I'm heading up to Stowe the week of July 16. Where and when is the best place to pick up some Lawsons Finest Liquids and what bars, pubs are the best in the area?
this road has been well trodden.... 1. Warren General Store at no specific time on Fridays 2. Prohibition Pig, Blackback Pub, The Res...all 10-15 min down the road in Waterbury
Ew, stowe??? Crop on the Mountain Road has good beer on tap, but you'd be better served heading to waterbury to hit all 3 of the beer bars, as mentioned in the post above mine. There are ALWAYS multiple Lawson's choices at the bars in waterbury. For bottles of lawsons, your options are pretty limited. Warren General Store gets them, as does Hunger Mountain Coop in Montpelier. Try to be there on the friday, you will have a limited selection if you wait until saturday. If you have your heart set on double sunshine, don't dilly-dally! As for stowe, you can skip the Trapps brewery. Rock Art is cool, they're over in Morrisville, just one town over.
Different strokes for different folks I guess. I think Von Trapp is a much better stop than Rock Art. Especially for lunch. Two different types of places. To the OP - you should hit both regardless, as well as the places mentioned above.
Totally. I've never had a trapps beer I've REALLY enjoyed, but for some reason I keep trying. I've had their basic offerings as well as some others at one of their brewers houses. I've never ordered a second Trapps in a night, though. Rock Art is a different story for me. Not everything of theirs is great, but there's some standouts (fresh IIPA is killer!!!) and I find their beer at LEAST decent. And before all the nicer bars started getting HF and Lawson's and more out-of-state beer, they always had Rock Art, and it was always good. IMHO They've been falling off a bit in the last couple years (too many personnel changes) but I think and hope they'll pull it together. I don't think (could be wrong) that Rock Art offers lunch at their brewery, but in stowe there's a bunch of restaurants I'd go to before Trapps, and most of them have beer I'd drink over Trapps as well. BUT as you say, different strokes
Mr Pickwick's tap selection used to be pretty good, it's been a while so I don't know it's current selection. Trapp lagers are spot on perfect for the style. Nothing sexy or rare, just well crafted beer.
Prohibition Pig and Blackback Pub are in Waterbury and probably about 25 minutes or so depending on where you are staying. Crop has Hill Farmstead on draft sometimes. I strongly recommend heading to Waterbury for draft selection.
Stowe Liquor store (across the street from Crop/Piecasso) usually has a good supply of Heady if the brewery has sold out. Skip the bars in Stowe and go to Waterbury (Blackback, Prohibition Pig, and The Reservoir). Don't go to Arvad's or the Cider house. If you are Wine person, Cork is a cool place. Rock Art has no food, just a brewery. Mr Pickwick's sucks. Sometimes they have Hobogoblin on cask, which I'm a sucker for, but 9 times out of 10 their selections are very meh. Trapp is cool if you've never been, but just to the deli for lunch. If you are looking for food in Stowe, Crop is good, Piecasso is good for pizza and just opened up their new bar, and Fridas is awesome for Mexican style. Skip everything else, just crap that only stays open because we have so many tourists come through who don't know any better. If you are looking for a breakfast place, Dutch Pancake is awesome (also called the Grey Fox Inn) - they pretty much only serve dutch style pancakes.
Gotta add one in Stowe - The Rusty Nail. No longer a dive rock 'n roll bar - has been transformed by Chef Mike Werneke into an awesome gastropub with very good prices, and a decent taplist and wine selection. His house-made charcuterie and duckfat fries are the bomb!
