Business & Tech

Wrecking Bar Vying For Title Of Best Brewpub In America

Little Five Points brewpub on the list of nation's 16-best.

When Bob Sandage and his wife, Kristine, opened the , he told his staff that he had a very specific goal: To become the best brewpub in the United States within three years.

By one measure, he's almost there.

Chow.com, a website devoted to all things food and drink, lists the Wrecking Bar among the top 16 in the country and is asking its readers to vote from among the list to pick the one that is they think is the best brewhouse in the country.

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Said Chow of the Wrecking Bar: Down in Georgia, Wrecking Bar Brewpub’s a new spot in Atlanta that brews in the basement of a century-old building and serves a different cask beer each week. The menu includes German schwienshaxe and Southern comfort food like pulled pork sandwiches.

The Wrecking Bar already made it through the first week of the four-week contest, knocking out Ashville Brewing in Ashville, N.C. for a spot in the next round of eight.

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In this round, voters are being asked to pick between Wrecking Bar and Cambridge Brewing in Cambridge, Mass. (As of 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Brewhouse had a slight lead with 52 percent of votes cast over 48 percent for Cambridge Brewing.)

Voting continues through May 15, when the winning brewpub will be crowned.

"It's quite an honor," Sandage told East Atlanta Patch Tuesday. "It's great to see Atlanta advance really far in this."

The restaurant has more than a dozen beers in tap and makes an effort to be responsive to customers, he said.

After the Wrecking Bar's four-month mark, customers were given surveys for feedback about what could be improved, he said.

"They said they wanted to see more variety and more specials," Sandage said.

It explains some of the recent changes including "Vegetarian Tuesdays," "New Beer Thursdays" and other tweaks.

Any and all changes are focused on the three key factors to fulfilling the goal of being the best in the country: exceptional beers, quality food, and ambiance.

Get that right for customers, he said, and everything else will fall into place.


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