As many know, at the tourism office, part of our mission entails knowing Gwinnett’s best culinary destinations, off-the-beaten path favorites and keeping up with our burgeoning ethnic dining scene. Fortunately, we like any excuse to eat and drink, and you’ll see our passion for food driving many of our visitor marketing initiatives! Food is the heart and the soul of any visit or trip. It’s what you remember – not the hotel room or the conference center. The dining experience simply resonates.
So get ready, because one of our favorite dining events is quickly approaching. Our second annual “Burgers + Brews Week” is back. It’s simple but awesome. Running from March 18-24, you’ll enjoy 7 days of $7 custom, a la carte specialty burgers (customized specifically for Burgers + Brews Week), paired with a suggested beer (extra cost). Many of our favorite restaurants are participating – including Local Republic, Ba Bellies, Parkside District, Parma Tavern, Restaurant 475, Tanners/Suwanee, Four Forks/Madcaps, Pub Ten, Uncle Jack’s Meat House, ART bar, McCray’s Tavern, Universal Joint, 1910 Public House, Ten Bistro and Rivals on Five.
The burgers will range from the simply sublime house-ground cheeseburger to the exotic – check out Uncle Jack’s Meat House offering, where delicious burger features homemade peanut butter, Neuse thick-cut bacon and caramelized bananas, topped with a chipotle maple glaze.
Nope, Burgers + Brews is not a week for Whole30. And because the only thing we like more than food is beer, each burger will be paired with a (suggested) craft beer. And new for 2018, folks who eat (and post accordingly on social media) at the most restaurants during Burgers and Brews will be eligible for a great prize – our friends at Good Word Brewing in Duluth have put together a great giveaway: a $50 gift card, 4 pack of Good Word Brewing beer, hat and T-shirts. We’ve sweetened the prize with an Amazon Echo. Check out all the participating restaurants at www.exploregwinnett.org/burgers-and-brews.
Speaking of Good Word, we think you should run, not walk, to Good Wood Brewing and Public House (goodwordbrewing.com). We visited recently and toured, well, pretty much the whole menu. They have six home brews on tap, including Saisons, IPA’s and sours. For the less adventurous, choose from brews from local and regional breweries, including Scofflaw and Creature Comforts. Gwinnett’s beer scene is getting better by the day, and when the brains and brewers behind the legendary Brick Store Pub in Decatur make a move here, you know it’s a sign of good things on the craft beer horizon.
Not far away, just off the Historic Lawrenceville Square, Slow Pour Brewing (slowpourbrewing.com) is also quietly making a name for itself. Slow Pour’s moniker comes from their belief that “nothing good happens in a hurry,” and their mission is not just to make beer, but to cultivate community and friendships. And if you can do both of those while enjoying one of Slow Pour’s six year-round beer offerings, all the better! Their tasting room is open Thursday-Sunday, and recently, we’ve seen live music offered on many of the weekends.
There are a lot of things that have happened in Gwinnett since the days of Prohibition, but until recently, being the home of a new distillery was not one of them. In the burgeoning Old Town district in Lilburn, spirits are coming, and not the scary kind. Hope Springs Distillery (hopespringsdistillery.com) has opened, making and distributing vodka (Top Hat) and Absinthe. And quite literally, they are Gwinnett’s first distillery since Prohibition!
For all things foodie, your best bet is our Explore Gwinnett blog, “The Latest” (https://www.exploregwinnett.org/the-latest). There, you’ll find what we love in Gwinnett – 8 ways to Celebrate National Chocolate Month, 9 Places to Binge Brunch, our popular Seoul of the South series and 12 Ways to Treat Your Date to Something Different. At Explore Gwinnett, we love food, beer and our listicles!