Sleepy Dog Brewpub

We were really excited to try a new place with live music.
Pros–
1. Great beer
2. Friendly staff.
Cons–
1. Really subpar food (at least the things that we ordered.
2. Very small menu (that were on filthy well used printer paper)
3. Shockingly unfortunate margaritas (perhaps just an unskilled bartender)
4. A band that started 45 minutes late and conducted a loud, feedback rich sound check for more than a half hour of our meal.
5. The overall look, atmosphere and branding is really inconsistent.
The floor plan and patio are really cool and the potential for live music is promising. However, it would appear that the powers that be really put the cart before the horse with the launch of this venture.

Looks like this dog is Dead.
No great loss IMO, but it was nice having a locally made beer alternative to Gordon Bierch in the far east valley.
The Sleepy Dog beers all have a slightly sweet finish, this is a sign of inexperience and reminds me of brewpubs of the 90’s. The food and service was up and down like a yo-​yo, as was the décor, bar setup, and general management.
To bad with proper management, and beer, this place had potential.
Good news is there are 3 new eating/​drinking establishments across the street.
Blue 32 Sports Grill
Harvey American Public House
Fox Cigar Bar (My personal favorite)
All three offer a nice selection of craft beers on taps, live music, and above all excellent service.
The Sleepy Dog didn’t stand a chance.

my husband and I have been to the Sleepy Dog in Tempe and fell in love with the beer so we were very excited that they now have a location in Gilbert. We were anxious to try the food and we were not disappointed. My husband had a black and blue with sweet potato fries. It was delish! Despite the other reviews i have read, we thought the burger was very flavorful and juicy. The sweet potato fries were crispy on the outside, soft and sweet on the inside. Perfect. I had the fish and chips with jicama slaw. I loved every bite. The slaw had sweet red peppers, jicama and a zesty sauce. Very good! Enough cannot be said about the beer. Sleepy Dog beer is wonderful. We love every one of them. They also have a great tap selection of other
Sleepy Dog in Gilbert has only been opened for a couple of days and we were impressed. Yes, there are some bugs to be worked out which is to be expected. We definitely will be going back.
Update– Went last night (¼/​14) around 8pm. Sign said «closed for the holidays». Holidays are over. What gives???

So far the wait for food, service, drinks, blah blah is a little excessive, like 30 minutes? Probably a good idea to over staff on a Saturday during the holidays right next to Kohls at lunch. Just sayn.
Food leaves something to be desired, sorta flavorless and heaven forbid you ask for ranch with a salad, it will take all day and will only arrive with the box after lunch. I would come back ONE more time for the beer and BEER alone, (just to try it).
The overall theme is a bit confusing, a stage at a brewery? Is it me or do I just not get out much, but a stage?

The best part of my meal was my drink. I had fireball and hard cider. For dinner I had the chicken and waffles. They were ok. Probably would have been better if it was hot. But getting back to the drink. Yummy! Perfect for the season.

This place is chill. Dog friendly patio. Stage for live music. Full bar. Two TVs on patio, nice, but wish there were more.
Had the hummus, which was just OK.
Family friendly too…

I am EXTREMELY PLEASED to be able to give an update to my last review.
I met a girlfriend for drinks here last Friday (9.20) after warning her that the last few visits I wasn’t very impressed. HOLY SMOKES did they knock it out of the park this time!
Seated immediately and even though I was waiting for my friend to arrive, they kept checking on me if I needed anything.
Wings? OMG SHUT CHO MOUF — freakin TO.DIE.FOR. Amazing flavor and they literally fall right off the bone. I am forever spoiled eating wings ANYWHERE else.
Service? Wow. wow. wow. Anthony (who is also one of the mangers, I learned) was AH-​MAZING. Kept our drinks filled, checked on us, moved us to the patio from indoors (at our request) with no problem, was so patient when we STILL hadn’t decided if we wanted anything to eat or not. Great guy, great service and I much appreciated how receptive he was to my feedback about my prior visits. They are trying and they ARE succeeding!
This visit alone prompted me to return 2 days later on Sunday (9.22) for some football with another friend. Again, great beer, great service and AMAZING wings. We also tried the bloody marys and were NOT disappointed. House made bloody mary mix that was fantastic. I am spoiled (again!) that I will never be able to have another bloody mary anywhere else that will compare to this one.
You are my new favorite place, Sleepy Dog! I’m pleased as punch that you have turned this around because you are literally a 5 minute drive from home. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!

