Six Ten Brewing & Cigar City Brewpub – Tampa, FL

 

We planned to go to TopGolf on a double date with our friends Tony & Katie – but unfortunately there was an OVER THREE HOUR wait, so we had to change plans. 

Six Ten Brewing was having a 1 year anniversary party, so we headed there to check it out.  It’s just north of the airport on Benjamin Road – we’d never been there before, so we were excited to cross another brewery off our list!  They had 17 of their own beers available plus 6 guest taps. 

 

Katie and I decided we liked the Vanilla Porter best.  The Peanut Butter Porter actually didn’t have a lot of peanut taste, but you could definitely taste the vanilla flavor.  I also had a sample of the Schofferhofer Grapefruit Hefeweizen – which tasted more like juice than beer to me.  The boys enjoyed their IPAs. 

 

The flyer said they’d have food trucks, so we were expecting several, but there was actually only one truck there.  We decided instead for our dinner we’d head over to Cigar City Brewpub since we were already on the north side of Tampa.  One of my first blog posts was actually a double date with Tony & Katie at Cigar City! 

 

There was a bit of a wait, but it was a Saturday night, so that’s expected.  We had drinks at the bar while waiting for our table.  We were pretty hungry by the time we sat down, so we ordered some appetizers – the beer cheese pretzels and cheese board (lucky none of us are lactose intolerant – lots of cheese at our table…)  The brown ale cheese dip was great, but I’m still most impressed with Brew Hub’s beer cheese & pretzels.  The cheese board was fantastic though – nice variety of different types, along with pickles and berries. 

 

 

Somehow all four of us all decided we wanted burgers for our meals.  There are so many fantastic choices on the menu, but I’m glad I tried out their Grass Fed Burger – served with house-smoked bacon, sofrito, sweet plantains, pickles, and roasted garlic aioli on a brioche bun.  I upgraded to sweet potato fries (although the malanga chips they typically come with are also delicious). 

Whoever decided to put plantains on a burger was a genius.  I would definitely order it again. 

Six Ten Brewing is located at 7052 Benjamin Rd, Tampa, FL 33634 and is open 3pm – 9pm Wednesday – Thursday, 3pm – 11pm on Friday, 12pm – 11pm on Saturday, and 12pm – 7pm on Sunday (they are closed Monday – Tuesday). 

Cigar City Brewpub is located at 15491 N Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa, FL 33624.  They are open Sunday through Thursday 11am – 10pm and Friday & Saturday 11am – 11pm.

Cigar City Brewpub – Tampa, FL

We’ve wanted to check out Cigar City Brewpub for a while now, so we were excited when our friends Katie & Tony invited us to join them for dinner. 

The Brewpub opened last year and I’ve only heard good things about it.  Cigar City Brewery is based here in Tampa and according to Ratebeer.com, it’s the 4^th best brewery in the world and BeerAdvocate.com gives it a 100/100, calling it a “world-class” brewery.  When they opened, the owner of the Brewpub said "a lot of our beer is very culinary inspired. We're big believers in food and beer pairings." 

It is a bit of a drive if you live in South Tampa like we do.  It’s actually on Tasting Tampa’s Top Ten List for the Carrollwood area. 

 

There were a lot of cool beer-inspired design elements to the restaurant – chandeliers and light fixtures made of cans and barrels, barley in the shape of glasses of beer, and a window where you can view the vats of beer being brewed.  

 

Since they have so many beers to pick from, we started off with sample flights.  Katie and I both like less hoppy beers so our beers were a lot lighter than the boys’ beers.  We also had an appetizer of yuca fries with mojo aioli which were great.  

 

For dinner I had shrimp & grits – which were the best ones I’ve ever had.  The shrimp were huge and it had the perfect amount of spices.  Lance got the BBQ  Burger with caramelized onions, bacon, swiss cheese, and a sunny side up egg.  Katie had stuffed piquillo peppers filled with chorizo, manchego cheese & rice and a side of mac & cheese.  And Tony had the Ropa Vieja slow cooked flank steak.  

 

Everyone loved their food and there were tons of other things on the menu I’d like to try.  They also let you take growlers of beer to go so we filled up a few and brought them back to Tony & Katie’s place (they just moved into a new house.) It was the perfect way to spend a Saturday night!  

Cigar City Brewpub is located at 15491 N Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa, FL 33624.  They are open Sunday through Thursday 11am – 10pm and Friday & Saturday 11am – 11pm.