Elite Event: Summer Brewing at Max Lager’s

Great beer, food & fun with Kathleen! Unilocalers are the best. Games were fun and everyone seemed to be getting into them. Band nice touch to the atmosphere. And free tour by the brewmaster was an experience. Staff both behind the bar and on the floor fantastic.
Split a dinner with my husband at the end of the evening. Great way to end the event.
Have so enjoyed all the events Kathleen has orchestrated. She will be missed but wish her the best!

This was a great Unilocal event downtown. One of my favorite parts of this event was going to Max Lager’s for the first time. We were in the upstairs of the restaurant. There is a gorgeous bar and great atmosphere up there.
I really enjoyed just spending time at Max Lager’s chatting with people. The beer was fantastic as was the food. I have to say the crab cakes were definitely my favorite. They had tons of food on the buffet and also had waiters walking around with appetizers and such.
In a second room there were a bunch of games you could play to win a free pint glass. We played the ring toss game which was HARD. Seriously HARD. I didn’t win anything (because clearly if you cannot get one ring around a pin getting 4 or 5 of them is out of the question), but it was still fun. They also had tours of the brewery side of the restaurant that you could take.
Thanks to Kathleen for a fabulous event!!! You have never put on an event that wasn’t just perfect from start to finish. All the best to you in your new endeavors :)

This place was great and the event was very fun. Great food and beer (shout out to the beer lemonade mix… I can’t remember the name of it). Everyone was competitive, especially for those pint glasses!
I had no clue they had an upstairs place that is nice for private events. The staff was obviously on hand and were very great and personable. They even lowered the score for us to win the pint glasses lol. my boyfriend claimed he was the ultimate champion of the glass because he won at the previous point value required to win lol.
This probably would have been more fun if this wasn’t Kathleen’s last event. I guess all good things have to come to an end. Thank you so much Kathleen for making this event awesome and thanks for all of your hard work.
#Yelp100

This would have been even more of a smile fest had it not also been The Empress’s last official Unilocal event as community director. Lots of friends, plenty of food and drink, great service front he staff, really nice space, great location. When I move ITP I can definitely see my self spending some time at Max Lager’s.
Thanks again to Kathleen and Melanie for all their hard work in providing us with yet another awesome event to attend.

This was a very special Unilocal Elite Event: ATL edition, as it was to be our very own Empress’s last as reigning community manager of Unilocal Atlanta. And she went out in style with this event, yes she did.
Max Lager’s did a great job. My plus one and I arrived around 6:30 because it was a Friday afternoon in Atlanta, and you know what traffic is like — especially going downtown, but the party was in full swing by then.
The restaurant looks exactly like a micro-​brewery should: big brick building, exposed rough wood floors and walls inside, about 5,000 different beers on tap (with at least two bars serving up all the time), and a fraction of their micro-​brewing equipment upstairs so you could see where the magic happened.
Our shindig was taking place on the second floor of Max Lager’s so we had the whole place to ourselves, which was a good thing, as the Elites turned out in force for Kathleen’s swan song.
In addition to 5 different types of beer to try compliments of the house, the spread of nibblies was impressive: chorizo empanadas (a great new twist on a classic snack), mushrooms stuffed with spinach and artichokes, BBQ pork sliders, steak skewers, crab cakes, a cheese plate, a veggie tray and these little phyllo dough purses stuffed with a combination of chicken and spiced cheese. Everything was very tasty — and I swear, although every Elite Event says only light snacks will be provided, I always leave feeling stuffed and as if I’ve had quite a full meal.
During the course of the evening, we saw games like giant Jenga, ring toss, and corn holing, a live musician set up halfway through, and they were also offering mini tours throughout the evening showing the brewing process for their beers. Pretty cool. Pretty darn cool.
Well done Empress, and well done Max Lager’s for hosting such a great event. It was really a treat to be a part of, and I hope although Kathleen is leaving Unilocal that we’ll still see her around the UYEs, the Elite parties and in all parts in between.

