Here is something that the folks who live up on the Boise Bench near the corner of Ustick and Cole probably would rather I not tell you: Sockeye Grill and Brewery is a pretty nice little neighborhood joint.

Even if they’ve never been to the restaurant, Boise beer drinkers are well aware of Sockeye’s premier brew, Dagger Falls IPA. It has become all but ubiquitous on taps around the Treasure Valley, and I for one couldn’t be happier about that. It’s one of the hoppiest, most bracing beers around, and this is a hoppy and bracing time for beers.

I’d always heard mixed things about the food at Sockeye, which opened in 2002. My hunch, though, was that as the beer making has been perfected here, the grub was sure to follow — or at least to improve.

I have been pleasantly surprised. This is very much a pub, with run-of-the-mill pub décor and pretty straightforward pub fare. But it has pub prices, too — and that’s more than can be said for some places in town that may have more expensive images of themselves than the rest of us. Here you can get a charbroiled coho salmon filet for $12.75 or a chipotle burger with blue cheese and bacon for $9.25.

Sockeye calls its dinner portions keg-sized meals, and those we tried lived up to the billing. The bratwurst dinner ($11.75) came with soup or salad, garlic mashed potatoes and two thick sausages on a bed of sauerkraut. My friend who ordered it gave me a full half of one of his brats and was still holding his stomach by the end. I ate all the batter-fried chicken breast pieces that came with the $10 chicken dinner (a full half-pound of poultry, according to the menu), though I left most of my fries untouched. (In my defense, I had also eaten half of a brat.)

The “brewhouse wings” were $5 for an appetizer size, and I put them in quotes because they weren’t wings at all, but boneless chicken breast tenders flavored with barbecue, teriyaki or hot sauce. I tend to love gnawing on wings, but if the bones bug you, these are a close approximation.

I had a great crispy chipotle chicken sandwich ($9.50) for lunch one day. The tender and juicy breast hung over the roll and held up to the blue cheese, bacon and mayo flavored with spicy chipotle jalapenos. The Swiss dip ($8.75) was a surprisingly moist, Swiss cheese-covered version of the French dip (a sandwich I generally don’t like because it’s so often too dry and too bland).

Sockeye is not an undiscovered secret. The bar side was busy when I was there for lunch and crazy-packed when I brought folks for dinner. They have live music on Tuesdays and Fridays, and when we were there for dinner the only table in the bar we could get for four was just feet away from where the band was setting up — and that made us nervous. I’ve been forced out of a place by overbearing music (and, in the interest of full disclosure, been in a band that played so loudly it forced people out), but it was clear the folks at Sockeye have thought this through. The acoustic duo that played that night fit nicely into the already boisterous atmosphere. (I think everybody knew the words to every song they covered.)

And that atmosphere is boisterous in large part because of what Sockeye truly does best: the beer. The brewery is moving ahead with plans to build a new Boise brewing facility that will nearly triple the amount of Hells Diver Pale ale, Woolybugger Wheat and Angel’s Perch Amber that Sockeye produces.

For my money, the small-batch craft beers they’re making at Sockeye and the Outlaw IPA and other beers coming out of Garden City’s new and growing Payette Brewing Company are some of the best in the Northwest right now.

Just thinking about three times the amount of Dagger Falls is making me a little bit thirsty.

Email Greg Hahn: scene@idahostatesman.com