Friday, November 21, 2008

Nimbus Brewery: Tucson, AZ

I love micro-breweries. I will not deny my German heritage. I will always indulge myself in a brewery as we have several in Indianapolis that are great. The Broad Ripple Brewpub is one of those that I love because they carry a great selection of veggie entrees on their menu. Nimbus Brewery is my new home-away-from-home brewery when I travel to Tucson, AZ.

I was pleased to land at the Nimbus Brewery on the advice of my Auntie Cynthia. She took me there before we ran some errands the other day. Cynthia has been a vegetarian for well over 25 years, so she knows all the hot spots around the Tucson areas (see my previous post about La Indita). She has never lead me astray with any of her recommendations.

Nestled in what appears to be an industrial park, Nimbus has been a Tucson staple for around the past 12 years. They have been consistently improving their brewery / restaurant ever since they started. They have a wide open porch where bands play in the evening, as I have been told. The inside of the brewery is vast with plenty of bar stools and tables. You can also eat on the porch during the day time hours. See the video below for a peek inside the restaurant.

We sat at the bar, and the bartender had tons of good information regarding the various brews ranging from a lighter blond ale (3.2 % ABV) to a heavy-duty strong English ale (9.8 % ABV). They have the standard red/brown/stout ales as well. Their IPA was quite tasty, but I had a nasty bout with IPAs a few years ago (thanks, Gretchen) at a brew fest. They were liberal with tastings of each beer, and we tried damn near all of them. Needless to say, I opted for the Old Monkey Shine strong ale simple for the high % ABV. Auntie Cynthia has the red ale which she descried simply as 'very good'. I do not disagree with her one bit. All the beers we tried were as good as any micro-brewery I have been to in the glorious State of Arizona.

This brewery had a well-marked vegetarian menu. It included Boca burger, garden burgers, various salads, wraps, and side items. All of the vegetarian entrees were grouped together on the menu, which I prefer, as I don't have to read the entire menu to find what I was not going to eat. Some restaurants mix their vegetarian entrees in with the other entrees on the menu and note the veggie dishes a marker of sort to denote them. I will thank Nimbus for organizing things this way for my veggie bretheren. So much easier...

I eventually ordered the garden burger, which was enormous. It was servered on a toasted bun, covered with the cheese of my choice, and all the trimmings (lettuce, pickle, tomato, and red onions). I am a sucker for french fried potatos, so I had my sandwhich with some crinkle-cut fries. They were piping hot and slightly salty. Auntie Cynthia shared them with me as there were more than I could eat. I am not a huge condiment fan, so I found these fries delicious enough to eat withour slathering them with the tomato-slaughter violence known as 'ketchup'. I used to prefer mayo on my fries after all of my travels to Europe, but now I limit my mayo intake as it's not the best thing you can put in your boday.

After four beers and the food, our bill came to less than $19. As far as pub food goes, this was great....inexpensive, delicious, and satisfying. I would rate this as a high value for vegetarians as it was easy to find stuff on their menu, the food was great, and it did not break my wallet. Great beer should always be coupled with equally great food, and Nimbus hits the nail on the head. I look forward to returning to Nimbus when my travels bring me back to Tucson.


1 comment:

Kevin said...

Good blog. You've been on the road a ton recently.

We had Shalimar last night. Yum.