We’ve been on a lot of brewery “tours” in the Atlanta area and have always wondered how nice it would be if the breweries could serve a little food with the beer tasting. Georgia law forbids it, but if you are a restaurant that brews its own beer, you can serve all of the food you want. So when we found out that the Wrecking Bar makes their own beer AND served food, Date Night had to check it out.

Wrecking Bar is located in the basement of what was once an old mansion on Moreland, built around 1900.

When you walk in, the first thing you see is this big sign.

You can see that these people are serious about their beer. There are so many choices that it’s really hard to pick. They make it a lot easier on you because you can get 8-ounce tastes for about $3. You can also get a flight of six 3-ounce glasses for $7. That’s what we get, which allows us to taste many beers without drinking too much.

Eve orders a glass of scotch ale, which means we are actually trying seven beers tonight. Every spectrum is covered from a Kolsch, and English Mild, an IPA, an India Black Ale, and two kinds of stout. The scotch ale was a favorite, although the breakfast stout was very smooth. These beers are made in a warehouse behind the restaurant, and they vary their brews often. If we lived in the neighborhood we would be regulars here, stopping in every few weeks to see what new beers have appeared on the board.

There are not a lot of windows in the basement, but we don’t feel as if we are underground.

We have eaten in a lot of restaurants in small French towns that remind us of the decor. It’s crowded when we get there, so we find a nice quiet corner in the bar and have our beers. We are hungry, and they are happy to serve us our appetizer in our corner. We order the Kale Ale Cheese Fondue, which comes with many things on the slate board.

Along with the pretzel, we get radishes, apples, carrots, and baby cauliflower on the board. All go nicely with the fondue, which contains a mixture of cheese, kale, and (surprise!) beer. Since there is no table in front of us in the bar, our waiter brings us a chair and we prop the appetizer on the chair while we eat it.

The couple next to us is drinking a bottle of wine. It looks funny because everyone here is drinking beer. There is also an extensive menu of bourbons and scotches if you are into that kind of recreation.

Our table is finally ready and we move our beers over to it for the dinner course. You can get sandwiches, or you can get entrees here on the gastropub menu. You can also do an order of three or four side items, which seems like a good idea to us.

Although we could have gotten more, we order three sides. The butternut and Brussels hash is our favorite of the three. The squash is a tasty combo with the Brussels and I look forward to making this at home. The clam chowder has a lot of chewy clams and is a nice dish on this damp night. The mac and cheese has a little kick, probably from jalapeño peppers.

We order an entree as well, the Roasted Sun Choke Barley.

We have gone almost all-vegetarian tonight, and this dish is a great meatless alternative. There’s a lot going on in the barley–pecorino cheese, artichoke puree, greens and roasted pumpkin seeds. It also has some of that butternut squash on top, which ties it nicely into the Brussels hash on the other dish. Hungry yet?

We are too full for dessert, so we pass on the sweets. Many of the desserts are made with stout beer, including the stout creme brûlée along with sundaes and floats that have beer in them. These would be very refreshing on a hot day.

When the weather gets warmer, there is a patio where you can enjoy the beer. We’ll be back to sample some of their spring and summer offerings. The Wrecking Bar has a good thing going in Little Five Points. If you are “hop-heads” like us, the beer and the food are both worth a try.