In my mind, you can’t have a good microbrewery without good food. It just can’t work. Therefore, I headed to Arizona Wilderness in Gilbert, a brewery with a rustic theme getting a lot of regional traction, to see if it could churn out food on par with the its beer reputation. But of course, I had to start of off with a beer before diving into the menu.

From the food side of the menu, Arizona Wilderness is known for its fries. Thus, we kicked things off with an order of When Pigs Fly Fries, fried in duck fat and topped with pulled pork and wilderness beer cheese. These were nothing short of savory deliciousness. They were not only packed with great flavor, but the toppings were plentiful. I would say that I was left wanting more, but in fact I was more interested in perhaps ordering more fries.

But I didn’t. I instead waited patiently for my burger. That burger was the After the Hike Burger (rustic, right?) and was topped with white cheddar, pork belly, bacon, avocado, a fried egg, an onion ring and LTO. I ordered without the LTO and stuck with the chips instead of upgrading to fries because I already had an ungodly amount of fries inside me. The burger was a thing of love, and certainly the kind of burger you would want to eat after a hike (or before it). Assuming, of course, that you don’t have to cook it yourself over an open flame because ain’t nobody got the energy for that. Thus, it’s good that Arizona Wilderness doesn’t make you cook your own food.

The chips, though, were really not great. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but they were just…vapid. It’s possible that they simply paled in comparison to the fries, but I am confident that they simply weren’t great.

In all, Arizona Wilderness was a pretty fantastic microbrewery. The beers were great, the fries were more than great and the burger was solid and meaty. Next time I find myself in the real wilderness, I may be wishing I was hanging in a brewery in Gilbert instead.

Is there anything better in the world for two brothers to do than to build a brewery? Well, that’s what one pair of brothers thought (allegedly) when they put together Two Brothers Brewery, a microbrewery with locations mostly around the Chicago area, but also one in Scottsdale because Chicago places seem to feel welcome here.

There was plenty of beer to choose from, and, like all good breweries, there was a menu flush with burgers, pizzas and for some reason even a schwarma plate. I focused on the burgers, as I tend to do in such places, and found the Pork Belly BBQ Burger to be up my alley. It consisted of a Niman Ranch patty, fried pork belly, house BBQ sauce and cheddar cheese. No more, no less. And I chose the truffle parmesan fries for my side because that’s how I roll.

When the burger arrived, it delivered on the ingredients, but felt like it had been hastily cobbled together. Not like in a cool, artisan way, but in a way that implied a degree of nonchalance. Did it taste good? Sure. I mean, it’s really hard to mess up this combination and the only thing missing was a little more BBQ sauce to keep things moist because the pork belly was fried pretty hard. Plus, the fries were pretty killer.

My overwhelming feeling as I polished off this burger was that it had done just enough. No more. No less. That’s really just fine when you’re going out for drinks and need something to eat. But when you’re going out to eat, and just want to have a drink with that meal it can be a bit underwhelming. But, since Two Brothers is a brewery first and foremost, I think I know what they had in mind.

It seems like just yesterday that I packed up my bags in Michigan to move to Los Angeles, but alas it was nearly 10 years ago. A lot has changed in those 10 years, and aside from housing prices and traffic much of it has been for the better. Take, for example, breweries. Michigan was littered with them and I found LA barely had one (San Diego was strong, though). Now, they are much easier to find and have even come around to serving brewery food instead of fancy stuff (I’m looking at you, Golden Road, but glad that you have also fixed yourself up!) Highland Park Brewery is one of the new entrants and I set out to test both its food and booze.

The booze passed the test, plus Highland Park Brewery had a great selection of local guest taps. But I know all you really care about is food and so I should say that I ordered the Meatloaf Burger. It was made from beef and bacon blend, then topped with a fried egg, avocado and pimento cheese. Thinking that a meatloaf is essentially a giant burger, I kind of thought this would simply be a burger with a hipster name. It turned out I was wrong, as this literally looked like a slice of meatloaf. More than that, it tasted like a slice meatloaf as opposed to a burger, which is all at once a very clear and very ambiguous description. Just know that from a texture and density standpoint, this was meatloaf.

And that’s all good and well, but call it what it is – a meatloaf sandwich. I love a good slice of meatloaf as much as the next guy/gal, but it is important to set my expectations correctly. Because of these expectations, I couldn’t help but feel at least a little bit disappointed by the sandwich, which is sad because it was really an ideal mix of ingredients for an unvegan.

