Glad you guys are making the trip! I've been to the last 2 fights and had a great time.
I would recommend Good People Brewing for your daytime drinking. It's the oldest brewery in town (2008) and located across the street from the baseball stadium and the city's 19 acre downtown park. They usually have a food truck parked in front of their building too, but I'd recommend calling ahead to be sure.
Other breweries:
-Avondale (small inside bar, but very large outdoor space). Located on a neighborhood st with a lot of restaurants
-Trim Tab (slightly more artsy)
-Cahaba (just moved to cool, brand new space & has free skiball)
-Ghost Train (I haven't been there, but it's the newest brewery)
Here's some other places I'd recommend:
Restaurants:
-Uptown district (mostly chain places, but it's right next to the BJCC for convenience. Has Todd English Pub, Texas de Brazil, The Southern, Cantina Laredo, Mugshots, Your Pie, & Octane)
-Paramount (barcade with solid burgers)
-El Barrio (great mexican place with good margaritas)
-Bamboo on 2nd (sushi)
-Slice (pizza)
-Post Office Pies (pizza, next door to Avondale Brewery)
-Fancy's on 5th (burgers & oysters near Avondale Brewery)
-Melt (grilled cheese near Avondale Brewery)
-Five (american food
-5 Points Public House (gastropub)
-Babalu Tacos & Tapas
-Skycastle (gastropub)
-The Pizitz Food Hall (brand new concept downtown. Food Hall with 12 different restaurants. I hear it's opening this week so that's well timed for your visit. Here's the website:
http://www.thepizitz.com/food-hall/ )
-Hattie B's Hot Chicken (branch location of the popular Nashville restaurant)
-Jack Brown's (chain, but good burgers and beer)
Bars:
-J Clyde (huge craft beer selection)
-Black Market
-Blue Monkey (martini lounge)
-Carrigans (craft beer & craft cocktail place)
-Collins Bar (craft cocktails. You just tell the waiter what flavors you like in a cocktail and they make custom drinks)
-Atomic Lounge (just opened so I haven't been, but it's getting a lot of talk. Decor is a 1950s living room)
-Parkside (solid bar in the Avondale area)
-Pale Eddies
-The Marble Ring (speakeasy place in the Avondale area. You enter through a phone booth inside a hot dog restaurant)
-Dave's (hole in the wall bar in 5 points. Very casual place with a couple dart boards in the back)
-Garage Cafe (large patio with an eclectic collection of antique decorations. Cash only)
If you're looking for party bars:
-Tin Roof
-Innisfree
-Sidebar
-Nana Funks
That's probably way more info than you wanted! If you want more of fine dining type restaurants I can give you those too.
Hopefully this can be useful to those of you coming in town for the CUSA tournament as well.