Visiting Columbia, SC this week...

The best beer bars are the Flying Saucer and World of Beer in Downtown Columbia. Some good local SC beers are any COAST, any Westbrook, Palmetto and Holy City. I live near Charleston and they all make some good beers. Westbrook and Coast are the tops IMO. There are probably quite a few NC beers available in Columbia also. Greene's Beverages has a real good selection of beer to take home if you desire. Good luck! Cheers

 

I'd have to second that. Also for retail pickups, Morganelli's on Forest drive and Green's Piney Grove on Fernandina have the best seclections and pricing.

 

If you're staying downtown, hit up Thirsty Fellow as well. They have amazing food and 10 or so rotating taps and their bottle list is pretty good as well. Plus they are truly local and have a really cool setup to watch games inside or outside on their deck.

I echo the World of Beer and Flying Saucer. The World of Beer is less than a year old and has a very extensive list both in bottles and draft as well as some great nightly deals. Flying Saucer has about 80 on tap and another 200 or so in bottles. They have waitresses in plaid skirts if you're into that sort of thing.

If you make it down to Five Points (the college bar area of town) there are four places I would recommend.
Delaney's Speakeasy is an old cigar bar (no smoking allowed in bars or restaurants anymore) that has a really good bottle selection as well as great cocktails if you're all beer-ed out. They have live Jazz three or four times a week and if you can catch Modus Bone, I would do so. They have a sister bar down the street called Delaney's which is an Irish pub with 40 or so taps. Wednesday is pint night - stay away.

If you went to college in the 90s then a little gem called Bar None is right up your alley. 10-15 taps and much more in bottles the last time I checked, shuffle board, the best house made bbq sandwich you can find (ask for Lou) and the best playlist in Columbia. They are open until 6am as well so you get to see all of the service industry dames get off work and make poor decisions.

If you're looking for wings and a more laid back crowd than the hustle and bustle of the college district, head up the street to Publick House where they have 15-20 taps and the best wings this side of wherever the best wings you ever had were.

Also the only brewpub in town is the Hunter-Gatherer. Grab your blazer with elbow patches and head on down to grade your papers with all the other Geology professors from USC. Their beer is average, with the ESB usually being the shining star. Food is okay, but they have changed chefs recently.

These are the places I used to frequent and have no horse in the race (ask gothedistance), but are cool places nonetheless. