Rock Island Brewing Company

This an old school feeling place in an old school feeling downtown, entertainment kinda area .. the area feels sort of seedy/sketchy, with some vacant storefronts and in general a "time has left this area behind' vibe..

Anyway, we are talking two almost separate rooms, both long and on the narrow side...one side seems to be a music venue/comedy club and the other room is the straight old school bar. Looks like its a set from an 80's TV show....12 or so on tap, some somewhat interesting options (3 Floyds, Half Acre, New Belgium, Odell) but also some clunkers like Busch Light (!) and Kona...cmon man....things pick up when checking out the list for the over 100 cans and bottles available in the medium sized cooler behind the bar....(both their tap list and cans/bottles info is kept up to date on beer menus dot com)
Loads of worthy option coming out of the cooler, including options from local heavy weight Wake brewing and a ton of other way better the decent options....so you can get plenty of good beer here.

Young bartender was sadly clueless and was zero help with selections.

They offer burgers, sammies and other typical bar food....I tried none of it, as I was not feeling like I wanted to spend a lot of time here...after a brew, I had the strong urge to get out of this place and get some fresh air and a fresh feeling place

Made a trip out to see Spectral Voice on tour, with Primitive Man and Aseethe.

Ribco is located in an "entertainment district" for lack of a better term. There are a few bars and clubs nearby with roving groups on the street howling drunken "wooos" at each other. They were definitely nowhere to be found at Ribco though, which was nice. There was a food truck around the corner after the show.

The space inside consists of 2 rooms, the bar first, and a stage with live music in the other room. both are long and somewhat narrow, with music show posters dotting the walls. In the music venue side there was a row of booths along the wall and a long table with stools in the middle. The stage area is fairly small, but luckily it wasn't overly crowded that night.

$6 Rev Cafe Deth and TG NugMo drafts on a Saturday night. Holy crap. Can't find a better deal than that anywhere. Also multiple vintages of BCS on draft at affordable prices. KBS in the coolers, a good variety of TG beers, around 100 cans & bottles in all. Their list on Beermenus gets updated regularly.

The guy that books shows and curates the beer selection here recently opened Wake Brewing nearby, which is a must-stop in the Quad Cities, especially for beer & metal fans alike.

Great selection, with 12 taps and over 100 bottles to choose from. They also hold music acts pretty regularly, and have great specials during the week (1/2 off taps on Tuesday, 1/2 off craft bottles on Wednesday). Plenty of room, and a great location.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With no question, or any real competition, this is by far the best beer bar in the Quad Cities. I guess it's probably the only one. There may be a pretender or two, but RIBCO is the only one that is legit.

The atmosphere, unless it is a weekend night or there is a band playing, is chill. The lighting is dim, and it is spacious and comfortable. There are a dozen or more stools at the bar, and tables and booths.

The tap selections is not wicked extensive, but it is pretty good. I'm guessing a dozen or so. There was one one bmc tap last night, some mass market craft like Blue Moon and Guiness Draught mixed in with some better stuff. Lost Abbey Bourbon Barrel Angel's Share was the cream of the crop, but there was also Founders Breakfast, New Holland Dragon's Milk and Rogue Imperial Stout. The bottle selection is well chosen, and there must be at least several dozen different beers. Bottles consist mainly of midwest mainstays like Bell's, Founder's and Boulevard, but there are a smattering of other one like Green Flash and Avery, for example.

No quality problems on my two recent visits. Proper glassware is available. A couple of beer I ordered that should have come in snifters (advertised 6oz pour) were served in shaker glasses, but the upside is I got twice as much Angel's Share as I should have. And then I was offered the snifter after my eyes grew big.

Prices are reasonable. They were selling bombers of Avery 18 for $5 last night. I guess it didn't sell well and they wanted to get rid of it. I didn't rate the food even though I had some. The $3 burger basket special was not special, but what do you expect for $3? I think the regular menu is probably better, but I will leave food out of my scoring for now.

If you are in the Quad Cities and want to have a quality brew in public, this is your best bet.

Went for the 2011 Founders CBS Release Breakfast.

Drove 400 miles from Detroit and it was well worth the drive.

The staff was very hospitable and the service was great.

Other than CBS, they also had Lost Abbey Bourbon Barrel Angels Share on tap. Other tap and bottle selections were very good.

Good atmosphere, very clean, and located in a nice downtown area.

Special thanks to Ryan for making us feel very welcome and the whole staff for friendly, world class service.

Can't comment on the food, since they were serving a special breakfast and I dont think it's part of their regular menu; but it was good.

RIBCO is another great local bar we commonly go to. They have an outstanding selection of beer, however it is mostly bottles. They have quite a few taps, but the bottle selection is far greater. There is a very decent collection of imported beers as well. Food is pretty good here too. They offer some great deals during the week for things like $2 burger baskets. It's definitely more rewarding to go Monday-Thursday so you can take advantage of all the drink and food specials. The service is almost always exceptional, and you see a lot of the same servers enough that they will start to know you. The two main bartenders are also very knowledgeable in regards to beer. Definitely need to stop in to RIBCO if you're in the Quad-Cities area.

EDIT:

My old review was from 2007. RIBCO has expanded much since then. They now have a wonderful draft selection and some of the best craft beer specials I have ever seen (1/2 off all bottles on Wednesdays? Are you serious?!?). It's still got a bit of a generic party atmosphere going on, with TVs playing sports and lots drunk thirtysomethings screaming over one another, but the selection is excellent and the prices cannot be beat.

---
A 2 minute walk from the bluecat brewpub, RIBCO is located in a pretty building in a pretty part of town. It was around 11 on a Tuesday, but there was still a decent sized crowd there. Quiet people, mostly, small groups in the late twenties to mid 40s.

It was a little dark and a little smoky but nothing excessive either way. The jukebox was pretty crappy, but not horrible. Plenty of comfortable seating for groups.

No drafts.

The botle selection was very wide and included only a few macros. What got me is that they had Kentucky Breakfast Stout in bottles, but that was shipped out over a month ago and every other place that I knew that got a case in sold out within a week. This tells me that, although this place has a pretty darn good beer selection, the crowds that frequent it may not be beer people. Actually, aside from my friend and I, everyone in the place was either drinking MGD (on sale for 1.25 a bottle) or a very light import.

Beers included the basics from Founders, Dogfish Head, 3 Floyds, Flying Dog, New Hlooand, Lagunitas, Rogue, and a few others. The beer menu on their site is horribly out of date. Like I said, they did have some rare stuff, too.

No food was being served when we stopped in. The prices were remarkably cheap for an illinois beer bar, with most micros going for 4 bucks per bottle and the rare ones going for 7. I've been ten dollars for a bottle of Breakfast Stout before, though, so this wasn't a bad deal.

Probably the best beer bar in that portion of the state--Iowa or Illinois. Not exactly a beer lover's dream or a place that you'd want to plan a trip around, but if you're in the area this is a must-visit.

This is very cool beer bar in downtown Rock Island. They have 2 large coolers front and center behind the bar making it easy to see the selections along with a nice big beer menu. The staff is all very beer knowledgeable and the place is very cool on weekends with bands ranging from the very local to some very famous playing there. The bar has 2 distinct rooms one on the band side and one away from it, along with a cool upstairs area allows for a place for everyone. A huge selection of Craft beer and import beers line the top of the room making for interesting veiwing for any beer geek Might have the biggest selection in the QC, if not the biggest then at least probably the best selection in the area. Cool Place.