Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week 2014

Seriously has to be the worst service/organization I've ever experienced at any "beer bar". The bartenders have NO clue what you are talking about most of the time. Most places when your glass is near empty, someone comes and serves you, here you pretty much have to shoot a flare in the air to get one of the hardresser bartender's attention.

Their prices list "pints" but they are 14oz cheaters, everything is pretty much served in 10oz goblets for $8 or 8oz snifters for $10 or higher (Old Stock Res. was $13 for 8oz). The lines are also pretty dirty. The food outside of pizza is meh.

I stopped there last Friday since I was in the neighborhood for some of the collabs. I got there at 3:45 (along with 10 other people), they werent pouring ANYTHING on tap until 430. Everyone just sat there not spending money for 45min. At 430 they decided to start serving beers, yet one of the 2 bartenders working decided it was a good time to start writing the taplist on the board, making her useless for half an hour (she still managed to spell half the list wrong). The place is a joke.

 

Sorry to hear of all these bad experiences at Caliente. I have been there a few times and never had a bad experience there. True that the employees don't seem to know much about the beer they have, and this in my opinion is not good business practice, but overall I still have enjoyed my visits there. Far as prices go, I just wait and go on happy hour to get drafts for half off. Yesterday i had north coast old stock cellars reserve on tap during happy hour for $6.50. I would recommend just going during happy hour and avoiding the high prices.

 

Anyone going to Margot release tomorrow - I'm looking to trade a BCBW for your bottle of this years BCBS straight up, pls respond.

 

No Kbs at urban tap. Claim they have a keg and may tap later this week. I ordered a god damn all day ipa to gather this intel, you're welcome Pittsburgh. Going to Pipers now. How late is there kitchen open?

 

They've been tweeting about it all day? If thats true then that sucks, if they lied to you - even worse. Never been but that place already sounds worse than Caliente!

 

Kbs is still on at Pipers and the kitchen is open til 11. I'm gonna do my best to float this keg. Kbs is good out of a bottle but divine on tap. For once I'm glad I'm here and not at home in Denver.

 

so a few friends on untappd had pictures of KBS from urban tap on tap tonight...so they lied?

 

The bartender was less than clueless so I was probably misinformed more than lied to. Seriously she made the caliente bartenders seem like sommeliers.

It's all good. I discovered Pipers Pub due to this which is a great spot.

 

One of these days I'll have to go to Piper's. If I had known they had KBS I might have even stopped by today, fear of the South Side shitfest aside. How bad could it be on a Wednesday on graduation week anyway. Two days off during PCBW and I still didn't make any events. Ugh.

 

This beerfest is cheap. It only cost $16 and your dignity.

 

The cost in psychological damage is going to be high though.

 

There was slow service, but I think it was mostly due to only having one bartender upstairs for a fairly big crowd (karaoke...bleh) . Sadly enough, it was probably the most positive Caliente experience Ive had so far. The prices arent great, but for an East End joint pulling waelz its not really out of line with other options. I wouldn't make it a regular stop (im too old for the Bloomfield vibe), but Ill probably stop in occasionally. Especially if I know the one semi-clueful bartender is working.

 

The one time I went to Urban Tap (last month or so) the waitress told me they had the only keg of enjoy by in Pittsburgh. It was the 3-4 place is been to that night that had it. She said something else funny that's escaping me now, maybe that it's a stout? My girlfriend can't stand that they misspell almost every beer on their menu board. Even Bell's was wrong. None of these are big deals obviously but just shows how carefully they pay attention and train staff for supposedly being a beer bar.

 

Waelz?? Whalez I think is what you were going for, but I wouldnt classify anything at Caliente a Whale. Granted they get a decent amount of out of market stuff but no whalez, unless I missed something along the way.

 

That word has lost all meaning...I stick in the same category as "epic".

 

If I had some money, I would open a bar literally right across the street from Caliente and do the exact same thing they do and charge normal prices. They wouldn't last a week. The atmosphere sucks, the staff is no good, and I'm sick of "bar food". I want a fucking plate of cured meats and cheeses with my beer.

 

True enough, was mostly referring to the out of market stuff.

 

But would you have karaoke?

 

No. It would be called "The Chuckle Hut" and we'd have open mic night during all open hours. (Not really that sounds even worse than karaoke)

 

All that being said...I still find myself there often because I live nearby. Jokes on me I guess.