Thought we would try the place for lunch and sadly very disappointed. The food was poor.
We got two «beer» bread flatbreads and it was more like stale flour bread.
We were the only group in the entire restaurant for the entire time we were there.
They need to step up their quality or they will sadly be out.

Come for the beer and the fun attitude but leave the food. I think they are trying too hard to be something… I don’t know what. I’ll just talk food for now since it’s on my mind. We went for lunch today, Sunday afternoon about 1:30. We walked in there was one family having lunch, a large group jamming on instruments by the bar and no employees to be found. One of the guys from the instruments group came over and sat us — I have no idea if he had any affiliation with the place but he did a great job faking it if he didn’t.
Finally our waitress came by and was very sweet. We worked her for recommendations but couldn’t really get anything solid. Maybe she was new or maybe vegan. I ordered a SW chicken sandwich on flatbread, husband got the portobello flatbread, older kid got crispy buffalo chicken sandwich and little one got the kid’s burger. I ordered the house brewed IPA and it was good slightly bitter, husband got a lager — she couldn’t remember the name. Both were good.
My sandwich came out and the first thing I noticed is a corner of my flatbread is gone, which was just weird and kind of gross. I removed all the bread which was cold anyway, and pulled out a fork and knife. I take a bite and a flavor was just off. On this sandwich was: thin breast of chicken, white cheese of some sort, bacon, green chile, sautéed or some sort of marinated onions, avocado, chipotle sauce, tomatoes, and PICKLES. Why the pickles? That’s just weird and I like pickles. So I remove the pickles. Take another bite still odd. So taste everything individually and it’s the onion that didn’t taste right. I take those out and the breadless sandwich gets much better. Should I have just sent it back? Maybe, but I suffer from Catholic guilt. I also had sweet potato fries and those were good! (see positive!)
My husband seemed to enjoy his portobello and salad, the buffalo chicken was a bit spicy for my older kid but he enjoyed it, the little one enjoyed his burger and fries as tiny as it was. We also ordered what we thought were fried mashed potato balls (go ahead be crude I live with all males) but when my little guy bit into one it was actually goat or blue cheese not a good surprise. I guess two balls are potato and two are the cheese mixture. The potato was a hit with the boys.
We had been there before for the Full Sail tap takeover and loved it. Great beer at great prices. The atmosphere is light and fun but kind of a mess. They had a Wii game set up and the jam session happening. The night we were there for the Full Sail event tables were askew and not cleaned, the toss game was leaning on a wall just very casual. We will probably return for the tap take over nights and when it’s cooler and we want to bring our dog somewhere but not to eat.

Decent happy hour beer specials but little personality compared to the Tempe location– might be worth the further drive! The food seemed a little pricey for a pub with menu items all over the place, no general theme. The space is pretty big so even with 7 tables filled it seemed empty. They have a great patio where you can bring your dog, major plus! However, I would have loved seeing the TVs from the outside!

I have been here a few times after my first review.
I would like to give them 1 star, but I do like their beers and again they always have some awesome guest beers if you want to explore. BUT that will be the only reason I will ever go back.
The food situation has not been solved and management /​ownership at this place is embarrassing.
I along with my wife, kid, kids friend and dog went there Saturday night for dinner. We of course due to the dog sat out on the patio, which was crowded but seats were available. We found a table that had been partially cleaned (a few kid cups remained) and sat. We moved the cups to the table next to us. We waited for a few and our server appeared, took our drink order and went behind the bar. Our server was also the bartender, on a busy Saturday night? We watched this poor guy the entire night run back and forth pulled in 20 directions. He worked hard, so any problems with had were not his fault, he just couldn’t handle all that was going in.
So we get our appetizer, bruchetta and like another reviewer stated a few pieces of the toast were burnt. This shows me they have a lazy cook and /​or no one checking their food before going out. Oh did I mention the owner sucking down cocktail after cocktail two tables down and his manager sitting with him as all heck is going on?
My wife was not really hungry and the kids ordered food with the appetizer, but I am still hungry so I order dinner. 35 minutes later and no food. Awesome!!! After flagging him down our server comes to apologize and tells me the kitchen had been having issues tonight. Awesome again, as I look over to the owner sucking down yet another drink. 10 more minutes pass, no food, now their manager strolls by. Half his shirt not tucked in totally unshaven (not even the neatly hip and cool unshaved look) and I really haven’t seen him do anything but talk to the owner and bs with customers he knows. I tell him about my food, he apologizes and brings me my dinner about 5 to 10 later. The food was fair not fantastic not horrible. Nothing that I would go back for.
I will go back for beers, never again for food.. With ownership that finds it more important to drink on a Saturday night than make sure your customers are taken care of, who knows how much longer I will be able to just do that.
Get your leadership together DOG!!!

