Sunday 16th of September 2012 12:12:02 AM

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Sweetwater Taverns are a small franchise of Tex-Mex inspired brewpubs, which are part of a larger "Great American Restaurants" conglomerate. Their food is southwest-inspired, diverse American cuisine, including salads, sandwiches, seafood and other hearty entrees. They also offer a variety of in-house small batch craft beers. The Merrifield Sweetwater is located in Gatehouse Plaza, which is a group of several restaurants. The exterior is stone masonry and wood and there is a small corrugated steel grain silo out front. Enter through a wooden revolving door and the small brew house is on the right, which showcases their two copper brewing vessels. Their 30 stool wooden island bar bisects the restaurant. On the wall overhead is a large chalkboard with artistic renditions of each of their draft beers. The decor consists of earth tone colors and red and yellow lights, which create a warm southwestern ambience. They have an open and spacious dining area, covered by an impressive roof of thick wooden beams. This location also has an umbrella shaded patio in the rear of the restaurant. The place seems popular, and had quite a lunch crowd. Two of their house beers are brewed year round - their delicious flagship Great American Restaurants Pale Ale and their crisp Naked River Light. Plus there are usually three seasonals on tap, which rotate through a list of about three dozen recipes. When I visited they were offering Iron Horse Black Lager, hoppy Kokopelli IPA, and zesty Paleface Summer Wheat. My only regret is that they don't have a larger number of their beers on tap. In conclusion, Sweetwater Tavern has delicious food, a warm atmosphere, and great service. It's a great place for casual dining and a sampler flight of their house brews.

Sunday 2nd of August 2009 10:26:03 PM

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Located just outside of the innner loop (I-495). I've been to the other two locations, and this one is a carbon copy. Tons of room, with lots of benches available. In the middle of the place there is a large bar, where apparently smoking is available because something lit up a ciggy.

The selection, like at any other location, is usually 5-6 beers. They always range average to good, but never excelllent. The food is good, and they have just about any type of American food you want.

The service was attentative. I got the wrong food delivered and they fixed it right way. In fact, it was so fast I'm sure they gave me someone elses's order of chicken tenders and just game them their food later. Oh well, that's exactly what I would have done!

The place gets noisy during peak hours. But it's good food and okay beer, and a good family place. Recommended.

Wednesday 10th of June 2009 12:48:20 PM

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In shopping complex, brewpub has wide-open warmth when you first enter. Bar is immediately in front of you with plasma TVs for sports viewing. Lighting in restaurant is fantastic and one definitely gets the southwestern motif inside.

They have 5 brews on tap at any one time and the following were available when I was there:

Naked River Light = lager = 1
Really not even worth the effort; seemed to be approximating a Bud Light / Coors Light, but that's not really a compliment.

Great American Restaurants Pale Ale = Pale Ale = 3
Good ale -- ended up having full pint of this one after the flight of samplers.

Paleface Summer Wheat = Weizen = 2
Disappointing, as it did not live up to the description nor did it have a truly distinctive weizen character.

Helles Out of Dodge Lager = Lager = 3
Standard helles. Done well.

Chipotle Porter = Porter = 4
Without question, the stand-out of the five -- the chipotle taste was present in every sip, but was not over-powering. And the combination of the sweet with the hot was a very pleasant experience.

Food I had on the night was good. Started off with a special: artichokes. Then, tried some of my dining partner's southwestern egg rolls. Both were tasty. Had ribs w/ fries and slaw as an entree and the ribs were done nicely with a flavorful sauce that was imbued into the meat.

Great service. At one point, our server offered free meal for the over-cooked burger my dining partner oredered. The amazing thing was that the server made this offer without prompting; he observed that my friend's burger was overdone first.