Nonetheless, the menu at Highland Park Brewery, just like the beers, is ever-changing. I am all but certain that the meatloaf burger is gone from the menu and has been replaced by something that may be described better. Whether that is the case or not, I certainly enjoyed the beers and can only mildly complain about the naming of my meal, which meant I was a happy man and would happily return.

Breweries are the best, right? And they typically have awesome food. That’s why I was pretty excited to find out Phoenix was getting a new brewery called Helio Basin and tried to make my way there at the first opportunity. Plus, it didn’t hurt that I had a connection at the place and wanted to show some support.

Like any good drinker, I started out by ordering a flight of all the beers on tap. There were seven in total and they came served on a piece of wood shaped like the state of Arizona, so you know, like lumpy. I drank my way through the beers and decided that the Citrus Paradisi was the best. It was a hoppy blonde and who doesn’t like those?

I wasn’t terribly hungry and found the menu to be a bit short for a brewery. It centered around “tortillas,” which were really just tacos by another name. I chose the pork belly variety, which had the fewest veggies (read: none) and include pistachio and pine nut mole, roasted corn, cotija and cilantro. The pork belly was cooked perfectly and I definitely appreciated the other taco innards, which enhanced the flavor without taking over.

I must say, though, that I would have liked a more robust menu. I get that Phoenix is the Southwest and tacos are basically required, but a little something more would have really won the place over for me. As it was, they put together some good beer and food, so I’m sure Helio Basin will become a mainstay in Phoenix.

What do you get when you combine an abandoned church with a brewery? The answer is Church Brew Works, a spot in Lawrenceville that might just be one of the most unique breweries/restaurants in the country. Nay, the world. Benjamin Franklin once said, “Beer is proof that God loves us,” and the use of the altar for the actual brewing might just be the best support of old Ben.

The restaurant menu had some typical brewery foods, but also things unique to Pittsburgh, like a Pierogie Pizza. I opted for the Wild Boar Pizza, which came topped with the aforementioned boar (pulled like pork), corn, onions and BBQ sauce made with their Pious Monk Dunkel beer. Per usual, I got mine without the onions. I had heard there could sometimes be a long wait for pizza, but on this day things went pretty smoothly. The pizza came out and, despite the inconsistent sprinkling of toppings, looked quite good.

And it certainly wasn’t bad. The wild boar flavor was a nice addition to the pizza, but was surprisingly dry for being pulled. The BBQ sauce was delicious, but the dough left me feeling like it maybe could have been left in the oven just a bit longer.

Not bad, but not especially good either. Yet, I couldn’t help feeling that the simple act of eating and drinking like this in a church was awesome, and for one of the few times in my life the atmosphere played a distinct role in upping the food itself.

Montana. Big sky country. The land of traffic jams caused by cows. Yes, like very few people before us (based on the lack of a line at the border), we returned from the Great White North through Montana. Billings is a long way from the border, but at some point we found ourselves there and in need of eats. Thusly, we discovered the creatively named Montana Brewing Company.

With brewing on site, Montana Brewing Company was in the heart of Billings and had the kind of menu one would hope for at such an establishment. Having destroyed an abnormal number of burgers in the previous days, I thought it was time to reintroduce white meat to my diet. And the white meat that stuck out the most to me was the Gorgonzola Chicken Sandwich. This started with a grilled chicken breast and was topped with peppered bacon and gorgonzola crumbles on a “Wheat Montana” bun, which has some sort of meaning that was completely lost on me. It also came with fries.

Unbeknownst to me, the sandwich also came with your typical lettuce, tomato, pickles and onions. This was upsetting to see when my sandwich arrived, but fortunately these lesser ingredients had not been mingled with the real food. And since we’re on the subject of real food, I have to say the sandwich was quite good. After all, it is difficult to go wrong with chicken, bacon and cheese, but I have seen it happen and this time it did not.

The Gorgonzola Chicken Sandwich was exactly the type of thing I would expect from a microbrewery in the middle of Billings, Montana, and I mean that in the best way possible.

Possibly the best part of a road trip is not quite knowing where you’ll be sleeping that night, and not just which hotel, but sometimes which city. Somehow after a day at beautiful, if foggy Crater Lake we decided to make the trek to Eugene, Oregon to crash with a family friend. Knowing the kind of food I like to eat and the kind of beers I like to drink, he took us to McMenamins, a sort of chain of microbreweries throughout Oregon and Washington. He explained that each one was unique in its design because they typically opened up in buildings with previous tenants and worked within those confines. It was a pretty cool concept and the McMenamins North Bank in Eugene certainly had an awesome set up.

