Simple Food and Winter Brews at Beer Works in Salem

Sometimes, the simplest of places can consistently fill your belly with a satisfying meal and a few cold beers. For me, Beer Works is one such place.

I've been to the Beer Works' locations in Boston, Lowell and Salem, and for some reason, the Boston spot has fallen flat for me. The other locations, however, have always delivered decent pub grub and brews - nothing outstanding, but affordable and tasty. On Saturday night, I met up with two of my cousins for dinner and drinks at the Salem location.

I started with the Beantown Nut Brown Ale (12 oz., $4.50), which was surprisingly light, and full of toasted nut flavor.

I can never go to Beer Works without starting my meal with their Fried Pickles ($6.95), which are served with a zesty ranch dipping sauce (please excuse the terrible photo).

The fried pickles at Beer Works are consistently crunchy on the outside with a still-snappy, juicy pickle on the inside. The crispy exterior also clings to the pickle, preventing a messy, greasy disaster.

Beer Works unfortunately does not have too many vegetarian options (pizza and a portobello sandwich are just two of the few other choices), so I went with the Garden Burger ($9.95). This burger usually comes garnished with mushrooms, honey Dijon mustard, lettuce and tomato (and served with a garden salad), but I changed my order completely. At Beer Works, you can pick from a variety of sides and toppings for your burgers, which makes the ordering process a little more fun (for the customer, at least) - and only slightly more expensive ($1 for each topping and $1 for some of the sides choices).

I ended up topping my garden burger with avocado, sauteed onions and Cheddar jack cheese. I also got sweet potato fries on the side.

Served on a fluffy, buttery, slightly sweet roll, this burger was downright enjoyable. The toppings were also generous, and complemented the veggie and grain burger quite well. The bun was so big, though, that I ended up eating the second half of my burger sans bread. The sweet potato fries were simply seasoned with salt, and were beautifully crispy without being overly greasy.

To end the meal, I drank my dessert - and enjoyed a Black Bat Stout (12 oz., $4.75).

Beer Works' stout was smooth and creamy, and had flecks of oatmeal, coffee and chocolate flavors. This was a great way to end the meal.

Many of Beer Works' brews are seasonal and vary by location, but you can find the full menu for each location right on their website.

All in all, I had another successful meal at Beer Works - that was also extremely affordable. My two cousins are part of the Beer Works' VIP program, which took $30 off our entire bill. Score!

Have you ever been to a Beer Works? What's your review?

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