Thursday, April 7, 2011

A Visit to "Greenville's Favorite Pizza and Beer Emporium"

Built in a 19th century hardware and feed store, Barley's Taproom and Pizzeria in Greenville is a beer lover's dream.  Adorned with 27 taps downstairs and an additional 31 in their upstairs billiard room and bar, they are sure to have the microbrew you're looking for.  Last night Mr. T and I (both self proclaimed beer snobs) decided to see if Barley's really was as great as they claimed to be.  We deemed it a perfect place for casual dinner and drinks.  Somewhere we can go in jeans and a t-shirt and still get a great meal. So here's the low down...

We started out with the black bean hummus.  This was the choice of Mr. T.  I was skeptical, but boy was I wrong.  The pita bread was fluffy and warm and the hummus was creamy and oh-so-good.  It was drizzled with olive oil and  topped with a generous amount of smoky paprika which gave it a great kick.


Due to the menu placement of this item (the very first item on the left side of the menu) its a popular item, and the restaurant gets a high profit from it as well.  Usually its a pretty safe bet to order the first or last item on the left side of a tri-fold menu, because they're some of the best sellers.

As for the beer, Mr. T had his all time fave, Stone's Arrogant Bastard Ale, and I had the Westbrook IPA.  I'm a huge IPA fan and loved this beer.  I had never even heard of Westbrook Brewing Company and was shocked to learn that its located in Mount Pleasant.  I love supporting local microbreweries so I'll definitely be buying more of this.


The menu described it as a "well balanced seasonable American IPA with a massively complex layered citrusy-pine hop character".  I also thought it had some floral and berry notes to it, quite similar but a little bit sweeter than my other favorite, Bell's Two Hearted Ale.

For our dinner I ordered a calzone and Mr. T ordered 2 pieces of pizza.  He attempted to order 3, but after the look the waitress gave us he decided to get two.  You'll see why...



The pieces are huge!  It was great pizza though, not greasy, a nice thin crust, and very reasonably priced.  My calzone was enormous too.  It cost a little more than the pizza, but its definitely justifiable since half will be my lunch today.



All in all, the pizza and calzone were good, but I wish they were a little more adventurous in their topping selections.  I was hoping for prosciutto, peppadew peppers, goat cheese, or something just a little more outside the box than pepperoni and sausage.  As for the beer, the selection is fabulous and prices are very reasonable.  Appetizer was awesome, I'm even going to try to create my own rendition of the hummus- I'll let you know if I'm successful, and I'll share the recipe!

Barley's Taproom and Pizzeria on Urbanspoon

1 comment:

  1. Barley's calzones got me thru college. LOVE them. And just like you, I always took half home!

    ReplyDelete

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