Every pub kitchen has a benchmark dish. For Hillman Beer, two dishes carry the weight: the grass-fed burger and the Hillman Beer Reuben. The burger gets more attention; it’s the visual centerpiece, the Wednesday special, the thing people photograph. But regulars at both the Sweeten Creek Road taproom and the Old Fort location know the Reuben holds its own. It’s become a local staple for reasons that have nothing to do with novelty and everything to do with execution.
This piece covers what makes the Hillman Beer Reuben worth ordering, how it fits the broader Asheville brewery food guide landscape, and why pairing it with the right beer turns a good sandwich into a genuinely satisfying meal.
What Makes a Reuben Worth Eating
The Reuben is one of those sandwiches that looks straightforward on paper and fails constantly in practice. Corned beef or pastrami, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, Russian or Thousand Island dressing, rye bread. Grilled until the cheese melts and the bread develops color on both sides. That’s it. There’s no complexity to hide behind, which means every component has to work.
Most bar and pub Reubens fail at one of three points: the meat is pre-sliced deli protein with no real character, the sauerkraut is jarred and barely drained, so it soaks the bread, or the bread itself can’t handle the moisture load of the build and disintegrates before you reach the second half.
The Hillman Beer Reuben avoids those failures. The kitchen approach at Hillman house-made items, locally sourced ingredients, fresh daily preparation applies to the Reuben the same way it applies to the burger. The farm-to-table sourcing philosophy isn’t selectively applied to the hero dish and ignored for everything else. It runs through the whole menu.
The result is a Reuben that eats like a pub sandwich is supposed to: substantial, savory, with the right balance of fat and acid, served hot. It’s not a delicate plate. It doesn’t try to be.
How the Hillman Beer Reuben Became a Local Staple
Local staple status doesn’t come from marketing. It comes from repeat orders. When a dish shows up consistently on the table because the person sitting down already knows what they want, that’s the signal.
The Hillman Beer Reuben reached that status through the same mechanism as every other durable pub classic: it’s consistently good, it fits the setting, and the price reflects the value. Regulars at the Asheville taproom know to order it with a pint of the GABF Gold Medal ESB. That combination of corned beef, sauerkraut, and a balanced bitterness with biscuit malt is one of the better food-and-beer pairings the menu produces.
It also helps that the Hillman Beer Reuben occupies a different space on the menu than the burger. The burger is the thing you order when you’re hungry and want something grounding. The Reuben is the thing you order when you want a proper lunch, something that requires attention, something that rewards eating slowly. Both work. They serve different moods.
The pub-style brewery experience at Hillman is built around exactly this kind of choice: not a single signature item, but a tight menu where multiple dishes are worth returning for. The Hillman Beer Reuben is the clearest example of that outside the burger program.
The Components: What Goes Into a Reuben That Holds Up
Understanding why the Hillman Beer Reuben works means understanding what each component contributes to the final sandwich.
The Meat
Corned beef that’s worth eating has texture — not uniform, not uniform in the way machine-sliced deli meat is uniform, but with variation in how the fat renders and how the salt distributes through the cure. A properly cooked corned beef has some give when you bite through it and enough moisture to stay together when the sandwich compresses on the grill.
The Sauerkraut
The acid component of the Reuben is what makes the sandwich coherent. Without sauerkraut doing its job, providing tanginess that cuts through the fat of the meat and cheese, the sandwich collapses into a single note. Too much sauerkraut and it overwhelms; too little and the sandwich is just a grilled meat-and-cheese sandwich on rye.
The Cheese
Swiss cheese in a Reuben functions as a binder and a fat contributor. When it melts properly, with that slight pull, it holds the build together and smooths out the sharper edges of the sauerkraut and dressing. Under-melted cheese in a Reuben is one of the clearest signs that the grill time was rushed.
The Bread
Rye is non-negotiable in a Reuben worth eating. The earthy, slightly bitter character of rye complements the sauerkraut’s acidity and holds up to the moisture load better than softer bread. The exterior needs proper color and proper grill contact, not just warming to give you the contrast between the crisp outside and the soft interior.