This was a bittersweet Unilocal event as it was Kathleen’s final event as Unilocal Atlanta’s Community Director. She made a brief and tearful going away speech and encouraged us to embrace the next Community Manager, whomever it may be. Even though she made her announcement 10 days prior to the event (
), it didn’t really hit me until the event that we would be losing our Empress.
Max Lager’s was kind enough to let us take over the entire second floor and patio of their property on a Friday night. Upon check-​in, we were handed beer tasting glasses with three beer tasting tickets, one raffle ticket (for $ 50 gift cards to Max Lager’s), and a pamphlet on the brewery’s beer-​making process. A buffet spread included foods such as buttermilk biscuit BBQ pork sliders, spinach and artichoke-​stuffed mushrooms, chorizo-​filled empanadas, and a veggie and cheese plate. Servers walked around with fresh batches of crap cakes and marinated beef skewers. And of course, the bar was open for beer sampling. I enjoyed the savory sliders and smoky skewers the most.
The first 30 (40, 50? I don’t remember) of us had the opportunity to take a free tour of the brewery. One section of the floor had a live band and carnival games including giant Jenga and (free) ring toss. If you scored 100 points on ring toss, you got a free Max Lager’s branded beer glass. Only one or two folks were able to score 100 points. Later in the evening, the prize requirement was reduced to tossing one ring on the bottle worth 60 points. Several people won this challenge. At the end of the night, the rest of the beer glasses were handed out just for trying.
Big thanks to the folks at Max Lager’s for hosting our party, Unilocal intern Melanie W. for assisting, and Brittany Wages and Jang C. for the excellent quality photos.
Finally, a big thank you to Kathleen for organizing one final, fun shindig. It was a spectacular run. If anyone wants to salute Kathleen and/​or read about all the hard work she’s put in over the past 4.5 years, please check out the «The Unilocal Empress» page:
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«Are you Unilocaling again?» Is the question I get asked the most. It is sometimes immediately followed by the second most asked question, «How much are you getting paid for that?» At first I would just shrug, but lately I just tell them about the latest Unilocal Elite event!
Summer Brewing at Max Lager was yet another awesome event that really made all those long hours of slaving over a keyboard typing out reviews worth it.
Max Lager did an excellent job of providing a great environment for us. The food was perfect for walking around with, and it was kept up well for the entire event. The upstairs was casual and comfortable. The staff here provided exceptional service all night.
Now on to the beer! Max Lager’s Brewery puts out some mighty good beer, and we were given tickets to try all of the handcrafted brews.
(Yelp tip: It helps if your «plus one» doesn’t drink too much and gives you all their tickets!) I had a chance to try the pilsner, which was light and fresh, the red lager which was deep and finished really well, and my favorite, the Hopsecutioner IPA. The IPA was hoppy, clean, and really balanced. At 8.5%, that’s where I spent most of my little yellow tickets.
Games were set up carnival style and after at least a dozen tries I finally won in the ring toss game. I am sure if anyone was watching my victory dance, they would have thought I won a gold medal at the Olympics, but it was just a Max Lager glass. Close enough.
Near the end of the event we discovered the outdoor patio which was a perfect setting for having that last beer at sunset.
The only down side to the entire evening was that this was Kathleen’s last event. She is as important to these events as the food, drink and music! Thanks Kathleen for bringing so much to Atlanta’s Unilocal community!
So another incredible Unilocal event is entered in the record book! Can’t wait for the next one!
So from now on when they ask
«How much are you getting paid for Unilocaling?»
I will simply put on my red Unilocal shades and hold up a sign that says …
«Will work for food, beer, and fun!»

Free beer, bites, brewery tour, live band, great venue, games, socializing, … Kathleen never fails to make the Elites feel special :)
Max Lagers has a great upstairs for private events — one side of the floor for eating & drinking, and then more space on the opposite end for live music, games, and more mingling. They had a decent spread of food — my favorites were the pulled pork sliders and crabcakes … looks like I missed out on the beef skewers. But what wow’d me the most was the service — bartenders and servers were all super nice. Even the valet guys at White Oak Kitchen were fun to talk to while I waited for my car — they got a nice orientation from me on «what is Unilocal» after asking what kind of event was going on.
Another highlight for me was the big group picture — we should do this more often so everyone gets captured in at least one photo. I loved our group picture esp. to have Kathleen in the center :) Thanks again Kathleen for all your hard work to build the Unilocal Atlanta community to what it is today. You have a lot to be proud of, and we are proud to be part of what you built :)

I had been to Max Lager’s in the past for another group event and was totally underwhelmed. I don’t know if it was the different menu choices or just the energy of the elites, but I definitely enjoyed it much better this time.
Elites took over the upstairs. There was tasty food– pulled pork on buttermilk biscuits, chorizo empanadas, beef on a stick, mini crab cakes and a wonderful cheese platter (though there were no crackers). There were a handful of beers to choose from and my companion was happy. It would have been nice to offer a non-​beer option to non-​beer drinkers, but I had to pay for it myself.
The band was great. The games were fun. And everyone was just generally happy to be there. Great energy!
Thanks, Kathleen, for an awesome farewell event. We will really miss you!

So I was going to give this event 1 star since this was Kathleen’s last Elite event. I mean, it’s her last one, so it wouldn’t matter to her performance review right? Well, I couldn’t do that. It was a classic Elite event: you had food, drinks, raffles, a band, a good venue, and games. So I had to give it 5 stars.
Speaking of games, I won a pint glass by throwing the rings around the beer bottles. Eventually, everyone got one. But that carnival game atmosphere was pretty fun.
Of course, Kathleen brought her life-​sized Jenga game back from the Margaret Mitchell House. Although I have heard from people they beat Jenga. Maybe it was because people were playing it half sized.
Well, it’s going to feel weird not having Kathleen as the CM. I mean she was here for my first one waaay back at South City Kitchen Event on March of 2009. Then again, I didn’t get to really meet her until the Unilocal Gets Hot Hot Hot at Cypress event where she brought her dog.
Then I remember her going all out with the costumes. I remember her Mrs. Clause outfit at Sushi with Santa Unilocal Elite Event. And of course, her Southern Belle outfit couldn’t be missed at the Margaret Mitchell House in FYLA Event.
She threw some wild parties like the Masquerade, Unilocal-​o-​ween, and Unilocal’s Gilded Age at the Gold room. Those crazy parties are always my favorites. I love it when Unilocalers dance, get drunk, and do stuff they’re not supposed to – like go to Urbanspoon for restaurant suggestions.
She also threw some posh ones like The Unilocalies, where Unilocalers actually wore nice stuff; GenerousPour at Capital Grille; and An Evening in Casablanca at Imperial Fez.
Well, I don’t know what’s going to happen now. The new CM has a hard act to follow. That new CM better be good. I’ll SYOY, Kathleen.