Review: Nashville Hot Shrimp from Belly Up Brew Pub in Fredericksburg, TX

Bottom Line: The Nashville Hot Shrimp from Belly Up Brew Pub in Fredericksburg, TX delivers on the flavor and heat, and they have some excellent beers to pair with it and their other menu items.

There are plenty of breweries in and around the Fredericksburg area, including the longstanding Fredericksburg Brewery on the main strip (which claims to be the oldest operating brewpub in the state), Altstadt Brewery just outside of downtown, and the more recently arrived Ogle Brewery, which is part of Arch Ray Resort. And there are also several biergartens in town where you can find a good selection of food and suds to choose from. But next time you are in the area, I recommend going just off the strip where you can find the up-and-coming Belly Up Brew Pub.

That place, which is located one block off Main St. on S. Llano St., has been there for two years (though I only just discovered it), and they are brewing a nice selection of beers and serving those with a menu of “Artisan Bar Bites.” That might sound a little high-falutin’, but they have some darn good food there and at a reasonable price. One of the items that stood out to me on the menu was the Nashville Hot Shrimp, which is described as “grilled shrimp tossed in a Nashville hot sauce and accompanied with warm ciabatta and cilantro pesto dipping sauce.” It is on the appetizer menu, but it is a meal in itself, and it proved to deliver a nice kick.

The shrimp are nice and plump and well grilled so that they are perfectly tender. And there is none of the iodine taste that you sometimes get with these shellfish, indicating that they are serving a fresh product. These are not breaded and fried as is typical with Nashville Hot, but that is all for the better. The sauce has a bold, peppery taste with a nice sweetness to balance out the heat. That stuff alone I could put on just about anything and it would turn out quite tasty, and it pairs perfectly with the shrimp. The cilantro dipping sauce is heavy on that herb with a nice creaminess, and apparently you are supposed to spread it on their crusty ciabatta and eat the shrimp on top of that. It worked out okay that way, but I preferred the shrimp by itself, and I kept the sauce and bread on the side.

As for the heat, that shrimp definitely has a kick! Eaten by itself, I would put it at least Medium on my scale, if not a bit higher. With the bread and sauce, it gets tempered to between Mild and Medium. And while it may not set your mouth on fire, the blend of savory, sweet, and heat with the perfectly cooked shrimp hits that ideal spot I am always looking for where fire meets flavor.

We also got their queso and salsa, which worked quite well next to the shrimp. The queso was nice and creamy and full of flavor, while the salsa was rich and tomatoey, and both went well with the crispy tortilla chips they had on the side (those were also good with that cilantro sauce). It was chilly and raining outside, so I also got a cup of their beefy chili, and that proved quite comforting. It did not have a lot of heat, spice-wise, but it was well seasoned and full of flavor.

As for their brews, I got a flight and sampled a couple of others, and I really enjoyed each one that I tried. This is not really a brewery-snob type of place, as their beers are very approachable, but they are all full in flavor. The Peach Wheat is not too fruity, drawing just enough flavor from that Fredericksburg staple to give their refreshing wheat beer a nice accent. The Send It! Double IPA is rich and full flavored but not overly complex and daunting like this style can be at some places. The Gunga Galunga Double Dry Hopped West Coast IPA is a mouthful of a name, but a very enjoyable beer. It has good bitterness and hops but does not overwhelm. And the refreshing Wise Guy Blood Orange Wheat Ale may remind you of Blue Moon, but they infuse it with Texas freshness.

We only stumbled upon this place because we happened to be looking for parking off the strip, but it is now on the list as a regular stop when we come to town. They have several more beers on the menu and a nice selection of food to choose from, but I know that the Nashville Hot Shrimp and Double IPA will always be part of my order. And the nice thing is that there is a fair amount of parking close by on S. Llano St. and E. San Antonio St., so you won’t have to walk far. And while there are plenty of other places you can get good beer and good food in Fredericksburg, this relatively new entry in town is one that you should definitely stop by as well.

Belly Up Brew Pub
Phone: (830) 383-1233
Website: https://www.bellyupbrewpub.com/

207 S. Llano St
Fredericksburg, TX 78624