Next Door Brewing Company

Only things you need to know: great beer, great food, clean bathrooms, friendly people, and nice atmosphere. You like good beer… Go here!

If you appreciate quality beer and a cool place to hang out, this is your spot. The food options are great too, especially the beer Mac and cheese.

Absolutely loved their beers! The people were all very friendly and made it an enjoyable experience. Only down side was it is more of a sports bar in a restaurant feel rather than a brewery vibe.

Crazy good cheese curds! Their frites were ok, but their malt vinegar ketchup was very good!

It’s not bad. Their beer doesn’t make me do flips, the food doesn’t make me do flips. The seating is weird — either packed into the bar or sharing a giant table with strangers — which is sometimes okay. Service — the last three times I’ve been there has been weak. I had a burger and a salad last visit. the salad was basically grass and leaves. «Mixed Greens,» I think it the technical term. I’m on a diet, so I just ate it, but it wasn’t good.
Friends rave about the Poutine. I had some once. I’m not sure what it is, and didn’t like it enough to look it up. Pass.

Great beers and burgers! I will be back. Many unique options and decent selection of beers. In the far easy side, a little far out, but worth the drive from the west side.

Next Door’s biggest issue is consistency. I feel like I am playing Russian roulette whenever I walk in the door. Do they have enough people on staff? Does the fryer have fresh oil?
I have been to Next Door many times at this point because it’s better than Great Dane and the 2^nd closest brew pub to my residence. At one point I was even the Duke (but no longer for reasons outlined below). I have had off the charts experiences at Next Door that made me reconsider rewriting my previous 4 star review as a 5 star review, and I have had OTHER experiences that made me wonder why I didn’t give Next Door a 1 star.
The cheese curds at Next Door if you come on a good day are some of the best cheese curds you will find in Madison from the cheese to the breading to the chive dipping sauce. On other days the curds are crusty and blown out.
The service and staffing of Next Door appears to be the biggest issue here. Often it seems that the floor and kitchen are understaffed with long wait times for a table, ordering, and food coming out. It is apparent that the kitchen is understaffed on days when premade items like Brazilian stew remain delicious but sandwiches are bland or overcooked.
The servers don’t always write everything down. On one visit we had a server return 3 times to tell us the beer we wanted was out and eventually returned to say the original beer we wanted was in.
Overall, go to Next Door if you can make it during a time that isn’t a popular hour when the understaffed brew pub can actually handle the small load of customers. You will receive inventive pub food, quality beer, and all in a wink.
If you go during a popular hour, expect long wait times, poorly prepared food, and general frustration. Any cocktails you order will also suffer. On one visit our out of town friends received «the worst Bloody Marys» of their lives.
Next Door really needs to have more staff on the floor!
Writing this review saddens me because I really want to like Next Door. They have proven to me that they have a quality product worth raving about, but it has fallen flat too many times for me to be a repeat customer. I have felt embarrassed multiple times now when I have taken friends here after bragging about the quality of the cheese curds and other menu items. I will no longer be making that mistake.
Meh, you could do better going elsewhere in Madison.

Stopped here on a Mad-​town brew crawl. It has a nice large space to handle bigger groups. About 10 beers on tap. Ok amount of TVs for games and such. It’s not a tour type of place; just a sit down and drink kinda place.
The waitstaff seemed irritated that we walked in and sat down (group of 7). We didn’t see a «see hostess» sign and sat away from other groups of people. On top of that, she was slow and brisk.

I live right down the street from Next Door Brewery and its proximity is delightful! Some of their food has been a miss (mostly: the burger with the rye bun is tasteless, as is their Mac and cheese), but their short rib croquettes are a luxury for your tastebuds, as is the French Onion soup when it’s on the menu! The yam crisps are a steal, both in quantity and taste, as far as pub fare goes!
As for beer, I love their ever-​changing menu, but also knowing that my favorite option, the Eastside APA is almost always on tap!
Service has been great, although it can get busy during dinner.
This is a must-​go brewery, don’t give the negative reviews of Next Door too much hype because it’s a fantastic place for a beer and a bite!

