The Nest serves up craft beer and barbecue in Kennesaw
The Nest – Craft Beer and Barbecue in Kennesaw
Opening today, The Nest brings 59 taps of craft beer (plus bottles, wine, and nitro coffee) to Kennesaw plus a full menu of barbecue and all the “fixin’s”. The owners aren’t newbies to beer and barbecue, the team includes folks from The Stout Brothers craft beer and Ebony and Ivory barbecue. Kennesaw is becoming an awesome spot for beer lovers with Burnt Hickory, Southern Sky, and Ale Yeah! close by, and Dry County setting up shop there as well. After chatting with Chef Victor about the concept he invited me to join their soft launch recently to see what they had to offer. He suggested I come thirsty and hungry, good advice.
The Concept
Beer and barbecue in a cozy environment. The Nest is located in two old, neighboring homes that have been connected by a long porch and huge patio in the center. The bar area on one side offers a handful of stools overlooking the tap wall as well as a couple of tables, a long center bar, and a very comfortable nook area with leather couches and chairs for relaxing and chatting with friends over a pint or six. A stroll across the porch takes you past the large center patio with several tables and a huge stone fireplace, as well as an outdoor nook with more couches for relaxing. In the neighboring house each room has been converted to hold a few tables, making the environment quite comfortable. The open kitchen allows you to see the action, although the layout makes access to the restroom a bit awkward as you have to walk through the busy staging area to use the facilities. Decor on both sides is very homey, with natural wood floors and soft painted walls. A neat feature is the “nest and eggs” light fixtures over the main beer.
The Beer
Plenty to choose from here with a large variety of Georgia beer as well as other unique offerings from outside the state. The Nest offers 59 taps of craft beer, bottled beers, nitro beers, and a beer engine. If beer isn’t your thing then you can just get your face right out of here… wait, no, sorry… actually you can get a glass of wine or nitro coffee, or even a craft soda to quench your thirst. To make things easy on you they’ve colored-coded their tap list for quick reference to the style of beer. If you’re looking to sample several brews they do offer 4 oz. pours of their draft beers, perfect for someone like me that likes to have a bit of everything, especially when I have so many options. The staff knows their beers so if you’re not sure what to get they can offer plenty of suggestions. I overheard a conversation with a guest that said they didn’t like beer and one of the owners, after some chatting about what she did like she took a sample and said she loved it, and it was definitely the best beer she’d ever tried. Welcome to the family, new beer drinker.
The Food
After having a few drinks and chatting at the bar for a while we decided to mozy over to the restaurant side and grab a bite to eat. We were seated promptly and after refilling our drinks we decided to start with the smoked catfish dip served with warm pita wedges. It was very good, although I’d like the pita cut a bit larger as it was tricky to get a scoop of the fish dip on the tiny wedges. We also got a half order (the full order must be massive) of the pulled pork totchos, also awesome and they disappeared quickly. For our entrees we went with ribs and brisket paired with cole slaw, mac and cheese, fried okra, and collard greens. The ribs and brisket were super tender and juicy, with a great seasoning and awesome smokiness. The Nest serves them dry but you have a choice of several sauces to slather on if you choose. The standard sweet sauce and spicy sauce were great, and the Sriracha white sauce was pretty tasty and unique. The cole slaw was some of the best I’ve had and the fried okra was crispy and delicious. My one disappointment was the mac and cheese, which was dry and not very cheesy, however we spoke with one of the owners and he mentioned they were looking to tweak that. We finished off the meal with the cornbread pudding, which comes covered in a white chocolate sauce with a dollop of amaretto mascarpone. I thought this was excellent, actually much better than I expected, however my friends thought it was a bit rich.
The Service
In a word, awesome. The bartender (Brandon, one of the owners) was very friendly and knowledgeable on the beer, offering great suggestions to many guests and always making sure we were taken care of. In the restaurant our server was friendly and attentive and made sure we were well taken care of. She knew the menu and offered beer pairing suggestions for our food choices. For a soft launch they had things running very smoothly, I’ve been to other new restaurants and that’s not always the case, but the team at The Nest did an amazing job for their first night. Actually, they did an amazing job for any night, the service was great and you wouldn’t know it was a soft opening by the quality of the service.
The Skinny
I think The Nest is a great addition to Kennesaw and is somewhere I see myself visiting frequently. The atmosphere is exactly what I like in my hangouts, and with an extensive beer list and barbecue it’s a great mix. One of my favorite breweries, Burnt Hickory, is just around the corner so I could really make a day of it in Kennesaw now. Maybe I should move there? I wonder if The Nest would mind me sleeping on their couches? I bet they’d be cool with it.
Connect and Visit
The Nest
2921 Cherokee Street
Kennesaw, GA 30144
678-903-6921
Sun-Thu | 11:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Fri-Sat | 11:00 AM – 2:00 AM
Web | www.thenestkennesaw.com
Twitter | @TheNestKennesaw
Facebook | The Nest Kennesaw
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