Three Rivers Brewery, Farmington, NM
I’ve heard horror stories about Farmington. Well, not horror stories, but I’ve heard it’s ugly and dismal, one big box store and strip mall after the other throughout the whole town. When I came across Three River Brewery’s website, it sure seemed like a different atmosphere than I’d had described to me. Their website made it sound like a great place, a brewery, tap room, eatery with a decent menu and they recently opened a pizzeria. Sounded good to me and nothing like Farmington had been described to me.
I took my first trip down to Farmington and the first stop was Three Rivers Brewery for lunch and beer.
Housed in a nice brick building, the first thing I noticed was their building took up almost an entire downtown block. We walked into the tap room/eatery and it looked like a typical brewpub, a good sign. The front of the menu has a disclaimer on it, warning people that they’re in an independent establishment where the food and beer are made fresh and on the premises, letting them know this isn’t just another faceless chain restaurant.
They had twelve of their own beers on tap (and as far as I could tell no beers from other breweries, although I think I did see Budweiser on the menu) available in 16 oz pints, 10 oz draws and samples. I didn’t notice pitchers on the menu, but I wasn’t looking for them. They also had growlers available to go. I sampled Cassie’s Sweet Stout and it wasn’t for me. It wasn’t bad, but I think I’ve learned that I like my stouts on the stronger side. This one weighed in at 4.6%ABV according to their website. NMSHIPA – Glacier caught my eye when I didn’t like the stout. It stands for New Mexico Single Hop IPA, and that single hop is Glacier, which according to their website is a newer variety of hop. It was good, it had a dry taste with a grassy aftertaste with a 6.5% ABV. Kinsee ordered the Red Flyer Apple Cider a 6% ABV cider they call a local “flavorite”. I didn’t hear her order, and took a quick sip before drinking the hoppier IPA and was given a taste bud shock because I wasn’t expecting the sweet cider. She enjoyed it though.
The food menu looked pretty good. They had quite a few appetizers (we had the onion rings, pretty hard to screw those up), a number of soups (all made with beef stock, not so good for vegetarians), some entrees which looked decent as well as burgers. There are a ton of choices of things to top your burger with, some blue cheese and sauteed mushrooms did a lot to make the garden burger more exciting. Everyone I was with seemed satisfied with their meal.
I didn’t get a chance to look all around, but it looked like the taproom/eatery was separate from the pizzeria. There was also a sign about a game room, which means there will be more to check out next time I’m in Farmington.
Hopefully in addition to visiting Three Rivers I’ll be hitting some of the awesome mountain bike trails in the area next time I head south.
Photos by Kinsee Morlan
Actually, the part you went to was just the eatery, the building on the corner. Next to that is their banquet hall facility, and next to that is the pizzeria. After that, the last building of the Three Rivers empire is the tap room/game room. The beer’s the same at all three spots, but the tap room has got pool tables, darts and a fussball table. Also free popcorn.
When you go back, try the Chaco Nut Brown. I’m a big fan of brown ales, and it’s definitely my favorite of theirs.