Dave the bartender was super friendly… thanks Dave

Descriptive phrase: neighborhood brewery and gathering place.
Next Door Brewing Company is a large place but is still inviting. We sat near the bar and brewing equipment and ordered Cheese Curds ($ 7.50) and Short Rib Croquettes ($ 7), along with trying 4 different beers ($ 10 flight). While I wasn’t crazy about any of their beers, the curds and croquettes were good. It looked like Next Door puts on a ton of events to get the locals in the door, and I think they’re doing a good job with that.

PROS: Reasonable prices, fresh ingredients, ample seating
CONS: Mediocre pub fare
Next Door serves standard bar food that satisfies one’s hunger but not necessarily one’s palate. Given a choice, I would take my comfort food cravings elsewhere.

While my love affair with Madison breweries continues at Next Door, a different, sadder story happened with the macaroni and cheese.
The bartender was awesome. It helps that I came in around 1pm on a weekday, so I really had him all to myself to discuss Next Door brews, Madison in general, and entertain myself while I waited for One Barrel to open. He offered tastes of anything I wanted, handed over some cool stickers, and gave me a wooden token good for a free beer next time I’m there. Five stars and two eager thumbs up.
The beer was fantastic as well, I tried the Kaleidospoke pale ale (fitting as I had ridden my bike there) and the Luminous IPA. Both were excellent and did a good job of balancing the hop-​forward flavors important to the style of beer with making sure that they are flavorful and not *just* hoppy.
I ordered the beet salad and the mac-​and-​cheese. The beet salad was fresh, well-​presented, and I really liked the gorgonzola cream they made. It allowed me to add a little schmear to each and every bite, rather than crumbles which limit how many I have.
While the beets, beer, and bartender would keep me coming back again and again, the macaroni and cheese caused me to write a Facebook status claiming I will never order it at a restaurant again. It’s just hard being so in love with it and having it end up disappointing each and every time. Here, the pasta was overcooked, the sauce was runny, and the breadcrumbs weren’t quite golden brown and delicious. Also, I never know why people use a non-​rigate pasta for a cream-​based sauce.
Don’t let the macaroni and cheese fool you, this is definitely a place to come to. Again and again.

If I would rate the place on the beer, I would give it more stars. I met a couple friends here after work for a couple beers and some food. We decided to order a few things and share them. I decided the Veggie Tostada sounded fabulous. It came out, looked great — tasted HORRIBLE, I even tried a few bites hoping that it would get better, it didn’t. It was so incredibly tasteless.
We also ordered a small mac and cheese, which it was good if you took a bite with the crumbly bread/​cheese topping, otherwise it also lacked flavor and the noodles were overcooked.
The frites were the best thing that we ordered, the basil aioli dipping sauce was awesome.
Just quite disappointed in their food, its a fun place with a great atmosphere and good beer — hope they will step it up with their food!

After a very enjoyable Unilocal tasting event at Next Door, I was excited to come back and brings my girlfriend and friends along. Unfortunately, the food didn’t even come close to measuring up to what I experienced before (with the exception of the cheese curds). The cheese curds, amazing liquid orbs of muenster cheese with a light breading, have to be some of the best in Madison. These alone are worth making the drive for. So where did Next Door stumble? First, they charge for samples (almost $ 2 for a small pour). It’s their prerogative to charge but when the waitress doesn’t make mention of this, it is a shady oversight. Quite honestly, why charge at all? Are people really trying to take advantage and order 12 samples to avoid buying a beer? For a small brewery trying to expand it’s clientele, I think this is a huge mistake. They should encourage their customers to try their beers and build up their fan base.
The second miss was their version of Banh Mi. It is no secret that like Mikey in the old Life Cereal commercials, «I will eat anything» but the Banh Mi stopped me in my tracks. Swapping out a chicken liver pâté (vs a more traditional pork pâté), the sandwich was a mushy mixture that had a taste that was reminiscent of the smell of cat food. I took one bite and put it down. I give credit to the waitress for noticing and asking if I wanted something else. I don’t give her credit for removing one sandwich charge only to replace it with my second order. I thought this was bush league.
Overall, a disappointing night. With the amount of restaurant choices out there, I can’t recommend Next Door due to their inconsistencies. Why risk a crummy meal when there are so many other places that bring quality food and service day in and day out?

