The beer scene has exploded in Richmond and it has arguably become the top beer destination in the world. With new breweries popping up all the time and home brewing becoming more and more popular, its become part of the Richmond experience. One of the things I love most about Richmond is how family friendly it is, and breweries here are no exception. As a skilled beer taster and average-at-best home brewer with a 3 year old, I have listed below my favorite family friendly breweries. Note that some breweries are excluded from the list solely because I haven’t yet visited them, so I’ll continue to update as I do, but also feel free to reach out and add recommendations or reviews!
Hardywood West Creek: While I love the original location near Scott’s Addition, the West Creek location has much more room for kids to run, and is no where near any busy streets. There’s a lot of space inside and out, along with games such as cornhole and bocce ball. I realize these are typical drinking games, but they’re also easy to play games that kids seem to enjoy just as much as adults. There is a decent sized lawn area where families frequently spread blankets or set up chairs and hang out while the kids and dogs run around having fun. By law no breweries can sell food, but Hardywood has at least 1 food truck on weekends and even some week days, which makes it easy to grab some food if anyone gets hungry.
Strangeways: This brewery not only has a spacious back room with pinball machines, multiple board games, and both indoor and outdoor seating, but they offer juice boxes (organic!) and snacks for kids. For FREE! You can pay a little bit and get some more premium snacks, for adults or children, but for no fee at all you can get always some juice and some goldfish. Occasionally the back room area is rented out for private events, so that makes the inside area a little smaller, but as long as the weather is decent, there’s more seating outside.
Triple Crossing – Fulton: While this brewery does not have quite as much room outside as Hardywood West Creek, it does have a lot of space inside and some pinball machines in a separate room. There are also some picnic tables outside, and a little bit of grassy area for dogs and kids. The inside is pretty open too, even with the tables, and has high ceilings and is pretty loud, so a screaming child does not immediately draw all the attention in the room. The food is relatively kid friendly, with amazing thin crust pizzas, which my daughter looooooves. The separate room was somewhat under construction when I was there last, so I’m not sure what it will be ultimately, but at the time it was big and open and my daughter simply ran in circles and loved it.
Lickinghole Creek: This brewery has 290 acres of land and tons of open space! They have a playground area too, with fun things for kids of almost any age. My only complaint is that there is almost no trees and consequently no shade, so on a hot summer day, it can be a little intense. In the past, they’ve set up tents over the tables, and have fans running full blast, which helped a ton, but I still had to make sure I was armed with lots of water and sunscreen for the kids. That being said, the beer is really good, they have a really nice indoor bathroom which is air conditioned, and again, lots and lots of space. Plus there are food trucks and live music on the weekends!
Fine Creek Brewing: This brewery is tucked in the woods just off Huguenot Trail and has so much to offer, for all types of weather too. On chillier or rainy days, there’s tables and couches inside and a few fireplaces to cozy up to, and there is also a big covered outdoor porch, which also has a fireplace if you want to enjoy the fresh air and don’t mind a little chill. On nice sunny days though, this place is gorgeous and has a big lawn area with lots of games, picnic tables, and a fire pit. The menu has a lot of good options and there is almost always live music. They do occasionally have weddings here, so its worth checking their website before making the drive out since it is a little bit further away.
Kindred Spirits: This brewery recently added a nice outdoor porch area that offers quite a bit of outdoor seating when its nice out. They also frequently have a food truck, but always have free popcorn available for adults and children alike. The indoor area is pretty big, and there’s a back room that’s really open and you can even play cornhole inside. They also have some couches and a lot of board games to keep little ones busy. There also regularly have live music, and various fun events on the weekends, so its worth checking out their calendar!
Center of the Universe: One of the few breweries north of the city, this one sits in the back of an otherwise nondescript industrial park. It has a really nice outdoor area with picnic tables and often have live music on the weekends. There is usually a food truck as well and a decent amount of indoor space. The staff is all really nice and accommodating, getting water for the kids when they were thirsty. They didn’t have any specific kid stuff like some of the other places, but the outside area did provide a lot of shade, and room to set up your own kid friendly picnic to live music and good beer on a nice day.
Is there a Richmond brewery you love not listed above? Let us know! We’re always looking for more recommendations!