Awesome burgs and beer!

A partnership between a craft brewery and a one bar out in SE Gilbert should be a home run, but it is far from it.
This place has tremendous beer selections, and the Sleepy Dog beers themselves are alright. The staff is tremendous in personality and friendliness but food is slow and on each of our trips the server missed a part of our meal (forgot a salad last Friday, missed our appetizer the Friday before)
The food is just not good. The bruschetta toast came out burnt and our server said that’s just toasted. The chicken on my wife’s sandwich was extremely dry and not fresh. Fries often are delivered cold.
Additionally, with bands every night and karaōke, the ownership seems to want this pub to be a dive bar with craft beer and poor food.
And that’s fine … But we expected place with tremendous fresh food and many craft beer choices.

We went there not long after they first opened, ordered the boneless wings to share while we drank some beer. The beer kept coming very fast, the food took forever. Once we finally received the boneless wings, they were cold and not edible.
We have since, been back three or four times and each time it seems to get better. We always receive our drinks quickly and their burgers are amazing. The hummus is really tasty as well and my 12 month old son, loves their veggie burger. I really hope that people decide to give this place a fair chance. We love it, its dog friendly and we want them to stick around!!!

I’m usually pretty long-​winded, but no need in this case. We had a great visit on March 16^th for the following reasons:
The beer selection. Their own brews are great, but they have some guest taps that provide some very interesting and adventurous choices. Brews like O’Dell Myrcenary.
The shrimp satay. This is a wonderfully prepared dish. Two skewers of 3 very large bacon-​wrapped shrimp each, grilled to perfection with a light garlic tomato compote, couscous, and nice sesame stir-​fried vegetables on the side, although I think the addition of something green like snow peas or sugar snap peas to the vegetables would add to the appeal.
Justin the bartender. GREAT service.
Can’t wait to go back.

I’m a major craft beer drinker. The beer here was totally awful.
The Irish Red had no malty flavor — it was dry and empty.
The IPA was soapy.
The English Browne had no head and was flat.
The Scottish Red tasted stale.
When it comes to the aroma, mouth, taste, and color, they only passed the color tests, which makes me wonder what was added to the beer.
We had the calamari, which wasn’t to our taste, but it might be fine for others. The style is like large breadsticks rather than rings. Just not our style.
I hope this place gets better as Gilbert really needs a place like this.
Wanted to give ‘em two stars but couldn’t justify it.
[Our waitress was emotionless and didn’t care that my English Browne was flat.]

I can’t attest to the beer, but everything else about this place was pretty abysmal.
Atmosphere/​ambiance — weird. Stage still there from jazz bar and it’s just taking up space and awkward. Also feels like a cafeteria. Tables are very spread out and there’s just not much to the whole space.
Food — decent, but definitely not worth the price. We had the calamari appetizer, a salad, 2 kids meals and some beer and paid $ 52.
Service — waiter was very attentive and nice, but scattered. He forgot our main meal and then actually offered to take the item off our bill. Well, yeah. You think?

The places has a fatal design flaw, and that’s the bar.
The bar is far too small. The strength of this place is its beer selection, and so it’s identity should primarily be as place to get great beer, and only secondarily, as a place to get food. SanTan Brewery has this balance right — you know walking in that the emphasis is on drinking given the size of the bar. Everything else is secondary.
But because Sleepy Dog’s bar is so small, the identify of the place is less a drinking establishment, and more of a place to eat. Unfortunately, with the current menu offerings and the quality of their food, they’re not yet capable of pulling that off. The place it out of balance.
So, they’re either going to have to make big changes to the menu and quality of their food, or they’re going to have rethink the bar and atmosphere to emphasize their strength — which is their drink offerings. Were they to do that, they could have a winner. But they’re not even close right now.

