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| - This place is a gem. Oh, there are problems, sure enough; the foremost one being that they have waaaaayyy too many frou-frou, experimental beers on the card. Their smoked porter tastes like pureed smoked salmon. It's ghastly. The stout I tried a while back was insipid. Their forays into the realm of American-style lagers seem a pointless waste of microbrewing capacity. As others have said, the place is LOUD when it fills up. Hard to have a conversation in there on a Friday or Saturday evening. Damn, it's hard to get your coat off without jabbing someone in the eye.
What saves this place, and saves it big-time, is its skill at making India pale ales. Their IPAs have been uniformly excellent since I first tried them about four years ago. Bright, fresh flavors. Not even a hint of esteriness. Good mouth feel. And big, BIG, brutiful hops. If their cask beer of the moment happens to be an IPA, be assured that it's worth a very long walk indeed.
The kitchen's no slouch either, and that's a bonus. It's only got a basic nachos-and-sandwiches menu, but the simple sandwich options offered can be made into something truly delicious, and the bar staff seem to take their food preparation duties very seriously. A *hot* prosciutto, Emmenthal, and dijon mustard sandwich on a fresh roll, served with Miss Vickie's chips and sour dill pickle spears, and a couple of pints of their beautifully fresh, florid IPA? Why, I believe I could subsist on that.
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