We were seated outside, right alongside the river with a great view of the wildlife that passed through. To start, we ordered wings with their Hammerhead BBQ Sauce. Hammerhead is one of their brews and the wings turned out quite nicely despite the fact that I am usually more a buffalo sauce fan.

As my main course, I ordered Wilbur’s Double Deluxe Burger, which came topped with bacon, Tillamook cheddar (for it not to be Tillamook would be like driving a Toyota in Detroit) and a fried egg. I ordered it medium-rare and without any veggies that it might have come with, then chose fries as my side. It arrived looking like a pretty thing, but after a few bites I realized the looks could be deceiving. Unfortunately, while the ingredients were great, they weren’t quite prepared in the way I would most desire. In fact, the burger itself was well-done and the egg was fried completely through.

Nonetheless, I have to say that I was happy with the existence of McMenamins. The location, atmosphere and general feeling of the place left me feeling more positive than not. I would avoid their burgers, but not McMenamins itself.

First off, no, there is no such thing as unlimited libation at Golden Road Brewing. But I just couldn’t resist making the painfully obvious Grateful Dead reference. Especially because there was nothing at all Grateful Dead about the brewery. As one of the few microbreweries in LA, Golden Road resides in a sketchy part of Glendale and is kind of personifies a blend of collar and hipster, at least in decor and architecture. The food menu tries to bridge that gap as well, but leans heavier on the latter than the former, with a frightening number of vegan menu items and a couple of sandwiches to scare any blue collar visitors back to the smelting plant.

Yet, despite the scary parts of the menu, I was excited to try out the brewery. I started with a glass of “Either Side of the Hill,” an amber beer (methinks) that tasted pretty nice. To go with the beer, my dining companion had ordered one of their giant Bavarian-style pretzels, which came with spicy Dijon mustard. For an extra buck, I added pimento cheese dip to the mix. On the menu, the pretzel was listed as vegan. I had previously thought that all pretzels were vegan until I was reminded of lard, and as soon as I realized that, the pretzel went downhill in my mind. Rather than a complaint, though, this is a testament to the fact that I didn’t realize anything was missing until I was told. Nonetheless, while lard would have improved the pretzel, it was also over salted and a bit dry (perhaps due to the lard). The pimento dip really came through, though, and made the pretzel pretty awesome.

We followed up the pretzel by splitting two sandwiches. The first was the Sloppy Joseph, made with stout-braised beef short ribs, fried shallots and house made BBQ sauce. Like I said…not exactly your blue collar sandwich, but certainly fit for an unvegan. In truth, they probably could have called this the Joseph or simply their BBQ Short Rib sandwich, as there was nothing sloppy about this sandwich. Yet, it made up for the misnomer by being delicious. The meat was tender and juicy, while the fried shallots added a bit of crunch to the sandwich without any intrusive flavor. I was quite happy with it and looked forward to our second sandwich.

But the excitement soon faded. We had ordered the Duck Confit sandwich, which was said to come with cranberry orange compote and herbed goat cheese, but Golden Road had decided to destroy this unvegan delight by stuffing two salads worth of lettuce in the roll. It made for a really uncomfortable situation that killed about five minutes of my life as I removed all unwanted visitors from my sandwich. By the time I was done, I really hoped this sandwich was worth it. Sadly, it was not. The duck had been pounded and rolled into an texture-less blob of meat that made Taco Bell ground beef feel like a filet mignon. There was flavor in there, but really not enough to justify the $12 price tag.

So while the menu was not ideal, I do hold out hope that Golden Road can see the light or at least light the way for more microbreweries to come. Their hipster-blue collar blend came together well with the Sloppy Joseph, but that and pretzel don’t make a menu worth returning for. Especially with all the terrible vegan dishes. I like what they are going for with beer and wish them the best with food, but if I go back it will be for a drink and not an eat.

Many times I have lamented the lack of a microbrewery in LA. Sure, I’ve heard there’s one in Eagle Rock, but in 3+ years of living in LA I haven’t set foot in Eagle Rock and probably couldn’t point it out on a map. Plus, that’s one (allegedly good) brewery for a city with a metropolitan area of just under 18 million. Blech. But Michigan is another story, with plentiful great microbreweries. One of these is CJ’s Brewing Company in Commerce. And while I’ve had some delicious beers there, as with most microbreweries, the food is just as good.

