The Reservoir / Big Tree Brewing Company

 

What I had: Shed Mountain Ale, Hill Farmstead Edward, Green Flash Hop Odyssey Black IPA, and Lawson’s Finest Spring Fever Session IPA on tap, Alchemist Heady Topper out of the can, Vermont Meatloaf Dinner, Pulled Pork Tacos and several Chimney Creek Sauvignon Blancs for the lady.
What I liked: Outstanding draught list, beautiful dark wood bar, extremely friendly service (bartender even bought us a round), tasty fare, beer-infused food menu, welcoming patrons. An absolute first class beer bar and restaurant.
What I disliked: On our second visit the place was so busy that we weren’t able to get seats, and the service suffered due to the craziness, but we still enjoyed our drinks.
Would I go back? Definitely.
Overall Rating: 88

After spending about a week in the Waterbury/Stowe/Burlington beer Mecca area, my brother who lives in Waterbury suggest this spot and an excellent little pub directly across the street. The tap selection is extensive and so is the can/bottle choices. Good quality pub food, but the real kicker was when I found out that this is actually "Big Tree" brewing! It started at this pub, and during my travels, hitting all of the top spots: Alchemist, Lawson's, BBC etc. The Big Tree and Barnum collaboration called Lotus IPA was my favorite brew pour for the entire week. Just a high time overall.

Nice place to eat with a killer tap list. Fairly loud and crowded for a Thursday at 5:30.the beer is the real star here with a tap list that rivals the blackback pub across the street. The food was ok I got the poutine which has never been a favorite of mine and this time was no exception. Service was great as was the beer. I’d come back to this place in a heartbeat.

Vibe was busy, noisy and everyone seemed to know each other. Clean, lots of wood, rustic and marker plates. Service was excellent. 37 draft craft beers available many of which were local. The list even included KBS. Excellent pub food. This place was our favorite on our Vermont Beercation.

 

 

 

 

As far as beer bars in Waterbury, it's this place, Blackback or the BlueStone are usually my 3 recommendations. Their beers are pretty good, the guest taps they get are pretty legit. Yes, to Heady, Focal, S.O.S. and Super Session, but be warned that they don't always keep a whole lot of it and will run out on those 4 beers I just mentioned. They do get a fair amount of rotating HF in here. Bands will come in and play in the evenings which make it a bit louder. I go back when I can when I'm in Waterbury.

Stopped by for dinner after a long drive over from Portland Maine today.

The Reservoir seems like a fairly small location, especially when you walk in and see the small front area and small bar. However, the back dining area and back bar are sizeable, which was a very good thing on the Saturday we stopped in (as the place was pretty much packed the entire time I/we was there). There's a nice informal, relaxed vibe to this place, with a couple of large, flat screen TV's over the bar area. This is great place to hang out with a couple of beer and a snack.

In terms of beer, the pub advertises 39 beers on tap, and based on what I saw on the menu, that seemed about right. the flip side also lists a number of bottle selections as well, but given what I saw on the taplsit, I gave it no more than passing glance. Selection was excellent, mostly focused on local breweries, and including multiple selections from HF and Lawson's. There was also the excellent bone-a-fide pale ale from Boneyard in Bend, which came as a complete shock to me. In any event, that gives you an idea how good the tap list is here. Luckily, there are all kinds of great places to grab a beer in Waterbury, or I'd likely spend all my time here.

In terms of service and food, both were also excellent. Our server was outstanding; she was quick, knowledgeable and engaging. When my wife asked for assistance in making a dinner choice (lot of excellent food options on the menu), she was quick and decisive, with no wish-washy vacillating. She recommended the house meatloaf, which as it turned out, was indeed excellent. I got the venison hunter's pie, which was also quite good. Portions were sizeable (my wife will be eating meatloaf for lunch again tomorrow), and the quality was across the board quite good (got the truffle fries as an appetizer, which were also very good).

This place was great. I only wish we had more time so we could stop by again (but alas, we're leaving after tomorrow). This place is recommended.

 

 

 

Of the big 3 must to do bars, i'd say this is the newest looking one, proper spacing, and a notable location. Easy to get to once you park somewhere, but the selection wasn't quite as strong as i'd liked.

 

 

 

A good place, the vibe is a bit boisterous when crowded. A little run-down and dusty due to constant crowds. Mix of beer tourists and locals. Food is pub style menu. Decent burgers, pretty varied selection. You should be able to find something you will like.

Beer list is good. Their house beers are decent, but with many other great selections its hard to order them first.

They offer flights of selected brews. Some of the best options are not part of the flight options. They update their taplist online pretty regularly.

Lots of options in the area for good beer and good food. This one is decent, but my choice only if I can't get a seat at BB, PP, etc.

 

 

 

An ENORMOUS tap list of Hill, Lawsons, Fiddlehead, Lost Nation, Zero Gravity, and all things Vermont. Constantly rotating through, along with a pretty sizeable bottle/can list including the ever sought after, highly overrated Heady and Focal. The back bar is a great place to kick back and unwind, while rubbing elbows with beer elitists, beercationers, locals, and VT hill-folk. Eclectic. Sometimes some live music, otherwise great tunes playing always. This is the place you want to go in Waterbury. Oh, and the bartenders are quite rude, and seem to hate the fact that you're there.

Had Sunday lunch next door at the (crowded) Pig. They were out of Focal Banger so we stopped in here. Boy, what a surprise. Not only do they have the most taps (38) in the state, they had the best tap list of the beer bars we visited on our two day beer/brewery tour (Mule, Farmhouse, Pig).

I liked the fact that it was mostly locals including a huge group of families headed off to a girls soccer game. They had all the great VT beers plus bottles of Crooked Stave (CO) which could have kept me here for hours had I not had to drive back to Killington.

Sat at the bar and chatted up a local who entertained us with "back in the day" stories of VT beer and The Alchemist.
Make sure to go to the back of the bar to check out the Heady Topper pool table light. Only in Waterbury.

 

 

 

My favorite of the Waterbury bars. This place as big and lively. The beer menu is outstanding, with all of the big names you come to the area looking to try. I met several very friendly bartenders and customers here. If you want an active spot in the town, this is your place.

 

 

 

 

Went here on night one of our two night stay at the Old Stagecoach Inn. Despite being Saturday night the place wasn't particularly crowded, perhaps because of the September tourist lull between summer and leaf season. Fantastic tap list of course - Hill Farmstead, Lawsons, and a host of other Vermont selections, but we loved the food as well. The poutine in particular was awesome, as was the salmon. We went to Prohibition Pig the next night which was wonderful as well, but overall we preferred Reservoir as Pig was crowded with spotty service.

 

 

Wow, what a tap list.