Waunakee harbors a gem in its downtown called The Lone Girl Brewing Co., a worthwhile destination for grabbing a bite as well as watching a game.
Let’s start with the beers. I applaud Lone Girl for not doing what every brewery does these days, which is having IPAs represent 80 percent of the selection. Instead, you’ll find a welcome breadth, including a stout, a porter and a cider. My favorite was the Towhead ($5.50), a Belgian blonde with a subtle sweetness. Meanwhile, the Pipe Dream ($5), a wheat beer, is a perfect companion to basically any entree here.
The appetizers list has some unique items such as the Albondigas ($10; meatballs with beef, pork and chorizo) and the Bloody Mary Board ($12.50; cheese, sausage, etc. over a spicy bloody mary mix reduction). In the same vein, the hush puppies ($10) aren’t your average hush puppies. Inside a perfectly crispy shell are crab, shrimp and risotto. The hush puppies are moist enough that you don’t need any sauce.
I appreciated that the main menu has a wide array of items instead of 10 variations of burgers like other brewpubs have. For example, Lone Girl has a vegetarian ravioli ($14.50) and a beef stew ($14.50). I’m glad I tried the Get In My Belly ($12.50) entree. The mac & cheese portion (actually corkscrew cavatappi) is creamy–although it wasn’t at all spicy as the description says–and the stout-infused pulled pork is slightly sweet and quite tender.
The OG patty melt ($13) has all the right components: lots of cheese, the right amount of tangy sauce, buttery toast and a juicy patty. The only part of the meal I didn’t enjoy was the house fries, which were soggy, flimsy and tasteless.
Although I didn’t order any bar snacks–such as the wasabi-spiced cashews & peanuts–I thought it was clever that they’re served in mason jars. This brewpub also features a signature cocktail menu and a Friday night fish fry.
The Lone Girl Brewing Co. serves dinner every day and lunch Tuesdays-Sundays.
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See more photos in our The Lone Girl Brewing Co. Flickr album.
Oh dear. “Clever” that they were served in Mason jars? Bzzzz. Bzzzz. “Hello?” Oh, it was 2014 calling to ask for their everything’s-gone-country-style decor back. But hey, glad you enjoyed the food except for those fries. Only thing that gets me in the door of places like this these days is a great Scotch ale, and those are tough to find.