Hey all! I realized I never replied with what happened on the trip so here is our experience.
Day 1) Went to firewater. The taplist was decent, but the service was horrible. Sat at the bar for close to a half hour. The one time we talked to a bartender in that time, we told him we'd like to do a flight, and told us that we'd have to wait (very rudely)- and then walked away. In another 15 minutes or so another bartender came over and got us a flight after another group of patrons pointed him over to us, telling him we'd been waiting forever and were getting ignored. Shame - the place had good beer.
For dinner we went to Tun Tavern, which was awesome. It's definitely a must go - the food was great, and they had one of the best wit's I've ever tasted. I ended up snagging a growler of it to keep in our hotel fridge for the rest of the week.
Day 2) Went to Harry's Oyster bar for dinner. Honestly this place was awesome for the food. Their oyster po'boy was excellent. They had a good enough selection of micro and craft beers to make dinner awesome. I think one could exhaust the list pretty rapidly though. The service was great. Only downside is the raw bar stuff was a touch expensive. If you like the smell of fresh fish and sea water, just being inside of the restaurant is a treat.
Day 3) We went to Trinity Irish pub for dinner in the market. This is probably the only place I left tipsy. The bartender lit up when he realized we weren't your average beer drinkers and we ended up discussing beer for a majority of our meal. They had an awesome chicken reuben, which went great with a flight of beer. THey have their taps split up into Americans (mostly macros with some smaller guys), Irish beers, and then a tower of assorted micros/crafts. Great place!
Didn't get to stop by boardwalk biergarten, but their beer list was ok. Not super extensive, but nothing in AC was. Can't comment on the food or service.
Also, the bartender at Trinity recommended "Irish Pub" and Ducktown Tavern as great local places for beer.
There are some really good beer stops if you're not expecting a 10 page bottle list and a 2 page draft list, and all of them have great food. Everyone accepts reservations for the most part.
Thanks again everyone for your help!!