Broadway @ The Beach, Myrtle Beach, SC

Many years ago, when Myrtle Beach was all but shut down during the winter, Linda and I would head down for my "Birthday Weekend," enjoying the lighter traffic, no waiting in restaurants, and lower prices for everything. Walks on the beach, while a bit chilly, are so much better when it's just the two of you, and the hearty souls from the Great White North that think that 50 degree weather is balmy.

Since we won't be making the trip to Daytona this year (scheduling conflicts), we decided to run away from home, back to our Birthday Weekend At The Beach.

When we mentioned this at our favorite watering hole, Southern Hops, Jimmy Deaton suggested we should take the tour at the New South Brewery in Myrtle Beach. Sounds like a plan!

We come down regularly to go to Joe's Crab Shack, usually as a good excuse to get out on the motorcycles and take a day trip. Drive down, enjoy a steam pot of crab, shrimp, andouille sausage and more, walk around a bit to digest, then back to Florence. About two weeks ago, since Linda's knees weren't complaining, we ended up walking further down the row of shops than we normally did, and found Liberty Steakhouse, a micro brewery, and The Tilted Kilt, apparently a chain of quasi-Irish Pub style restaurants, with the servers in tiny kilts and cleavage forming tops -- who can resist?

So a plan began to form. For the first time, instead of staying on the beach, we booked a room at the Hampton at Broadway At The Beach, and planned to try out both of these establishments, take the New South tour, and whatever other touristy thing struck our fancy.

We were close to taking the Goldwings, but with the rain coming through it didn't make a lot of sense. So we headed out in the Accord.

We got to town around 12:30, so it was a bit early to check in at the hotel. We decided to get lunch at the Tilted Kilt. As we walked in, you could see that an attempt was made to give it a bit of Irish charm, but -- well, it was a nice place. The bartender/waitress was cute, and we sat at the bar (our favorite place). There weren't too many authentic Irish entree's on the menu, but still, the food was pretty good, and plenty of it.

She let us sample a few brews, and Linda settled on a white ale, while I found Killian's Stout, a nice dark, smooth brew with a light hoppy aftertaste. On the other side of the bar, a TV was showing the making of the 2013 Tilted Kilt pinup calendar over and over. Not bad!

Over all, the food was good, the beer was good, the bartendar was attentive and cheerful. We kept an eye on the weather, and the Weather Channel showing the Winter Storm Nemo progress as it made its way north. As we left, we looked for and found a shop where we picked up a couple of umbrellas, knowing we were going to be in for some rain. Indeed, it was lightly drizzeling as we headed back to the car.

The rain was beginning to come down a bit harder as we drove about three blocks around the parking lot to the hotel, and checked in. Nice hotel, good friendly people at the desk, and the promise of fresh-baked cookies at four o'clock (yeah, I know everybody does this now, but I can't resist 'em). Nice room, overlooks Margueritaville, Jimmy Buffet's restaurant. Been there, done that before. Mediocre food, pedestrian beer, nothing to see here.

 

 



We unpacked, changed over to the denim jackets we brought and headed out to New South for the 3:15 tour.

We found the building tucked away, back in an industrial area. Nothing to look at on the outside, really. Metal warehouse-type structure, pile of old appliances in the parking lot. I've learned, though, that this doesn't always carry over to the inside. We parked and headed in, the first to arrive.

We were soon joined by a (slightly) older couple, and found that the husband shared my birthday. He had been on the Anhauser-Busch tour in Williamsburg before, remarking that it was a lot bigger (of course). We were soon joined by about 30-40 people as Roddy, the Operations Manager, prepared us for the tour.

A little side note -- with a staff of three, you have the CEO, the Master Brewer, and the Ops Manager. They do everything!

Roddy had 12 years of biology under his belt, and he gave us an overview of what it takes to brew beer. You could tell that he enjoyed talking about the chemistry behind the process, although his use of the word "emzymes" (for those who don't realize it, the word is "enzymes") was a little strange. But he really showed his stuff, adding funny stories and other asides, answering questions and sampling the beer with us.

After our first sample (Linda's favorite, their Pale Ale), we carried our glasses with us to the floor, where we got close-up views of the tanks and explanations of how the brew, from the grain to mash tun, all the way through to the fermentation and carbonation process, providing samples of their Nut Brown and their new Imperial beer, due out soon. I enjoyed my final sample of their Red as he showed us the canning process. They use a completely hand-powered canning unit, and he says they can run about 28 six-packs an hour. Impressive!

Linda bought a six of the pale ale, a six of the nut brown, and she bought me a growler of the Imperial, along with glasses for our collection. It was a really fun tour, and I have a new respect for what goes into making one of my favorite beverages.

It was raining harder as we left, and we returned to the hotel, to get the beer in the fridge. After a nap, we headed out in the rain, grateful for our new umbrellas, and drove around Celebrity Circle to Liberty Steakhouse.

Not impressed at all with the place. The one word that came to mind was "uninspired." The most exiting thing about the experience was the three different types of croutons in the salad! Not much flavor in the NY Strip, Linda reported that the Prime Rib wasn't the worst she had, but not near the best. I had their "Broadway Brown," and Linda tried their "American Pale" beers. Same thing -- weak presentation, not very good. Disappointed, but then again, we've been spoiled by Southern Hops -- much better beers, and Randy keeps changing up the food, all of which has new and interesting flavors.

We plan on hitting the other micro brewery in town today. I'll let you know how it works out as we continue our "Beer Quest" weekend (at least, that's what it's starting to become)!