The Dressing
Russian dressing (mayo, ketchup, horseradish, spices) provides a fatty, slightly sweet element that bridges the savory meat and the acidic kraut. The ratio between dressing and sauerkraut determines whether the sandwich reads as savory-sour or savory-sweet. A well-calibrated Reuben holds the two in tension rather than resolving into either direction.
Pairing the Hillman Beer Reuben with the Right Beer
The beer-and-food pairing logic at Hillman applies directly here. The Hillman Beer Reuben is a rich, savory sandwich with fat from the meat and cheese, acid from the sauerkraut and dressing, and the earthy character of rye running through it. Beer pairing should either complement that character or provide contrast against it.
ESB. The Hillman ESB is the right call. Biscuit malt character in the beer echoes the bread’s earthiness. Moderate bitterness provides contrast to the fat without clashing with the sauerkraut’s acidity. The dry finish resets the palate between bites, keeping the sandwich tasting fresh throughout. The ESB’s GABF Gold history reflects the balance that makes it a food beer first — it was designed to work alongside food, not to dominate the experience.
Amber ale. A slightly sweeter malt profile than the ESB, which plays well against the acidity of the sauerkraut. If the ESB isn’t on tap, an amber is the second choice.
Avoid heavily hopped IPAs. The resinous bitterness of a West Coast IPA clashes with sauerkraut’s sourness, making the dressing taste sweeter than it is. This combination doesn’t work. Save the IPA for the grass-fed burger or the fried components on the menu.
Pilsner or lager. If you’re working through a tasting flight and don’t want a pairing that competes with sampling other beers, a lighter lager alongside the Reuben works as a neutral palate backdrop. It doesn’t elevate the sandwich the way the ESB does, but it doesn’t fight it either.
The Reuben as Part of a Full Hillman Visit
The Hillman Beer Reuben doesn’t exist in isolation. It’s part of a kitchen program built on the same sourcing and preparation philosophy as the burger, the kale salad, and the rotating pub fare. Ordering the Reuben for the first time at Hillman is a reasonable way to understand what the kitchen does it’s a more technically demanding dish than the burger in some ways, because there’s less latitude to hide a sourcing or preparation shortcut.
The Hillman Asheville taproom on Sweeten Creek Road and the Old Fort location on Catawba Ave both carry the full menu. Kitchen hours run until 9 pm nightly at both locations. No reservations order at the bar, find a seat, and let the creek do the rest.
If you’re building an Asheville food itinerary around brewery kitchens, the Asheville brewery food guide and the food-and-beer pairing overview provide the broader context. The Hillman Beer Reuben fits into that picture as the secondary hero not the thing everyone talks about first, but the thing regulars keep coming back for.
Get in touch if you have questions about the current menu or what’s on tap before your visit.
FAQ
What makes the Hillman Beer Reuben different from a standard pub Reuben?
The kitchen approach. Hillman uses house-made components, locally sourced ingredients, and daily fresh preparation across the entire menu — including the Reuben. That means properly handled meat, well-drained sauerkraut, and bread that’s grilled correctly rather than just warmed. The result is a sandwich that tastes consistently good rather than varying from visit to visit.
What beer should I order with the Hillman Beer Reuben?
The ESB. Hillman’s GABF Gold Medal ESB pairs naturally with the Reuben — the biscuit malt echoes the rye bread, the moderate bitterness contrasts the fat, and the dry finish resets the palate between bites. Amber ale is a solid second option. Avoid heavily hopped IPAs with this sandwich.
Is the Hillman Beer Reuben a good option for a full meal?
Yes. It’s a substantial pub sandwich corned beef, Swiss, sauerkraut, Russian dressing on grilled rye sized and built for a proper lunch or dinner, not a side snack. Pair it with the ESB, and it functions as a complete, satisfying meal on its own.
