Mulholland Brewing Company

You would have to drive a car into me while overcharging me and force feeding me dead animals in order for a brew pub not to pass my (less than) stringent judgment criteria. That being noted, however, Mulholland in outside-the-mainstream Reynoldsburg easily meets my heavily relaxed quality standards.

I read about the place in today's Columbus Dispatch review. I checked the interweb, and wouldn't you know it--Mulholland sells Belgian-style beer and vegetarian food. That means a late lunch for me.

The fringe benefits of a late lunch include the $2 draft beers at happy hour price. Mulholland offers six of their own drafts plus a dozen or so more brews from various local, national and international microbrew operations. The Saison was citrusy with a clean, yeasty finish, and the Imperial Red showed aggressive hop character that is often absent in beers of this style.

I started with the red pepper hummus, which had a great presentation that featured pita triangles and red and yellow peppers surrounding a ruby-hued mashed chickpea and olive oil base. It was quite good.

My main course was a fettucine in a white wine, garlic and butter sauce with sauteed tomatoes, peppers, squash and spinach topped with chunks of goat cheese. It was like a creamy, pan-Mediterranean interpretation of pasta primavera, and it's pictured above.

The other interesting feature of this spot is that it is a more upscale restaurant upstairs and a sports bar downstairs. There are, however, big screen televisions throughout the bar areas on both floors. Think of the upstairs as business and the downstairs as business casual.

The menu does a good job explaining the brewing process, and the brewing equipment is closer than it typically is in most brew pubs, putting patrons within spitting distance of the brewing and fermenting action. I'll definitely be back to check the new seasonal beers. Check out the pictures below.

Mulholland