And it’s not just about burgers and wings. No, CJ’s is known throughout the metro Detroit area to have the greatest jambalaya my step-mom has ever eaten and the best BBQ chicken pizza my dad has ever had. Not in the mood for jambalaya, I decided to give the BBQ chicken pizza the old college try. This pizza is topped with their hickory BBQ sauce, shredded chicken, bacon and red onions. Plus, it’s offered as both deep dish or round. I ordered a personal-sized deep dish, without the onions for a whopping $6.99 (insert sarcasm here).

After a short wait, the supposedly amazing pizza was brought to me. I was delighted to find that CJ’s deep dish was Detroit-style like you would find at Buddy’s, which means square, thick crust and big, rectangular slices. With four slices, this was a personal pizza not likely to leave me hungry. I dug in and found that yes, CJ’s had achieved BBQ chicken pizza perfection. The crust may be thick and deep, but it’s hardly noticeable because a thick crust is almost necessary to balance out the massive kick of flavor that this pizza delivers. The BBQ sauce was ideal for pizza, being both sweet and smoky. A desire for regular tomato sauce never crossed my mind after digging into the hickey BBQ sauce. The shredded chicken was tender and surprisingly not too prevalent for a pizza with chicken in its name. It actually took a back seat to the bacon, which was at the perfect crispness for pizza and added an additional smoky, salty flavor. This pizza really could have been called BBQ bacon with chicken and the name would have been more accurate.

Accuracy aside, this was one BBQ chicken pizza not to be messed with. And even more amazing is finding something like this at a microbrewery. After three of my four slices, I was tapped out and had to take the final slice to go. California Pizza Kitchen may have put BBQ chicken pizza on the map, but CJ’s has perfected it.

For a night in Toronto, I really didn’t have much of a clue about where to eat. Finally, a buddy of mine told me to check out the Mill Street Brewery. I am always up for a microbrewery since that seems to be a lost art in LA, so I looked it up. It turned out that the place was actually pretty easy walk from our hotel, so we headed to Mill Street to see what we could find. After a twenty minute walk through a mildly sketchy part of town featuring a homeless pirate watering plants with a two-liter of Canada Dry, we arrived at the Distillery area. This part of town was once some sort of huge brewery, but now had shops, restaurants, bars and people testing Smart Cars and Segway Scooters. Even before we started drinking, our goal was to take a drunken ride on/in one of these (no, we did not achieve our goal).

When we got to the Mill Street Brewery, we found that there was about an hour wait. No worries, we were at a brewery and needed some beer before doing anything else anyway. We sidled up to the bar and started to test out their beers. Before we were even seated, I downed their Helles Bock, Tankhouse Ale and Stock Ale. The Tankhouse was my favorite, although the Helles Bock was also pretty good. They had a good amount of options, including rotating taps, so I could definitely see myself returning and having a whole different experience.

After about an hour, the table was ready and we took our seats. A look at the menu revealed some good microbrewery food. Hoping to have a Grizzly Peak-style experience, I set my sights on their burgers. Of these, the Distillery Burger looked the best to me. It came with Mill Street Coffee Porter BBQ sauce, crispy pancetta, Swiss cheese and crispy onions, which sounded great except for those dastardly onions.

There was also something on the menu that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get in Toronto: poutine. Poutine is definitely more of a French-Canadian specialty, so we weren’t sure if it would be any good, but we ordered it anyway as an appetizer. Mill Street had put a bit of bit of a brewhouse twist on the poutine, called Pulled Short Rib Poutine. It was made with fries, alfredo, Tankhouse Ale braised Angus short ribs, green onions, Ontario cheese curds and gravy, of course. I couldn’t convince my compatriots to get it without the green onions, so when it came I had to dig around with my fork to avoid them.

The poutine here was pretty good, but it wasn’t poutine in its truest form. The cheese curds were fully melted by the time it got to the table and the gravy was thick and had soaked through the fries so much that it was pretty much an amorphous blob of gravy, cheese and potatoes. The ribs seemed kind of out of place, although it tasted just fine.

When the main course came, I was glad to see it had been made without vegetables like I asked. You never really now how an unvegan is going to be received in a foreign country. Sadly, despite being free of vegetables, this burger could have used a bit of work. It was a bit overcooked and quite dry. This could have been somewhat compensated for if there had been a lot of BBQ sauce in between those buns, but there just wasn’t enough of that sauce on it. This was too bad, because if it weren’t for this patty, it could’ve been a damn good burger.

Mill Street Brewery was a cool place in a cool part of town, but go for the beer, not for the burgers.