Artisan's Brewery and Italian Grill

Type: Brewpub

Location: 1171 Hooper Avenue

Tom's River, NJ 08753

United States

Phone: (732) 244-7566

Website:  http://www.artisanstomsriver.com

Cost: Varied Price Menu, possible to have a very cheap or very expensive meal

Visit Date: 12/18/2011

Beers:   Artisan's Light

             West Coast IPA

             Red Ale

              Various Seasonals (usually 6 beers on tap)

Nearby: The New Jersey PInelands: Double Touble SP, Lebanon SF, Wharton SF.  Island Beach State Park, Mulica River. 

Notes: We come here pretty regularly because we like to come down to South Jersey for biking, kayaking, and geocaching.  Wharton, Double Trouble and Lebanon have miles and miles of sand trails and hundreds of caches, and the Mullica is a nice scenic paddle.  After a long day in the sun, we're ready for some refreshments and a big dinner.  I must say the food here seems to have gotten a lot worse over the years.  Not the quality per se, I don't know that I'd be able to tell you that, but rather my options have dwindled over the years.  An expensive steak may be your thing, and that's fine, but the veggie options have gone from decent to "meh, should we just stop at wawa on the way?"  This last time we were there we sat in the bar, because George wanted wings which aren't served in the dining room, I had a salad and we shared a pizza, I forgot to ask for dressing on the side.  It's good we biked so much because it came drenched.  They have tasty balsamic, but very creamy.  The pizza was....odd.   I think we concluded in the end that we liked it, but it took some warming up to.  We got the salad pizza and that's pretty much what it was.  Pizza bread with a salad--a lot like the one on my plate- dumped on top.  I miss the old eggplant and mushroom pizzas.  They list eggplant and mushrooms as options for toppings to "make your own" but who knows if it'll be the same?  The mushroom pie used to have several types of mushrooms, perfectly cooked and covering the whole pie.  I doubt it would be the same.  

But the food isn't why we keep coming back to Artisan's.  Dave Hoffman is a genius.  There isn't really much else to say, the man knows what he is doing, and does it well, and I am ever so glad he went into his chosen profession.  He's a real good guy too.  He doesn't make anything that's bad.  On this last visit we had a pitcher of the Seasonal Oatmeal stout.  It should be a regular offering.  That's all I'll say.  Great, highly recommended, if you're not in the area, look for Climax Beer in a store, Dave also runs his own brewery and brews there.  He always bottled in Growlers, but had recently (finally!) gotten a 12oz bottling line. 

They do an annual Mug Club dinner that's very good, they'll have a bufftet of fresh good food, usually different from the Menu.  There was an amazing polenta one year.  Dave comes and hangs out, and the beer is all you can drink.  It usually runs around ~$30 which is a great deal.