New Bohemia - Golden Valley

Umm, What!?

 

For on site consumption.

Maybe some day we will catch up to the rest of the country...

 

I knew they did growlers as I have heard people mention it, but I guess I always wondered how. Did a quick google search and found that on their site. It makes sense considering our liquor laws.

 

No, this does not make sense. Unless they are cutting you a price break for purchasing 64oz at a time, then there is absolutely no logic from a consumer standpoint. The usefulness of a growler is very specific, paramount being the transportable nature of the vessel.

 

I just meant made sense that it was for on site consumption only considering the liquor laws. You would think a 64 oz pitcher would be better in this situation. Maybe they are just try to cash in on the vibe of craft beer with a growler? Of course that is total speculation.

 

P.S. Purple monkey dishwasher

 

If it was wine, it would be okay. Since it's beer, however, it appears to still be a big no no. Too bad!

 

Was there last night. Better setup than NE Mpls. Some great beer on tap (still had BCS when we went). Nice to have a place like this near the Western 'burbs!

 

At the NE location it says for onsite consumption only right on the menu, it's their take on pitchers.

 

If they give you a cap with it pretty sure they aren't going to say much when you walk out with it.

 

The selected $3 happy hour beers are craft I'm assuming?

 

Kind of- there was 4 or 5, the best of which currently is Bad Weather Ominous (which is nice!) also Flat Earth Angry Planet (OK), PBR and one other that must not have impressed me! Would like to see a little more to choose from on the HH menu.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I hate it when I see happy hour prices only to be informed that it only applies to bad beer. I work really close to there and if they have some craft deals I'll probably be there all too often!

 

Went to this location for the first time today. Was on the way back from Dangerous Man, and wanted to warm up (that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it). I was there maybe 3:30 on a Saturday afternoon.

The good:
The place had a decent vibe. Not crowded, not empty. Majority of the seating is long wooden tables with picnic benches, a handful of high tops, and a bar area. They also have a self-serve urn of water and glasses, which I always appreciate (I frequently arrive at taprooms on my bike and it's convenient for me (and them) to have it setting there). Also, as a previous poster mentioned, they have a good selection of MN sourced brews (but keep reading...)

The bad:
The servers (based on on my one experience) aren't very knowledgeable, and the tap lists are not current. I got there, and the tap list is on a TV screen with perhaps three rotating pages. I'm not a big fan of that, I'm studying down a page to find what I want, and before I finish processing it, it changes to the next page. But I can live with that. So, I see two Hammerheart brews on the list, one of which is "Hammerheart Skoll Och Hati", described as a sweet stout. I order that, using the full name. (I'm quite certain of that, because my wording was to the effect of "I'll have a hammerheart skoll och hati; I probably mispronounced that"). The server goes to the taps, pulls a hammerheart logo tap, and gives me a glass of something which is clearly not a stout; it's roughly amber in color. I say "Is that the Skoll Och Hati?" (again, probably mispronouncing the words but saying them all). Her answer is "Yes, that's the Hammerheart." I say something like "I don't think that looks like a stout" and she says "That's the hammerheart we have. We change over our local taps frequently. We had a big crowd last night, and have six new taps today." After a brief pause, I sipped whatever I got, and said something like "OK, I guess I'll drink this." (While we all know that Opaque Beers Rule(tm), I am a big fan of variety. It wasn't my favorite, but I often try to try stuff that's not in my sweet spot, albeit usually in a flight motif).
Observation #1: They should know what they have on tap. It would be one thing if I ordered "the Hammerheart" but I'm quite certain I used the full name of the beer. There were two hammerhearts on the TV screen and I made a point of using the full name even though I knew I might embarrass myself on pronunciation.
Observation #2: Ideally, the server should know enough about the beer to recognize, at least after the fact, that what she served wasn't what I ordered and that a given "hammerheart" isn't the same as another "hammerheart." The impression I got was that I got a "hammerheart" and that should be good enough.
- Minimal acceptable: We're out of Skoll Och Hati, would you like something else
- Better: We're out of Skoll Och hati, but if you like Hammerheart, we have their xxx
- Best: We're out of Skoll Och hati, but if you like stouts, we have Maggie's leap on tap
Observation #3: It's clear I didn't get what I expected. And it's hopefully clear it's not my fault, I didn't get what I specifically ordered off their tap list. She should have immediately offered "If that's not what you want, can I get you something else?" Responses like "that's the hammerheart we have on tap" are not sufficient. Note I did not ask for a replacement, and I would guess if I did she would have accommodated that. However, my point is that it should have been offered without my asking.
Observation #4: With a video display of the tap list, there is no real excuse to list beers that have kicked. The list should be up to date. I did mention this to the server, and she acknowledged that as "good feedback," but I wasn't sure if that was being taken constructively or she was just affirming something her customer said.

Your Mileage May Vary:
When I got there, an extended version of Freebird was playing. Works for me, I like music I recognize but is not intrusive, background only. However, after that ended maybe 5-10 minutes later, some football game was on the audio. If you like football, great, I would have preferred additional unobtrusive music. I wasn't paying sufficient attention to know if they had music and switched to football, or if the Freebird was some interim during the football game. If I wanted to go to a sports bar, I'd be at a sports bar. But that's not criticism, merely an observation. Others might prefer sports as background.

I'll toss all this into a review at some point too but I thought I'd share my thoughts in this thread.

 

Wow

 

That, was, an ordeal.

/Won't you fly high free bird. Yeah.

 

You could have simply put:

"Beer knowledge by staff is not great."

We would have gotten the point.