Should I add a new place?

I totally agree. Some of these places are older though, added when craft brew wasn't as strong as it is now. In the past a good selection of imports and a few craft brews was a good thing!

And, there are places that have changed. One near me comes to mind, a place called The Black Horse Inn. At some point they were ahead of the curve and stocked their coolers with bottled craft and put them on about half of their tap lines (probably a new bar manager). B - O - M - B !!! ... none of their regular joe, working stiff customers took any interest, and most likely complained. Within a few months they were back to all mainstream beers except for a few straggling bottles in the coolers. I haven't been there in years but I wonder if they've switched back, I'd think they'd have to have craft on draft by now.

I'll also give a pass to historic bars, places that deserve a visit even if they're not that great as far as their selection goes. McSorley's Old Ale House, The White Horse Tavern, and Fraunces Tavern in New York City are a few that are well worth a visit, and that I'd want to know about if I was visiting the area.

 

I am in the opposite opinion. There is a rating system for Places for a reason. Isn't it just as important to let people know that a bar is only mediocre or average?

The beer database has Bud Light, so shouldn't the equivalent bars be added to the places database?

 

IMO this is a very snobbish idea.

 

Place reviews are just as effective in helping me avoid places as it is finding great places.

Also, in small/rural areas, sometimes a place with 6 craft beer taps is the best place in town. How would anyone know that if we only review world class establishments?

 

100% against this, makes no sense. When you review a place you can note the selection etc. Who makes the determination of good? So a place rocks and has 3 craft taps and they get barred from being added but a place that sucks and has 6 taps is added. That is why this is not going to happen, makes no logical sense. Add a place, note what they have, the individuals decide to go there, simple.
Cheers

 

There was a time when the criteria was a little more strict about what got added to the database. I have to say that I like the loosening of the requirements --it just means that they wont get as good of a review on their selection and/or maybe quality. More options of places = good IMO.

Plus, these days --more and more places are embracing craft beer. Why would we not want to encourage/promote this ?

 

BA takes their time to review any attempts to add a Place, whether they are appropriate and non-duplicative of whats already on the site. It's not like adding a beer where it just gets thrown up there instantaneously.

I'm curious though, did you have any specific place in mind @eberesford

 

Yeah not agreeing with this. Once of the places I added and reviewed was a dive bar in Tulsa that has a few cans of craft behind the bar. It is a great place to go, cans are fresh and the people there are great, old school bar with great friendly people and bartenders. If anyone reads the review they won't think they are stepping into craft heaven, I think I wrote it to describe the atmosphere they are walking into. I hit that bar up every time I pass thru Tulsa, it is one of my destination bars.

 

You hit it out of the park, exactly what you said....

 

To tack on, some might find it not worthy to have an Applebee's listed here, the one close to my house is a disaster, bad taps etc. But there are some posting here on BA that their Applebee's have great local taplist. The thought that if I was in the middle of nowhere and there was an Applebee's close by (open to 2am) that had this, shit that would be just amazing to know.

 

I respectfully disagree with that approach. I am in a rural college town that has a few places with some crafts but not the number you would see in a metro area. In addition, we only have two local breweries and I do not know of any bars that offer 4 let alone 6 or more.

I want to know which places are good, bad or mediocre, not just good. When I travel, whether rural or metro, I check out places rated to see what is worthwhile. I hope that my comments on places, good and bad, help others too.

 

If you (for example) wrote a detailed review of a place to be avoided (or not to be missed, for that matter), I think that would go a long way towards resolving the issue. When I travel and look up places I see what's listed then look at the rankings then scroll through to see who has bothered to write a full review and what kind of specifics they share - it's been invaluable to me in my national and international beer travels! I do my best to write them as well but don't always follow through.

I've added a bunch of places over the years and use the function to find breweries, bars, and more often than not, stores.

 

Oh also, I think we owe it to this community to "call out" establishments that provide subpar service or product. I'd like to know if you went somewhere and were treated rudely or had a beer with serious defects or found super stale beer on shelves. I'm not sure what purpose is served by obfuscating that kind of info. I can still decide to check them out and see if my experience is different. I don't hesitate to share the good and bad and do my best to be as plain and fair about my experience as I can.