happy hour review: mad fox brewery;

It’s funny that sometimes I look at my own posts, and I realize that my favorites–either recipes, or reviews–don’t have posts yet. It makes sense in the grand scheme of things since I only started less than a year ago, but it’s funny to me that some of T’s and my’s favorite places don’t have dedicated posts. On the one hand they’re fun and local, but on the other we go there often enough that I feel like I shouldn’t take pictures every single time.

So today, you get a post about a local hangout of ours–Mad Fox Brewery!  It’s located in Falls Church, and ever since we discovered it’s the closest brewery to us, we’ve been frequents. We don’t go every day or every week, but it’s a great go-to spot when someone’s visiting from out of town, and the food is an eclectic mix that will satisfy most pallets. With anything from mac ‘n cheese, to weekly burger specials, to pizza, to pretzels, you’d think that this was typical bar food except that there’s some strange punctuations to the menu: pork belly bites (super yummy appetizer), a bahn mi sandwich, and gourmet takes on burgers!  We started off the meal with pretzels, because pretzels are my go-to.  And Mad Fox doesn’t disappoint!  You can add a second pretzel for a few more bucks, so we typically do that.  Served with yummy cheese sauce, and mustard–both made in house.  That’s another point to mention.  Pretty much anything ever (from what I can tell, I haven’t grilled the chef) is made in-house.  For a brewery, not too shabby!

Let’s not forget the “Brewery” part of Mad Fox though!  They have a constantly rotating list of beers on tap, all made by Mad Fox. They do have wines, cocktails, and a few ciders available, but the draw is really their beers.  Every time we go there’s at least 2 new beers, sometimes more. It’s a blessing and a curse because it’s always awesome to try new things, but sometimes your favorites have come and gone. They definitely play to a seasonal crew–this time when we went at least half the beers offered were IPAs. Now for a girl like me, that’s a little frustrating since I’m not an IPA fan in the slightest, but it’s nice that they’ve got the seasonal summery beers available. I ended up with their current on-tap saison: the Funk (right in photo below).  T went with the Lindy’s Weiss, a new one that I don’t think either of us have tried before.  Both were good, and I liked T’s Lindy’s Weiss, and though you could definitely taste the lack of filtering, I surprisingly enjoyed that.

We introduced some new friends to this place today–we actually met M and S in Iceland!  How crazy is that?  We hit it off chatting one night in a hostel, and it came up that they would be in the area for the summer, so we actually met to get dinner and drinks. I’m so glad that it worked out and actually came about because I feel like it’s so easy to say “oh, we’ll totally meet up!” and never find the time or communication. But they seemed to enjoy themselves, so I’m happy we got to share our local joint!  We got the pretzels to start, one of my personal faves. I went with the fish and chips this time, something new at Mad Fox for me, and it was good!  A little on the greasy side, but three moist and juicy cod pieces atop a cone of French fries. I will note that while the menu said “tempura” style, these definitely seemed on the heavy side for me and more like the beer-battered fish and chips I come to expect from American food, when I was hoping they were a little lighter. S got a huge sandwich that looked super tasty and was topped with a fried egg (so how could you go wrong?). T got the other thing I was looking at, the Hifalutin burger. It’s originally a ground turkey burger, but Tyler swapped it for beef, leaving the other toppings: Gruyère, black truffle herb butter, crispy Spanish onions, and lettuce/tomato all on a brioche bun.

Lastly, before I part, I do need to acknowledge that in addition to good food and good beer, that they have specials and events nearly every night of the week.  T, since he’s running a marathon in October (I’ll watch from the sidelines…with popcorn), has joined their Run Club!  He really enjoys it, since they get to run on the W&D paved two-lane trail, and it’s a good group of people that hang out and get happy hour specials after their runs.  Note that in addition to this list, there’s also a huge event calendar of new beers, holiday events, etc. This list of weekly specials is from memory of signs I’ve seen around at mad fox, so it may not be accurate, but this is just as much for me as it is for all of you!

• Happy Hour: M-F 3-7
• Monday: BOGO (Buy one get one) take out pizzas
• Tuesday: Half-price growler fills, yappy hour (bring your dog to the patio)
• Wednesday: Run club, specialty burgers
• Thursday: Special cask reveal
• Friday: $5 flights

Conclusion?  5 out of 5 chips (read: stars), since this is a local hangout for us, and is always cooking or brewing up something new.  I do need to take Kenichi over to yappy hour, but so far volleyball has been getting in the way!

Mad Fox Brewery
Mad Fox Brewery Website
444 West Broad Street
Falls Church, VA 22046

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