Look we’re somewhere new!

Oh yeah and we’re back to the blog. Those two things are pretty much directly related. Not that I don’t love writing about revisits, but after the 4th time we’ve been to the same place in the past year it does seem a little bit of overkill. And directly opposite what this blog is about.

Anywho.

It’s also patio season, and you know we can’t pass up a chance to dine outside when Mother Nature actually plays nice.

You couldn’t serve up a better evening than this one.

OK so allowing Ted to pick this place is *kind of* a technicality, because he has been here before. But we let it go because that was for brunch, which is a totally different menu than dinner.

Ignite Brewery has been serving up craft beers in Barberton for a bit now, but only recently added the food portion of their menu. Pro tip: the whole place is self serve, so you have one line for the alcohol and then a separate kiosk for food orders. And keep your phone handy after you order, because the “order up” will come via text and then you have to go grab your food yourself.

Also, if it’s not nice enough to sit outside you may not want to come. Because the inside area is not by any means large. Some may call it cozy, others claustrophobic. You do you.

But the outside area is very spacious with lots of individual tables and communal picnic tables. So clearly we chose that.

Of course we hit up the beer line first. Because, us.

And the line was getting long. So, priorities.

Shane opted for the special beer, which was was called something like the Mysterious Blonde 1.4 – Prickly Pear. That’s a fun title that really rolls off the tongue.

He liked it. But when Ted read the description he about threw up in his mouth. Ted is not a fan of gose, it seems.

Ted got a very dainty little glass for his first beer. But don’t be fooled, I think that one – named the Flighty Temptress – outweighed Shane and my beers combined at a hefty 10% alcohol.

Good thing he’s our driver tonight.

He later opted for the Ignite Your Adventure. We’re not sure if it was more for the adult sized glass or to ensure a smooth drive home.

I had the Blonde Barista, which is what’s in the photograph above touting our glorious patio outing. The smaller glass was my “let’s just try it and see if I like it” option. Glad that worked out for me.

The food menu for the Crafted Eats at Ignite is not large – a few sandwiches and a few sides, most of which involved either pretzels or tater tots, and then a few salads. But it’s all made to order and crafted with locally sourced ingredients.

Shane got the “Reuben thing,” as he called it. I’m not sure of the actual name for the sandwich, but being that there weren’t many on the menu it’s probably not hard to figure out.

And of course we got pretzels with beer cheese. And extra beer cheese. Because, beer cheese.

And tots. Lots of tots. A side with each of our meals, and then another side of the Nashville hot style for Shane.

I got the sausage sliders. I wasn’t really sure what I was ordering, but I didn’t want to order the same thing as Shane and I didn’t feel like eating a salad was the best option to accompany high potency beer.

The sliders have a choice of Hungarian or brat or both. I chose both, again not really certain of what I was ordering. Who doesn’t love a side of suspense with their meals?

Ted got the hummus plate and then the same thing as me. But he chose Hungarian AND both. I didn’t know you could choose more than one option. Hmm.

So it turns out it didn’t really matter what we selected, because I believe Ted and I both got the same thing: one slider was just two pieces of Hungarian sausage, one was just two pieces of brat, and one had a slice of each. Noted.

Ted really liked the flavor of the sausage, especially the combination of the two pieces together. He said if he could change anything it would be to just add some Hungarian peppers on them along with the sauerkraut.

I also thought they were good, although the two pieces of sausage on each small-ish pretzel slider bun was a bit much. I ended up taking one piece off and eating it separate, just to keep from wearing most of the meal.

Shane rally like the Nashville not tots. And he thought his sandwich was good … but maybe not $14 good. Like it had good flavor, but it was also a lot of bun for the size of the sandwich.

Which, I mean, his bun was also a pretzel bun – and, side note, I’m not sure how it’s taken me this long into this post to mention that we somehow stumbled upon a magical world here where everything seems to be made of pretzels, but yeah, that’s apparently a thing here – so, wait, what was the complaint again??

But for real, be prepared for a bit of a higher bill for a night out here, just because of the craft beer and the craft food to match. Our food bill alone was $50 for just me and Shane – and that’s not counting the three rounds of beer we each had. A bit of a change from the $2 burger night at the Bailey Rd Tavern, I suppose. But the atmosphere was good, the patio is one we wished could be duplicated closer to home for us, and the food and drinks were a refreshingly delicious change from burgers and wings found as most of our Wednesday stops.