Date 12 - Oh Christmas Beer!

Day: Saturday, 11/5/11
Type: Casual
Cost: $$$
Planned By: Adam

So everyone in Ohio and probably most people around the country knows about Great Lakes Brewing Company. Well, people it's in Cleveland. They don't only ship beer around the country they also have a restaurant. One of Adam's favorite Great Lakes beer is their Christmas Ale, but its only a seasonal beer. They just started selling so instead of buying it in the store Adam planned to have dinner and drinks at the Great Lakes Brewing Company restaurant. 

We had a little trouble finding the restaurant. While looking for the street I almost hit the person in front of me. Oops. Anyway we got lost, but eventually found it. We had to wait about a half hour to get seated so we took a walk around the block. We saw some locals and some other bars and restaurants. We also went in the gift shop and thought about buying something for ourselves or gifts for other people, but we didn't. We got seated, and gave our drink orders. I am not much of a beer drinker, but I figured I might as well have a beer since I was at the brewery. We both got a Christmas Ale. Adam thinks it tastes like Christmas, I think it tastes like beer. It wasn't too bad though.

We ordered our food. Then we had a great time chatting and drinking our beer. A Great Lakes Christmas Ale is 7.5% alcohol, which is quite a lot for a beer. So chatting was a lot of fun. So fun that we didn't realize that we hadn't gotten our food yet. Our waitress was very nice and kept asking if we were OK and then the unthinkable happened. She brought each of us a free Christmas Ale and fry appetizer!!
It's always better to be nice and friendly to the waitress rather than be a jerk because you get free stuff if you have to wait (this is our second free thing since we've started date night!)

free stuff!!

OK so don't worry we finally got our food. Adam got a burger and fries and I got the pulled pork sandwich with the hand made potato chips. A very American meal, and it tasted pretty normal. The chips came with cheese sauce that was kind of strange, but the chips themselves were good!

After we finished eating we went and bought a 24 pack of Christmas Ale to split with Adam's parents. We put it in the car and went to the downstairs bar part of the restaurant. Adam got another beer and I stopped drinking since I had to drive. We stood around and people watched then attempted to make friends. Little did we know our new friends were apparently having a family reunion. The girl's sister joined them with her boyfriend. Then the guy's sister joined them with her friend. They still hung out with us and listened to Adam's craziness for a couple hours. We are supposed to meet them back at Great Lakes in 2 weeks. We'll see if they show up.

Overall, the date was better than I had expected. The beer was actually tolerable and the food was good. The environment was great. The decor was perfect for a brewery and the bar was underground which was a nice touch. We had a lot of fun together, and it was great to go downtown since we hardly ever do.

Ratings:
Christmas Ale: 6/10 - better than other beers, but its still beer. (Adam gives it a 10)
Food: 7/10 - good but nothing special
Service: 9/10 - our waitress was great, it wasn't her fault the cooks were slow and they were busy!