26 Jul Braindead Brewing – Bumbling Barleypop or Genuinely Genius

Braindead Brewing

Aside from the stoner-homage there’s nothing braindead about Braindead Brewing.

2625 Main St.
Dallas, TX 75226

What You Need to Know Before You Visit Braindead Brewing

Price: ~$5+ per pour with good lunch happy hour specials M-F

Food: Onsite kitchen. Good, fresh, and fairly-priced

Family Friendliness: As long as you’re ok with weed references

Doggos: Dogs welcome on outdoor patio

Parking:Paid parking next to the building but seemed plentiful despite the place being packed

What’s the Atmosphere like at Braindead Brewing?

I was there for lunch during the 4th of July, and they were sorely understaffed, so let that filter everything else you read.

It was packed. It was loud. Service was attentive but slow. Our server would fly by and ask if we were alright, literally without skipping a beat because he was one of four servers trying to tend to the entire, loud, packed place. Poor dude.

The atmosphere at Braindead Brewing seems pretty chill. Considering all the people and all the noise, it wasn’t lively or obnoxious – just like a loud hum. All the palettes and 2×4 furniture that your urban-chic heart could ever desire are partnered with hand-painted artwork on every wall. That gives it an urban feel without trying too hard.

Braindead Brewing is in downtown Dallas, so it’s paid parking, but the lot is right next door to the taproom. And it’s reasonably priced. $2 for weekday daytime parking. $5 or $6 for nights and weekends.

Much like any downtown area in a big city, the area can be luxurious on one corner and pretty sketchy on the other. All the outdoor murals on the surrounding buildings help add some charm and appeal to the urban decay a block away.

Is there food at Braindead Brewing?

You better believe your hungry ass there’s food. From burgers and nachos to house-made pickles, everything we had was pretty good, and and it all seemed fresh. As slammed as they were, it seems unlikely that anything would be sitting under a heat lamp for long.

The nachos were dope, and the tacos were too. The buffalo chicken sandwich on the lunch special menu was a little light on the chicken and a little heavy on the bread, but it still tasted good. I wish there were more of those house-made pickles, though. I’m still kicking myself for not getting a jar of “Pickle Rick” to go. SMH.

Is it Family Friendly?

Some breweries and brewpubs are family tolerable, and others are genuinely family friendly. I’d call Braindead Brewing somewhere in the middle.

There are some games to entertain the kids, and the space is welcoming enough. However, all the thinly-veiled not-veiled-at-all drug references in the murals and on the shirts of the servers made me second guess bringing my daughter that’s old enough to ask questions.

Is Braindead Brewing Worthy of Traidbait Travels?

I’m a solid maybe for this one.

It’s a great spot with a diverse selection of creative beer with many styles sure to please everybody in the gang. It’s a good spot for some good food, and it seems big enough to host your birthday night with friends if you so choose. Despite all these positive marks, only a few of the beers blew my socks off.

Braindead Brewing does sell crowlers to go, growler fills, and bottles of some of their beers, but I don’t know if any of them would get me a drool-worthy trade on Instagram.

In addition, the one beer I was pining to try, their NEIPA, just blew according to my server. So, similar to, “How many licks will it take to get to the center of a Tootsie-Pop,” the world may never know about that beer. I wish we could’ve got there sooner, so I could’ve tried it. Despite a wide variety of styles and a deep variety of heaviness/lightness, I’d say a good 25-35% of them were Belgian inspired. While I’ve had plenty of good Belgian beers, it’s just not my jam. Maybe you love Belgian beer, and you think I’m stupid. Whatever. Fight me!

All in all, I really dig the place, and I’d definitely be back. However, I probably wouldn’t be muling anything for the homies. Prove me wrong in the comments.