M.J. BarleyHoppers - Brandon

No Longer In Business

Visited on 6/21/08. Located in a swanky new strip mall on the southside of Brandon. Attractive wrap-around bar with a huge selection of bottles on the walls and in cases around the restaurant. Had a nice selection of imported (Spaten, Chimay, Delirium, Urquell) and American (Harpoon, Sea Dog, DFH, Sam Adams, Rogue) beers on tap. Nice bottle selection (Chimay Blue, Leffe Blond, Aventinus, Schneider Weisse, and more) as well and all were generally reasonably priced. Didnt try the food but the wings smelled and looked good as they were being delivered to a nearby patron. Worth a stop if you are in the Brandon area.

1/20/08 We wanted to check this place out for their draft selection. However, the system was down so there was no draft beer available. Luckily, the bottle selection was above average. Unfortunately, the bartender didn’t seem to know anything about serving beer. She gave us a Salvator without a glass, and when we asked for one she brought us a frosted Miller Lite pint glass, which was a bit off-putting. It seems with the beer selection they have, they should be more knowledgeable about the beers. We’d stop by if in the neighborhood but wouldn’t make the extra trip.

Been here a couple of times. Their Beer selection is good, not great. If your into "tasting", not drinking they got special sample glasses for your curiosity. Food’s not to bad either

I liked this place because it’s kind of a sports bar mixed with nice restaraunt, so my girlfriend didn’t mind going because it wasn’t just a bar. The service was great it’s just she knew absolutely nothing about any of the beer there, so I would recommend sitting at the bar since the beer menu they give doesn’t have there specials on it and when I asked if they had Dogfish Head it took her about 20 minutes to finally come back and say there’s an I.P.A. and some raison thing. The food is crazy I never heard of anything on there it’s all from different countries but damn pricey as well. On saturday they had a guy playing guitar and singing and he was pretty good. I’d go again but remember sit at the bar since I’m not sure the bartenders even know what they have.

As places like this go, it’s good overall. My only complaint was that they seemed to be out of about half the beers. Maybe it’s just the season. Food was good. It’s a shame they are now closed.

This BarleyHoppers has a very cool environment to it and the draft beer menu is far more eclectic than the Ybor location. Their prices are around $5 a pint but you have a couple Dogfish Head choices and a bit more for the hop heads like myself.