Summit’s Wayside Tavern was a surprise to me. Walk in, and the left is full of sports memorabilia. There are helmets worn by famous football players, and bats used by well known  baseball players line walls and fill display cases. Then you get to the right and the wall of taps. There isn’t any disguising the wall of taps, the single longest series of taps I’ve seen since I’ve begun reviewing. It was 112 beer taps when I stopped counting, and the bartender says there are about 150 beers on tap counting the bar itself. Yes, this place has an amazing selection of beers available to be drunk.

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The menu speaks of some serious attempts to provide bar food with some quality. The burgers are large, they have buffalo burgers and American kobe beef burgers. The pastrami is supplied by a quality vendor of meats. That said, the food prices also reflect the cost of their ingredients. A pastrami sandwich, for example, runs about 12 dollars here.

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I had a Terrapin brown ale just to start, some buffalo wings, a pastrami sandwich. The beer was really good. The wings were also really good, though the TMI sauce is hardly over the top – I doubt it was even as hot as Tabasco. I liked the huge chunks of carrot and celery with the wings and the decent size of the serving.

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The pastrami sandwich had great meat, great cheese. The inside of the sandwich had no issues at all. The outside of the sandwich needs work. It’s a pretty soft bread, that 19th century style rye, and it isn’t hardy enough to handle this sandwich. It needs a roll, for sure, because the sandwich falls apart when you try to eat it all. Given the cost of their sandwiches, they should put as much effort into getting good bread as they do good meats. I’d love to see what Summit sandwiches would look like on an Alon’s sandwich roll.

Verdict: Enormous beer selection. Decent eats. Highly Recommended.

Summit’s Wayside Tavern
3334-A Stone Mountain Highway (Highway 78)
Snellville, GA 30078
(770) 736-1333

Summits Wayside Tavern on Urbanspoon

Location: Summit’s is in a low lying building a block before the Highpoint Road – Highway 78 intersection while heading east on 78. While there isn’t much up-front parking, there is plenty in the back of the building.

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