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| - I came here on a Wednesday evening with colleagues for a work celebration, and the wait time was only 15 minutes. As soon as we entered this place, I was impressed by the expansive restaurant and high ceilings. You can choose to be seated on the first or second floor - we chose second floor for a bit of a quieter atmosphere. The ciders on tap at the bar are totally Instagrammable, and everything looks very clean, professional, and enticing.
Each of us ordered a flight deck of ciders (4 5oz pours for $6!). Make sure to call ahead if you want a specific cider, as three of them weren't available when we went! I got the Queen street 501 (traditional apple cider, semi sweet), the Stadium Island Peach, the Hawaii 5, and the Guest Tap. I absolutely loved the first two ciders, which were both semi-sweet and reminded me of drinking Somersby. The Hawaii 5 was totally disgusting - it tasted sort of like warm pineapple juice, but at that point I'd rather just drink regular juice. Finally, the Guest Tap was really a matter of controversy at our table - some of us loved the strong bodied taste, while I found it too boozy tasting for my liking. One sip in and I knew I wouldn't be able to finish it.
For food, I ordered the rigatoni without chorizo (server was able to add extra pasta and cheese to compensate for the lack of meat in my dish). What I loved most about the menu here is that each entree comes with advice for what cider pairing would go best with it! Though my rigatoni was pretty mediocre, I learned that it paired best with the mint&basil cider, and my server happily swapped out my Guest tap for the herbaceous mint&basil cider.
Overall, this place provides a really great space to catch up with friends or colleagues, while enjoying a slightly more upscale meal and expansive cider options! The only thing I would change next time is to order off their sharing platters (think tabouleh hummus, mussel frites, baked Brie, etc) rather than their entrees.
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