Fresh Colorado fare on tap at Ft. Collins brewpub

The scene: Colorado produces more beer than any other state, and Fort Collins is its epicenter of artisanal brewing, home to several craft breweries such as New Belgium (Fat Tire), Odell, Cooper Smith, and Fort Collins Brewery. All have great tours and tastings, but only Fort Collins Brewery has Gravity 1020, which may just be the best restaurant at any brewery in the country.

The beer theme is omnipresent at Gravity 1020, from the long bar down one side, complete with taps and a high-tech European automated growler filling dispenser, to the two glass walls with views onto the brewery production floor and its vast array of stainless steel tanks. It is a single large and modern room, with an upscale industrial feel featuring factory-style high ceilings and exposed pipes and duct work. Tables and chairs are sleek wood-and-metal combinations, either freestanding or in semi-circular booths. The restaurant's name refers to the ideal density of beer during fermentation, a specific gravity of 1.020, caused by the amount of sugar dissolved in the liquid. Coincidentally, 1020 is also the street address. The beer theme continues onto the creative menu, which incorporates the brewery's seven year-round varieties and seasonal specials into the cooking as much as possible. There is also a huge focus on local and farm-to-table ingredients, including a covered rooftop garden that provides produce year-round, and the restaurant doubles as a pick-up spot for 120 members of a Ft. Collins Community Supported Agriculture program.

Reason to visit: Bacon-wrapped pretzels, duck wings, pork-belly sandwiches, chicken and waffles, brewery floats

The food: Food is secondary at many in-brewery restaurants that typically serve up burgers, nachos and chicken wings. Gravity 1020 is a real restaurant, more diverse and creative than a typical brewery eatery, and the menu is driven by the ingredients, which the chefs choose carefully for the best quality. They use LoLo foods, a specialty distributor for regional Colorado farms, and Grant Family Farms, just 20 minutes away, supplies most of the meat and poultry, including grass-fed beef. The brewery sends leftover grain from production to local farmers who feed it to pigs and cows, some of which comes back full circle as meat.

Because of the dependence on Colorado farms, the menu changes often and seasonally, with more stews, roasts and soups in winter, and more fresh vegetables from spring to fall. "We're at about 95% local ingredients now," our waitress told us. "The lobster BLT was holding us back, but we got rid of it." Besides the rather lengthy normal menu, there is a daily "Farmer's Menu," based on whatever is fresh. The day I visited this included eggplant parmigiana and lamb-shank osso bucco. Almost everything is made from scratch, and the kitchen uses no frozen meats or vegetables or heat lamps, with every dish made to order. This love is apparent in both food quality and presentation.

A few dishes never change and the most beloved specialty is the bacon-wrapped pretzel appetizer. The soft pretzels are formed into sticks, rather than traditional bows, and accompanied by a soupy cheese dip and mustard made with the brewery's red ale. While decadent, it is a delicious balance of soft, warm, salty and smoky, and the dip and mustard are perfect accompaniments. The "High on the Hog" pork-belly sandwich is an entree, but comes as two large sliders, each on a brioche bun overflowing with a delicious porcine slab and adorned with arugula, peach mustard and shallot straws. It could be shared as a substantial appetizer. The chicken and waffles are tasty and another regular menu item, with three drumsticks atop malty waffles made from the spent grain of the 1900 Amber, served with spicy butter.

Since the menu changes often and is large, there were many tempting dishes I could not try, but everything I ordered was excellent and everything I saw looked wonderful. The main courses range from burgers (grass-fed beef, grass-fed lamb, black bean or buffalo) to maple-brined pork chops and pork loin braciole. Appetizers are equally varied, including a take on Quebecois poutine, spiced popcorn and a Colorado artisan cheese plate. Instead of typical chicken wings, they serve fried Colorado duck wings tossed in a sauce of the day. The salads are equally interesting -- I tried the three beets with gorgonzola and candied walnuts, and it was superb, another perfect balance of flavor and texture. There are some traditional pub specialties, such as fish and chips and bangers and mash. It is hard to go wrong here, and equally hard to choose. The full slate of beers is available, including a tasting selection of mini glasses, as well as reasonable wines by the glass, elaborate specialty cocktails, and locally made craft sodas in flavors as offbeat as cucumber and rhubarb. The house specialty is the brewery float, your choice of any draft beer topped with a scoop of house-made ice cream.

Pilgrimage-worthy?: Yes – the Fort Collins brewery tour crawl is one of the best on earth, partially connected by bike paths – with free loaner bikes – and this is the place to eat.

Rating: Yum! (Scale: Blah, OK, Mmmm, Yum!, OMG!)

Price: $$ ($ cheap, $$ moderate, $$$ expensive)

Details: 1020 East Lincoln Avenue, Ft. Collins; 970-682-2260; gravity1020.com/