I went Monday and Tuesday. Arrived at 3:00 both days. As a point of reference, the line ended in front of Darcy's Jewelers and on both days it was a 45 minute wait. It will be long tomorrow if the rain hits and eliminates the outdoor seating.
Hi all, Chicago BA here will be in town at open tomorrow. If any PAC BA's are attending, shoot me a BM and come say hi. Looking forward to it! Cheers!
As John noted yesterday morning (Wednesday) at the open was a piece of cake. Everyone in line when they opened got in.
We'll be heading there Saturday as well. Planning on arriving between 8-8:30. I'll have a few Chicago BAs with me, so if you someone to shoot the shit with, hit me up.
I'll be there Saturday, probably pretty early as well, maybe 9am or so. Friends are coming into town only on Saturday from Long Beach or I wouldn't dream of going Saturday morning. Hopefully Saturday won't be a crazy long time waiting in line like I heard it was last Saturday. If you want to say hey, I'll be the guy wearing a Funky Buddha "beer snob" shirt drinking Cantillon out of a paper bag. Today's line (Thursday) wasn't so bad at opening. I got in line with a group of friends at around 1045 and we got in by 1145. The line seemed to be a little bit over 100-150 people long after the entire place had been filled up to capacity. We were probably around 120 or so people back at opening, but they staggered letting in people for the bartenders/servers/kitchen to accommodate not getting slammed all at once and it took around an hour.
I'll be in line in the next 45 minutes or so. Got shut out last night (younger blew at around 7). I'll keep y'all posted! Cheers.
I got there at about 10:45, looked to be at least 60-80 people in line ahead of me, so I thought I'd be waiting a while, but I was seated at a table and drinking the Younger by 11:15. No problemo.
Not surprisingly the line is longer today at 10:30. It goes all the way down Fourth and wraps halfway down E Street.
Just sat down. Abecal and I are sitting in the far back to the right with a group of six total (right under the shirts on the wall). Cheers!
Reply back when u get there. I assume there will be a small line. Heading up from San Fran in a half hour.
How big's the line? I'm considering going tomorrow but won't bother if I have to wait in line for more than a few minutes.
there's a good chance we'll be going tomorrow as well. i can text you an update when we get there, although not sure yet if we'll try to go at opening or aim for that sweet spot in between lunch and dinner.
Heading up tomorrow as well... Starting to worry the "sweet spot between lunch and dinner" might be a little popular haha.
Hey guys, just wanted to thank everyone for all of the help and recommendations. My wife and I had a great trip and are already looking forward to doing again relatively soon. For those that are interested we were able to hit Lagunitas on our way up to Healdsburg on Thursday. The next morning, we were the 8th and 9th in line at RR (Friday 8:20 am) which was obviously a little early, but we didn't have anything else to do that morning and figured we would prefer to wait for it to open than sit there and wait for people to leave. I was able to get a plenty of youngers, the sampler (which was impressive) and enough RR bottles to bring home. From there we ended up hitting four wineries (Lambert Bridge, Seghesio, Lancaster Estates & Merry Edwards), Osmosis day spa, wildflour bakery in Freestone. We ate some great meals (Campo Fina, Willi's Raw bar & Dry Creek kitchen) and I even made my wife stop at the whole foods in Santa Rosa so I could cross "The Abyss" off my list. One other thing that was fun is that we randomly sat by a fellow BA (SpdKilz) at Lagunitas. We just got talking and after a few minutes were able to determine that we had been talking throughout this thread. All in all it was a perfect trip and I just wanted thank you all for the help and hospitality.
Younger is kicked (5:50pm monday). What time have people got here in the morning and gotten in on the first seating?
Got there at 10:35 am and the line was at Supercuts. Got in at 11:40 am and the only seating was outside surrounding the tables. Looks like they are selling Elder bottles again (sold out on weekend) but a guy sitting at the bar only had 2 along with a bunch of other bottles he was picking up.
Shout outs to the guy that gave me his paid parking pass! Line was around 1:30-2 hour wait at 2:00 today, ended up going down to hopmonk in sonoma
It sucks to read about the crazy crowds but I guess I should have known better. Here's to hoping its not too bad for a late lunch on Thursday! *crossesfingers*
I live in Texas and came up with some friends. We got inline around 11:30 Monday. Were in by 1:30. Very easy to get a beer from the bar. Worth the wait IMO. Once inside, the atmosphere is really nice. They control the crowd inside so it's easy to move around. We were lucky, as soon as we finished our first round, four people left the bar. We stayed till about 9.
I would like to post my story, as we had a fantastic time. Four of us came out from Chicago for the weekend. After years of talking about making the trip, we finally decided. Stayed in SF Friday night (enjoyed Toronado at ridiculously affordable prices during happy hour, and La Trappe which was fun but definitely pricier). My plan was to arrive at RR by 8am Saturday and we made it on the dot. I was worried the line might be crazy at that point, but we were about 60-70 people back (which by the time it opened was about 90 because of the people "saving spots" in line). Anyway, got in with the first wave and got the 2nd to last table top! Needless to say, we were stoked and planted ourselves for a while. The service was amazing. For a release event like this, we never had to wait for a beer. RR also did a fantastic job of not letting it get crowded with standing room (they seemed to let more people in as the day went on, but it was very comfortable for the first 3-4 hours). Our intention was just to finally make this trip once and not have a desire to wait in the line again. But since this wasn't my first beer release rodeo, we planned it perfectly and nothing could have gone smoother. I have every intention of making the trip again, albeit knowing it might not get much better than the first time. Only disappointment was that bottles of Elder were sold out...everywhere. Oh well, I prefer the -Tions anyway.
Orange county Roadtrip...Goathill taven..Yardhouse..Pizza Port...Then World market on Friday for Pliny! oooohhh...ya!
