Not Ranked - largely because they are in too large of cities: Falling Rock Tap House (Denver, 2019-20), NYKS (Montreal - 2019-20), Bar Hop Brewco (Toronto, 2017, 2019-20), Clark Street Ale House (Chicago, 2022-25),
Gatsby's is the type of place where you can overhear talk radio style sports debates happening live around a table of big brews. That's a good thing by the way. That's life in middle America, which a suburb of Indianapolis rightly fits into. There will be a few places that meet that middle america standard coming up, and truly it is my time in these places that makes me feel that I am myself a bit well adjusted. Anyway, back to Gatsby's - what they do have is a really nice, if short, local beer selection - usually 2-3 IPAs and 2-3 stouts (and some other stuff) from local Indiana breweries. Also, they have some amazing fries. Food won't matter a whole lot here, but it still helps. It's grimy and grungy in a way most of these places aren't, but still is worth a visit if you for some reason find yourself in Northwest Indianapolis.
9.) One Eyed Betty's (Southfield, MI - 2019)
This was like 10% less grimy than Gatsby's, and therefore is higher up. Also my love of various Michigan craft beers is, rightly so, higher than the same for Indiana. The food was really nothing special, same with the overly bright decor, but the beer was great. They served really a whole mix of Michigan beers. Nothing fancy, nothing special, just straight good, craft, local beer.
8.) Knuckleheads (Wallingfort, CT - 2017-18)
Can griminess work in your favor? If so, Knuckleheads is a class among itself really. It was a small place, that did have some amazing wings. The most notable really was that the people inhabiting it were, so to say, knuckleheads. You wouldn't think Connecticut is the heart of "knucklehead" country, but so is the random outposts of Route 15. They had like 10-12 craft brews, all fairly local. Again, some excellent food. They also had really nice, loud, heavy, metal music which set a nice tone. It was still grimy, so can't move it too much higher, but it was a really nice spot.
7.) Griffin Pub (Battle Creek, MI - 2013-14)
This was my first beer spot I went to as a consultant. It was a cold, snowy, way less than zero degree day in Battle Creek, and a few blocks down from the Kellogg's HQ was Griffin Pub. What I learned there was a crucial lesson: what a Midwest beer pour looked like. The normal pour was giant - basically in an effort to warm you up to brave the cold (my theory, at least). Griffin had only Michigan brews, which as mentioned are super plentiful. I have no idea if they have food to be honest, but I was young enough that the food aspect wasn't really a thing back then.
6.) OL Beershop (Walnut Creek, CA - 2017-18)
If OL was open later, it may have ranked in the Top-3. Like most California (Bay Area) type places, it closed at 12 - there is just no real late night scene in the PST. The place was a true bottle shop, with hundreds of bottles, and a dozen or so taps - mostly California but also from all over the world. They had, as you would expect in California, super intelligent, verbose, interesting bartenders that could recommend beers for days. Is that what you want in this type of place? Unclear, but it added to a great setup. They didn't have food (another reason why it isn't higher - truly their beer alone was amazing), and neither did the town at large, as Walnut Creek was a super posh suburb. Glad then within its hoity confines laid a pretty damn cool place.
5.) La Biererie (Lamanon, France - 2018)
This is almost cheating, because yeah, this is France. But Lamanon is a nothing town, not one anyone should visit. Of course it's beautiful in its own right, but so are like 50 other places in France. But what Lamanon had was a bar tucked in a corner of an alley with like 5-6 taps, none standard beer. It was craft stuff (as far as I could tell). Unlike most places in this ranking, the place was more a general bar than a beer bar (despite its name). But the beer it had was great, and from the porch in front of the bar, you saw the glimpses of the local Lamanon castle in the background... so yeah, Europe!
4.) The Raleigh Times (Raleigh, NC - 2019-20)
The beer part of the equation makes up roughly 75-80% here, with the rest being the food. If it was closer to 50/50, the Raleigh Times may be higher. I remember they had some really interesting food options - from curries to jumbalayas to so much more. Anyway, as mentioned the food isn't as important, let's focus on the drinks. They had a really nice tap list from around the Southeast - from Virginia, though a lot of the Carolinas, through Georgia. They didn't beat your head with this as a theme, it was just... there...
3.) Magerk's Horsham (Horsham, PA - 2018)
Horsham honestly maybe didn't deserve such a nice place. Magerks is a chain - granted the only one I've been to is the Horsham location. It was large, it had a giant bar in the middle with about 40 taps, of which 25 were craft, nearly all from Pennsylvania. It was an amazing spot tjat also would show any sport, and had decent food. It was a bit corporate, in that every week inevitably one night would be taken up by some corporate function, but the nights that didn't have one, it was pure magic. I'll say this, the Top-4 and the Bottom-6 of this ranking has a fairly clear delineation. Magerks is in the high end of that, and again, if you teleport the place to New York, it might be higher.
2.) Hop Scholar Ale House (Spring, TX - 2018-19, 2022)
I've long extolled Hop Scholar. I have no idea how this gem exists - you take a pliace like Spring, a good 45-minutes from downtown Houston, and you add about 20 taps, all interesting, and some amazing food (like gyro fries, 4-5 types of gourmet dogs, and more) and you get a truly perfect place. They also had a great vibe. Out of all thje places on the list, I got to know the bartenders at Hop Scholar more than any other place - they were just curious about the life of everyone who ventured in. Let's not overstate the beer - despite Texas, with its hot weather, not being a place you would expect Stouts to thrive, Hope Scholar always had a great set of those. It just had great beer period. It was an incredible place, especially given the project I was there for I was there solo.
1.) The Moose & Firkin (Vaughan, Canada - 2017, 2019-20)
I don't know why nothing will top this. Maybe it is becase this spans both the companies I've worked for, with somehow clients at these two different companies being serendipitously in the same Toronto suburb. The Moose and Firkin is an English Pub in style, but it is great because it has a great set of local brews and os much atmosphere. It is always crowded - granted, I have no idea who these people are. Apparently Vaughan is a fairly popuilated suburb. This place also has really nice pub food - if anything, better than a standard UK pub. As they don't say - "Experiences Makes the Heart Grown Fonder" - and god Damn have I experienced the Moose and Firkin a lot over the years, and always a good time.