This is LITERALLY my favorite place in Madison. They have great beer, great staff, and all the food is delicious.
The beer is outstanding. They have a rotating variety of styles and they work with local non-​profits to make beers that support causes. You can fill a growler here affordably and they have good specials.
Trivia on Wednesdays at 7:30 is a fun time. Good fish fry. Great brunch.

I love the Atwood neighborhood and I love supporting small businesses and brewers, but… meh. Gotta be honest, I’m unimpressed.
Let’s start with the communication issues. A person in my group was told over the phone that in order to ensure six seats together for team trivia, we needed to arrive an hour in advance of trivia start time. As I live closest, I volunteered to arrive then, which I did. The greeting was friendly and the table and seats were provided, no problem.
45 minutes later, due to work and travel issues, my friends had yet to arrive. No problem for me, but this is when things started to go wrong. The hostess came over and coldly informed me that she would not continue to hold the seats near me because ‘other people were waiting’. (Ummm…I looked around the very open space and did not see a single person waiting, and in fact there were other open seats remaining. There was actually no need to arrive a full hour early, either. The place didn’t start to get at all busy until maybe 20 minutes before trivia started.)
I then spotted my friends outside, one of them finishing a conversation with someone, and I indicated this to the hostess. She completely ignored me as if I hadn’t spoken, then seated a group at the other end of the communal table who used two of the seats I had been holding. When I protested this, she and the waitress brought over two chairs and slammed them down at the narrow end of the table next to me, and said we could all squeeze together. Unbelievably rude.
My friends came in, and I told them what had gone on, and one of them went to complain. We were then moved to the other large table behind us… which was empty. I hadn’t noticed it, since my back was to it as I was watching for my friends through the front window. Why on earth the waitress and hostess didn’t simply seat the other party there, I have no idea. My friend continued to discuss the matter with the waitress and hostess as they were seating us. We were told that the problem was that we were not given all the information when we called, because in order to hold space, «you also need to have to entire party there by 15 minutes before start of trivia». Then she snapped, «there you go, everybody’s happy now».
I mean.
So, really rude customer service, mediocre food, and beer that has an odd metallic aftertaste (I sampled three). Kudos to my west side friends for making the journey to my ‘hood, and I’m sorry the experience wasn’t at all worth it. Get your stuff together, Next Door. You can do better than this.

This was some of the worst, most over-​priced bar food I’ve ever been subjected to.
The salmon croquettes were 9.50. What came to us were two, fishy smelling hockey pucks. My fries were fine. My chicken sandwich was something a toddler would enjoy. Not a veggie in sight and no flavors present except salty and cheesey.
The hugest failure was the fish taco special. It was 9.50. What came out of the kitchen was the saddest, smallest little plate of two tacos with no garnishes or sides. The fish tasted like it had been sitting in a steam tray for hours and the black beans below managed to be over-​spiced and flavorless at the same time. We actually sent this back to the kitchen, and they get a star back for taking it off our bill.
I notice that people have really different experiences here. Maybe the back up chef isn’t good?
We will not be headed back to eat here again.

I stumbled upon Next Door after a 45 mile bike ride. I wasn’t too sure, but I was hungry and desperate for a beer, so I took a chance. I’m so glad I did.
The atmosphere is casual, the beer is outstanding, and the ribs were delicious. I even loved the coleslaw, and I hate coleslaw.
Pepper, one of the owners, was tending bar. He was friendly, conversational, and helpful. He would give you recommendations for what to try and even let you sample different beers.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time here and more than got my monies worth. Can’t wait to be in Madison again so I can come back.

So on an unexpecting Friday night bar hopping expedition, our final stop was Next Door Brewing. I’ve been wanting to try Next Door since before I actually moved here, so I was excited we were stopping here for our last drink.
Now coming from what is voted as Beer City (Grand Rapids) I have a love for brewing companies. I don’t think that there is one that I wouldn’t like. I’m happy that I can now check Next Door Brewing off the «Brewing Companies to go to in Madison» list.
I liked how open it is here, and the huge tables are very ideal for bigger parties I would imagine. The beer list looked fantastic, as well as the menu. We ended up getting the Cheese Curds and the Chips and Guac, both great. the sauce that comes with the cheese curds is fantastic! And the service was pretty good as well. I will say that the interior is a bit blah and basic I guess. Nothing really stood out for me. But I will definitely be back in and drink up some amazing brews!