Orange Hat Brewing better for beer and a hang than a meal

Full disclosure: I have been a long-time patron of Orange Hat Brewing on Hardin Valley Road. It’s a place I have often visited over the years to have beers with friends or even unwind by myself. It wasn’t

until recently that I decided to give its food menu a try, and to kill two proverbial birds, I figured I might as well make it a Grub project. I showed up for a solo dinner outing last week.

Of course, I started out with my usual IPA pour, and I settled into my favorite spot, one of the couches directly under the jumbo four-screen monitor display. Other seating options include high tops, low tops and large tables with picnic-style benches.

The menu has a fair number of offerings, but overall, the selection is not overwhelming in scope. Appetizers include deviled eggs, grilled shrimp skewers and a couple of varieties of nachos. You’ll also find several salad options as well as dips, including a house-made pimento cheese spread, beer cheese and a black-bean hummus.

The remainder of the menu focuses on sandwiches, quesadillas and flatbread pizzas. My plan was to eat a flatbread on site and order a sandwich for later consumption. I saw nine flats to choose from, including an all-veggie; a chicken-topped pie with dill pickle and red onion; a naan crust topped with house-made pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, chicken and artichoke hearts; and a chicken pizza with a barbecue-sauce base.

Orange Hat Brewing has a range of flatbread pizzas on its menu, or you can pick your own toppings, like this one with red onion, jalapeños, sausage and pepperoni.

I rarely travel the make-your-own route, but I did this time around, selecting a base of red sauce and mozzarella and adding red onion, jalapeños, sausage and pepperoni. The base price plus toppings totaled $11.

My sandwich choices ranged from the bacon pepper pimento to the Buffalo chicken wrap to the Southwest steak wrap. I went with the Philly cheesesteak ($12), largely because the ribeye, pepper and onion ingredients come topped with Orange Hat’s beer cheese. It’s all served on a grilled hoagie roll.

I dove into the flatbread first. I really wanted to be able to say that my first impression of Orange Hat’s grub was a positive one, but I found the pizza to be a disappointment. I didn’t care for the texture of the crust at all, and the combination of toppings, sauce and cheese also left me a little flat (pun intended).

Before I left, however, I did take several sample bites of the Philly cheesesteak while it was hot and fresh from the kitchen. This did compensate somewhat for the pizza. The basic sandwich construction was solid, from the roll to the shaved steak meat to the traditional veggie toppings. But the beer cheese is what really moved this sandwich into thumbs-up territory. I enjoyed my on-site bites, and the Philly was tasty the next day, when I reheated it for lunch.

Orange Hat Brewing's Philly cheesesteak sandwich is served on a grilled hoagie roll and topped with beer cheese.

For the record, the Orange Hat menu offers side items like potato salad and kettle chips, and desserts include a s’mores flat and cinnamon sugar pretzel bites. There’s even a kids’ menu, with tot-friendly items like a naan-based flat, cheese nachos, a grilled cheese and a crustless PBJ.

Of course, I imagine most patrons don’t show up only for the food. Orange Hat host trivia competitions several nights a week, and there’s pickleball league that plays on makeshift courts in the side parking lot. And if you’re not into beer, the new onsite Wandery cocktail bar offers non-malty options. The place really is a fun hang and a great place to chill after a day on the job.

I’m sure there are other items on the food menu I might have liked more than the flatbread, and the Philly sandwich did redeem the kitchen somewhat. But going forward, I may be content to limit my Orange Hat Brewing experiences to adult beverages only.