Augie’s Mussel House and Beer Garden Wowed Us

Last Friday, Miles and I were lucky enough to score an invitation to the soft opening of Augie’s Mussel House and Beer Garden (or, as it will be known to locals: Augie’s). Historic Old Town, Alexandria’s latest restaurant did not disappoint!

We never get our hopes up at a soft opening. New places have so many to work out when they’re born. But we gotta tell ya, you’d think Augie’s has been around forever! Food is great. Service is great.

Kalen was our server. He was very knowledgeable about the place and the menu, and confident with his recommendations.

Ya know what else is great at Augie’s? The space. The decor. The vibe. Augie’s has undergone extensive renovations to create a cohesive indoor and outdoor meeting place with exposed brick, great lighting, and signs that honor the neighborhood.

The space really comes alive with an open yet private concept between the indoors and the beer garden.

The decor is thoughtful. A nod to local culture and neighbors. The bar, for example, is made of broken beer bottles drank at one of Augie’s sister restaurants, Mason Social. They invited regulars to come for Yuenglings then smashed the glass to ultimately create artful base to the indoor bars.

And I imagine the men’s room will become the most Instagramed loo in Old Town. lol.

And speaking of Instagram, I’ve never been to a resturant with more people wandering about taking photos. Very instagramable indeed!

Let’s talk about the outdoors for a second. What they’ve done with the space is fantastic. The bars. The lighting. The heat lamps. The furniture. And they’ve got these huge picnic benches that call to you to invite friends to meet you for an evening of merriment. Then there’s three huge TVs outside. Plus more that you can see from the bar.

Ideal for game day? We think so! Plus they’ve got these yummy Steak and Cheese egg rolls that are fun to share.

Since Augie’s is Old Town’s newest restaurant we thought we should chat about the food. They describe the menu as “traditional Belgium cuisine with a modern twist.” The menu really is diverse enough that if you had a big group everyone would find something they wanted!

We shared quite a few dishes food to get a good sampling we could write about. Everything was really good! We knew that we were getting mussels. It is Augie’s *Mussel* House and Beer Garden after all. We tried Classic and the Eastern Shore. Both were great!

We got frites to compliment the mussels. They came with three unique dipping sauces and were pretty darn tasty. Plus we love to soak them in the sauce from the mussels! Delicious.

For drinks Miles got beer and I had cava. That’s actually my only complaint is that there’s no house prosecco. lol.

Prosecco is my drink of choice with classic mussels. But when hanging in the beer garden his fall I’m looking forward to a few Zots. Zot is a Belgian beer brewed in Bruges where my family is from. So excited to have my favorite beer at such a great spot in Old Town.

Speaking of family, one of my Belgian cousins taught me the way they eat mussels in the motherland. It’s made me love eating mussels ever since. You use a shell as a utensil. It’s super fun!