Brewers Pizza in Orange Park, Florida is not only a pizza parlor but also is a brew pub. Besides serving craft beers from all over, they also have several taps from their sister company, Pinglehead Brewing Co. After starting out as just a brew pub, they obtained their brewery license in 2012 and now supply their signature brew, Pinglehead, to other establishments through a local distributor.
We noticed Brewers Pizza while driving by on another visit to the area and mentally filed it away somewhere in the deepest bowels of our minds until one of our Twitter friends, @JaxBeerBitch, recommended it when we asked about places to eat in the area.
They occupy a couple of store fronts in a strip mall along the main drag, right around the corner from the mall. Easy to get into and plenty of parking. The interior is up to date and very clean. The walls are decorated with some cool beer memoribalia and a modern jukebox sits along the wall in the center. There are also some tv screens mounted around the bar area. There’s a variety of seating options between the half dozen stools lining the bar, some high-tops with stools as well as booths and tables.
They have 26 taps pouring craft beers from breweries around the country. When we were there, the selection included brews from Bold City, Cigar City, St. Somewhere, Peak, Ommegang, Anderson Valley, Abita, Brooklyn, Bells, Lazy Magnolia, Pinglehead, and others. Pinglehead had obvious home court advantage with about a half-dozen beers to choose from but other breweries had multiple taps too. Cigar City Brewing was well represneted with Minaret and Jai Alai while Bells was represented by Oberon and Two Hearted Ale.
Can’t read the blackboard behind the bar or the tap handles? No problem. They have a mobile site set up listing what’s currently on tap and have QR codes that make it easy to find.
Besides the great taps, there’s also large cooler featuring about 50 different bottles, none of which can be found in my local grocery store. No yellow-fizzy stuff here.
Since man cannot live on beer alone (trust me, it’s been tried), we ordered some dinner too. We started out with the cheese bread and then ordered a couple of their “Florida Smacker” pan pizzas. They use a beer dough to make these square gems. Nice and thick, just the right amount of crispness and plenty of toppings. Very tasty as well as filling. The leftovers made a great lunch the next day too.
The service was awesome. The bartender made several trips over to make sure we were OK and the mananger, Troy, stopped by the table a couple of times too just to check in, take plates, etc.
Besides leaving with our leftover pizza, we picked up a couple of growlers of Pinglehead Brewing Co. brews for later.
I’ve already thanked her in person but thanks again JBB for suggesting we visit Brewers Pizza. We’ll definetley be visting agian next trip through the area.
Check out their site for more info.