PtY Queue Information

UOTE="mychalg9, post: 3133543, member: 446307"]I will also be in town around that time (Feb 12-17) and have a few questions. Does the line last into the night? Like if we wanted to go to RR for dinner and beer (not necessarily PtY) would we be able to get in for dinner on any of those nights? We'll be in Napa for one night and figured we could try to hit the brewery the following night after driving around the area during the day. How many days does PtY stick around the brewery? Does it last more than a week? I hear there should be some tappings around SF after the release, is that my best bet to try it? Will there still be kegs in SF on the dates I listed? Thanks in advance for any info. Can BM me if necessary to keep this thread on topic.[/QUOTE]


RR has a set allocation for PtY each day, and they do run out on most days now (My understanding is that the allocation is larger for the weekend days, not that that really matters so much any more. I think they pretty much run out of the daily allocation every day prior to closing now.). However, as long as they're pouring PtY, there will be a line, and yes, it will almost surely be a long line. It used to be that you could avoid some of this nonsense if you went during mid week, but that's no longer the case. The situation has gotten so bad that I've given up even swinging by to see what the line is like (the GF and I are usually in the area around PtY week doing wine related stuff, so typically it was no trouble to swing by and drop in if the line wasn't too long).

Even when it's not PtY week, you can expect a fairly long wait for a table (figure an hour at least) on Friday and Saturday during dinner hours, and probably close to a half hour at least during the week. During PtY week, all bets are off... even if they run out of PtY early on a given day, I would still expect a lengthy wait. Also, it's not as if you can tell the staff that you're just there for dinner and aren't interested in PtY. Most folks there for PtY order food, so regardless of what you're there for, expect to have to wait in line with everyone else. It used to be that you could stop by the back door to pick up bottles to go during PtY week, but I don't know if even that's allowed now (the back door is closed during PtY week - it's only used as a restaurant exit door). I believe this year the tapping at the brewpub runs from 2/6/ to 2/20.

Someone from the Pacific forum can hopefully help you with recommendations for places pouring younger in the bay area. However, assuming the bar in question advertises that they have younger (and we're usually talking about no more than a single keg), it's not as if your chances are going to be all that much better there. Typically, places that advertise a younger event are going to be slammed, and you can expect the keg to kick in under an hour.

In the past, I know Bilco Billiards in Napa and Citti Cafe in Sonoma have both gotten kegs of younger, so I guess it's conceivable that you might luck out if you stop by either of those places during your travels (have been told that HopMonk in Sonoma sometimes will get a keg as well). However, I'd call in advance before going out of my way to hit either spot.

Shrug. The days of casually stopping by for a glass of younger someplace during release week are over I'm afraid. The only way you can do that now is for ticketed younger events (that's mostly what I see up in Oregon now), and that doesn't sound like a pratical option for you. If you read over this thread, you'll notice a number of folks who think nothing about arriving at the brewpub hours before it opens, and/or waiting in line for 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 hours for a glass or two of younger. So that should give you some idea what you're up against (there are a LOT of PtY fans just like them). Good luck!

 

We tried going at what I thought would be an odd enough time that there shouldn't be any line, or at least not much of one. This was two years ago. I was stunned. No matter what time we dropped by, there was never less than 200 people (roughly) in line. Last year we stopped by once and saw the same thing, so I just gave up. We'll be down from Oregon from 2/6 to 2/12 this year, and I don't plan to even swing by. The GF and I come down to relax, eat great food and drink great wine, see a lot of pretty stuff (we stay on the Mendocino Coast for most of our trip), and enjoy ourselves. There's plenty of opportunity to do all that without particating in the annual mad house known as younger week.

What amazes me, is just how quickly this madness has come abouut. If memory serves, RR went to the current format 5 or 6 years ago after the growler fiasco (so many people came by to get growler fills, that they sold their entire younger supply on the first day), when they stopped filling growlers of PtY. Initially after that, as long as you didn't show up the first Friday or Saturday, you could usually get right in, hang out and enjoy a couple of glasses of younger, maybe share a pizza, and get out in roughly an hour. However, the last couple of years it's reached the point of utter insanity (IMHO).

Anyway, good luck going on 2/16.... sounds like you have the right attitude, should it turn out to be the shitstorm I expect it will be.

 

I'm assuming that's related more to this than "keeping the flow going."

"We are bound by law to promote the responsible consumption of alcohol and may NOT serve anyone who is obviously intoxicated."

Kind of hard to make anyone believe they really care all that much about responsible alcohol consumption when you let customers "camp out" all day at their table on younger day.

 

Good point, but do you think that's all that much of a problem the other days of the year? The only time I've ever heard of folks camping out all day is during younger week, and that was after waiting in line for hours (and so at least somewhat understandable). So I can't see why they would even need to have such a policy the other times of the year.

Also, the only time I've ever seen anyone in the pub clearly inebriated, was during a younger event. Yes, I've seen some folks a bit intoxicated at other times, but nothing like what I've seen during younger week (one friend of mine from SEPA boasted to me that he had 11 glasses of younger after a full day at the brewpub, and had no recollection of how he managed to walk back to his hotel).

Shrug. The policy makes sense to me as a way to curb excessive alcohol consumption, but I doubt it will have much affect on customer flow. Hence my surmise...