I went to Sleepy Dog with a friend tonight for happy hour. There are four phases to this review. I’ll rank from good to bad…
The beer — I loved the selection of their own brews as well as the other beers they had on tap. I tried the Sleepy Dog Tail Chaser, which was spectacular. I’m a fan of hoppy IPAs so this was right up my alley. They also had 4 other house brews on tap, and then 6 non house brews including Four Peaks Sunbru.
The vibe — What a weird setup! I never went to the jazz bar it was before, but the lighting is VERY bright, including the weird neon window frames. The bar is far too small for a pub… it can only accomodate about 10 – 12 people inside, and then there’s an outside bar that opens up to the inside. A bigger bar would definitely enhance the pub feel. For table seating, there were far too few booths and just too much open space. The stage is somewhat obtrusive and makes you feel like you are at the Improv.
The service — This is where it was hit and miss. Our bartender was very friendly, and gave us beer samples and recommendations. A+
Food runners seemed very confused. Three times, we had a food runner come up to the bar literally asking every seat if the food she was carrying was for them. I’ve never experienced anything like this. Maybe this is a function of being new, but I’ve been to a lot of new places and never experienced this.
The food — we only had the hummus. It was pretty good, but the hummus to bread ratio was way out of balance. We ended up having to eat half of the remaining hummus with a fork. Not a huge issue, but not the best way to enjoy hummus either.
If I were JUST rating the bartender, I’d say 4 stars. If I were JUST reviewing the beer offering, I’d say 4 stars. But the other issues kind of set this place back a bit. I hope next time it is better, because Gilbert needs these kinds of locally owned pubs and bars to keep people from going to Chandler or Tempe and spending where they live.

Went there for an early dinner after their grand opening. Décor is ok, the restaurant has a huge stage, that’s awkwardly placed in the middle of the back wall, tables sparsely placed around the restaurant. As per the menu, happy hour is everyday from 2−7p.
We ordered the beer sampler, my husband ordered the Onion Burger and I ordered the East Valley Burger. (both medium well) and mac & cheese with fries for our kiddo. Beer came and it was good, the waiter didn’t really explain much of the beers, nor the seasonal, he just gave us the paper that goes with the sampler that describes the beers. They were a good size for samplers, enough for both of us to taste and have more than 4 sips each. Our son’s food came, with apple slices instead of the fries we order; the waiter came back apologetic with the fries (FYI– the restaurant has no kiddie cups or to go cups for the kids drinks, just big, glass cups. Def not kid friendly).
Our burgers came, both burgers were beyond well done, mind you we ordered them medium; we let the waiter know, but at this point we had already bitten into our flavorless burgers. Did I mention flavorless? Yes, they were; there was no seasoning whatsoever on them, they tasted like regular cooked ground beed. The onion burger claims it has horseradish cream sauce… there was less than a sliver on the burger; meanwhile the East Valley burger is described as having a cilantro lime sour cream… again a sliver, we could barely taste it. After our son was done eating, we asked for his ice cream, as it’s part of his meal. The ice cream tasted like it has been sitting in the freezer for months and months. You know the kind, where there’s freezer burn on your ice cream but you eat it anyway because you just have to have it… yeah that kind. Our son, who LOVES ice cream, didn’t even eat it.
We then asked for our check; upon reviewing it, I noticed that we had been charged the regular price for the sampler. I asked the waiter and he said that it wasn’t happy hour, so I pulled out the beer menu where it clearly states: HAPPY HOUR EVERYDAY 2−7p (and then the bottom describes what the specials are); he then went to the manager and comped (is that even a word?), whatever, he reduced the price of the beer sampler.
Would we return? Maybe for their beers and possibly appetizers. The service, beer selection and location is good, food… eh I’ve had better. However, I think I’d rather save my $$ and go to OHSO Brewery in Phoenix; and if we want a good, TASTY burger we’ll go to Teakwoods.