Beast Craft BBQ and others in Belleville

Yesterday we decided on taking a day trip and ended up going to Belleville to check out Beast Craft BBQ which our nephew Andrew really likes.  It's also been getting glowing write ups in some area internet sites.
We got to Belleville sooner than I expected so we went to Hofbrauhaus to have a beer and check the place out.  It's kind of in the middle of nowhere and the entrance is facing away from the road but once we got inside:  Wow, what an awesome place.  It's setup along the lines as a german beer hall.  Two days of ham and beans gave me a great reason to visit the bathrooms and once again, wow.  The toilets each had there own little room with block walls, very nice and clean.  They did have an odor to them but that was probably caused by some guy that had ham and beans two days in a row.  We ordered a lager and a dunkel both of which were good but could have been colder.  The Glue saw a pretzel so we split a small pretzel and it was very good.  We will go back and eat there sometime.
One of the guys at the bar told me about some places where we can park and walk between them so we went to Copper Fire.  Really nice place with a long horseshoe shaped bar.  They had about ten beers on tap but none really jumped out at me so we both had the Boston Winter Lager.  Beer was good and cold and their menu had several items that sounded good.  The Glue wants to go back and try their wings.
We then walked across the street to Tavern on Main which looked like a couple buildings cobbled together.  I was disappointed they only had about six beers on tap which didn't seem right.  On a whim I asked the barmaid if that was all they had and she said no they have several more at the other bar and here was a waitress handing us a beer list.  I'm not sure how many taps they have but it's a lot.  We both settled on Breckinridge's Avalanche amber.  The bar had a ice ring on the inside of it to set your drinks on to keep them cold.  It would have worked much better if we had the normal pint glasses instead of ones with stems.  They also have an interesting menu and a place we will go back to.
The barmaid was a little hesitant in recommending the bar next to it but said we should be ok during the day so we went to Big Daddy's 618.  We should have paid more attention and just skipped going.  Basically a dive bar which doesn't bother us but there was nothing special about the place.  No draft beer and "nothing fancy" as the barmaid said.
We then went to Beast Craft and it was nothing like I expected starting with the building.  I expected newer and bigger but a lot of the best bbq is in old buildings.  We didn't realize you walked into the place and placed your order right away, also I expected a good variety of draft beer.  Once at the order station we both felt very rushed.  The waitress said to take our time but she seemed impatient.  We ordered burnt ends, pork belly and brussel sprouts and candied bacon.  Luckily I noticed they had Alaskan Amber when we walked in so we both went with that.  The service was fine but when we got our food it didn't seem like there was much there.  The two pieces of candied bacon were outstanding but 2 for $3.50 seemed steep.  The pork belly and brussel sprouts were real good for brussel sprouts but I didn't see any pork belly.  The Glue said she had some but they were very tiny.  The burnt ends weren't very good.  They seemed like cooked chuck roast.  No real smoke flavor and no sauce, just very plain.  All in all very disappointing and we should have gone to long time favorite Hicks.
On the way back we stopped at Lieferbrau for a beer but they were closed for their christmas party so we went across the street to Burnt Ends.  We both had an Off Duty from 4204 and while we were sitting there talking we mentioned burnt ends and the waitress said she thought they were coming off the smoker right then so we ordered some.  Night and day difference from Beast Craft, they were very good. 
I found out that the owner of Beast Craft used to cook with the food editor of Riverfront Times and she blew them up before they were even open which is how they got their rep.