This review of Lee's Retreat is one I have been looking forward to. I am a person who enjoys a wide variety of beer, so any chance to visit a brewpub is okay with me. I will say up front a couple of things about brew pubs, and beer in general. First, I am not really a "Bud, Bud Light, Bud Ice, Bud Dry, Bud Wet, Bud Left" kind of guy. I enjoy different styles of beer, and a brew pub is a great place to get a fresh pint of beer. I also enjoy simple and well prepared food with my beer. I am not really into the new trend of beer pairings with food. That trend just has snootiness all about it. I say if you like a certain kind of beer with a certain kind of food, you should be free to enjoy it. Let the food police go after people drinking red wine with seafood, or making white gravy with black pepper.
This write up consolidates several visits to the recently opened Lee's Retreat which was opened several months ago by the Blue and Gray Brewing Company. I have always enjoyed their beer, so I was very hopeful that it would be a place I could add to my list of favorites.

The first thing you will notice about Lee's Retreat is that you are driving into an industrial park. The restaurant is right where they make their beer. One might expect that the inside would be rather well, industrial (sorry), but the restaurant is well finished, with only one cinder-block wall to even hint at the location in an industrial park.

Over several occasions, I ordered a wide variety of food. In no particular order, I will give you my thoughts. I had some spicy blue buffalo wings. I thought they were great. They arrived hot, and the sauce was even hotter, as well as delicious. I also had Caesar salad with chicken. The chicken was great and not over cooked like you find so many places. The dressing was just the right amount because the salad was not swimming in dressing. The salad was one of the best I have had in a while.

I also ordered the baby back beer ribs. While the ribs were good, I was expecting some something closer to smoked ribs, which is not how these ribs were prepared. They were still good, but not necessarily my favorite. The side salad was simply great. The salad even included a piece of fresh mozzarella, which topped the salad off nicely. I also had the steamed potatoes, which were perfectly cooked, and well seasoned, allowing the high quality potatoes to shine. The slaw that came on the side was certainly not the highlight, but I did not regret eating it.

The Reuben seemed to be popular with my dining companions, who all seemed to enjoy it, but on commented the crust was somewhat tough, and the other commented that there were one of two pieces of tough meat. I did notice that each one ate their entire sandwich, and seemed happy.

They may have been happy because of the beer! These visits occurred while they were serving their seasonal Oktoberfest beer. This is simply a beer you should not miss because it is one of the best examples of an Oktoberfest beer I have ever enjoyed. All of the rest of their beers are simply great examples of each style of beer that they represent. You should jump over to their site (I am not going to just copy their site) here to read about their beer. I simply cannot over state that the beer alone makes this a stop you should not miss.

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