Great Notion

That right there is exactly what makes me so happy to live and drink here.

Variety.

Well, that and a beer culture that is damn near pervasive, and is as much a part of the city as trees, bridges, and rain.

 

Can I ascertain from this that they're out of Crowlers this weekend?

 

Sorry should have said, they had Dankster Light, which I've tried and wasn't a crowler worthy purchase for me.

 

Finally made the trip to GN on Friday... Just incredible beer. Exceeded all of my expectations. Triple Stack was one of the best non-BA stouts I've ever had. Can't wait to get back there (post-expansion?!?) in the fall.

 

Lurker on this forum but wanted to post about my first experience going to Great Notion which I've been super hyped about going for a long time. We went on a Friday afternoon at like 4 after driving down from Seattle that day. Sorry if this is wordy.

Walked in the door and it was full but not overly crowded, the waitress said it was probably going to be a half hour to forty five minute wait for a seat in the dining area but we could sit outside or stand in the back corner area but don't block the area in front of the kitchen. We decided to sit outside so half went out to grab a table and half went to the bar to order drinks.

While waiting at the bar I watched my group grab one of the two tables on the front porch, the other was occupied, I turned back to the bar to tell him what I wanted and when I turned back I saw the waitress talking to my group outside who then got up and sat at a table down on the gravel. When I walked back with the drinks I asked what happened and the waitress told them they can't sit there because that table is reserved for people with dogs, no signs on the table or anything, while sitting there drinking we watched 3 more groups try to sit there and the same thing happened. Kind of strange but we thought maybe it had to do with them advertising as dog friendly and its a law they need a table available or something but still weird.

The beer was amazing, some of the best hazy stuff any of us had ever had. I really liked the Mochi and the blueberry muffin in particular. We noticed that they do flights of the beers and our group agreed this would be a better way to try all the stuff they had on tap but when we went back inside they only do flights when your inside and sitting in the dining area (also can only order food if sitting in the dining area FYI) so we just ordered more beers.

We left after trying most of the beers on the menu, all were fantastic and I don't think there was a single one that was not well liked. We went back on Monday on our way out of town right after they opened and got some crowlers of Dankster lite and bought some glasses. If your there for a release and have arrived early don't block the juice bar in the little trailer or the person working it will get after you. Thanks for reading, sorry its kind of long and I don't mean to knock them at all, I know they're opening a new spot too but it seems like they need to rethink some of their layout/rules since its becoming so popular.

 

"Pina Kaleidoscope" is a great name for a beer, and I do love some pineapple and coconut. I will definitely try to pick some up, no fomo.

 

Now that I've had the Pine State Biscuits collaboration, whenever I see a Great Notion beer named after a food I immediately wonder if it literally just has that food in it.

 

ISO: Burgerville collab beer.

 

ISO: Shari's pie-shake collab dessert beer.

 

I gotta say both the Fido table, and the no sampler trays anywhere but at the bar is just weird.

Love me some Grape Lotion but asinine rules make me, as a former bartender, annoyed to say the least. We're not reinventing the wheel here. I'm assuming the taster tray rule is for fear of glass breakage? But even then... sample glasses bought in bulk are not that expensive and you're going to experience a bit of loss in a bar regardless of how strict your rules are.

 

Thanks for all the feedback everyone! I wanted to chime in about the dog table comments just to let everyone know that it's not one of our rules we rolled out. Not sure why the server told you that, and I apologize for that. The "no flights" in our waiting room area is a rule, though and we'll try to make that real clear moving forward by printing our house rules on the back of our beer coasters and also keeping them up to date on our website (currently posted under Taproom on our site). We unfortunately had to roll out a few new house rules and policies recently based on trying to provide effective and efficient customers service while having a packed to the gills house.

PS - The no flights in the service bar / waiting area isn't for fear of breaking tasters, it's to speed to up our "service bar" line. You can still order flights at a table or a bar seat from a server/bartender, but if you just want a beer while you're waiting for a table or to stand up and chill at our stand up and chill table right in front of the brewery, that's the line that we try to move through swiftly at busy times and so limit that line to not offer flights.

Thank you again everyone very much for all your support and feedback, be it positive or negative.

 

Any crowlers releases this week planned?

 

Darn! I was hoping to have a reserved seat outside once the weather breaks and things get nuts.

 

Coachella? No kidding? How the hell about that.

 

Hoping they bring Orange Creamsicle for the Specialty IPA category for the Track 7 Invitational!

 

i've had a friend work the "rare beer bar" the past couple of years at coachella. they get some interesting kegs from across the country, wonder if it's part of that.