, Michael Sykuta