In downtown Lexington nestled across the street from Rupp Arena, stands a restaurant filled with grins, pizza and craft beer. Unique style is the name of the game to this eatery, majoring in fresh ingredients, blasts of flavor and house-made items.

Pies and Pints has been featured on the Cooking Channel, Food Network Magazine, Huffington Post Food and much more. Not only are the pies creating chatter, their selection of craft beer creates regulars, with 35 taps including draft root beer.

The Lexington location at the Square downtown is the only one in the Bluegrass, but the chain spreads throughout West Virginia and Ohio, making eight locations and more coming.

Over the bar sits screens filled with descriptions of the beers and a meter describing how much of the tap is left–something unheard of in Lexington. House pies and specialty pies create the menu, like the Thai specialty pie made up of shrimp, toasted coconut, Thai curry sauce, lime, cilantro and basil, on top of provolone and mozzarella, on the house-made and hand-tossed dough.

The two house pies can be personalized with toppings or ordered original. The pizza pie is the classic mix of mozzarella, provolone and tomato sauce, but one can also choose its brother–the white pie. The white pie contains ricotta, mozzarella, provolone, parmesan, roasted garlic and fresh herbs. Both of the house pies are two great cheaper alternatives to the specialty.

Another interesting specialty pie – just one of 16 – is the vegetarian Black Bean made up of seasoned black beans, cheddar, jalapeños, salsa, cilantro and crème fraiche on top of the house made dough. The crusts of the pies are finished with roasted garlic oil and kosher salt.

Though they are known for their pizzas, the salads are not far behind; all dressings, croutons and focaccia bread are made in-house. Not only are the salads house-made, the New York Cheesecake and Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownie Terrine – alternating layers of brownie and peanut butter covered with chocolate ganache – are fresh.

As far as the appetizers go, the nachos are definitely notable (yes, great nachos at a pizza joint). The chips are pleasing and the salsa is freshly made – by far my favorite in Lexington.

As far as the atmosphere goes, the decor and dim lighting creates a great experience. From a date night to evening with friends, the Pies and Pints has you not wanting to leave.

If saving money is crucial part when dinning out, customers can do so by visiting Pies and Pints happy hour from 3 to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. With great atmosphere, excellent craft beer and even better pizza, this eatery is undeniably one to try.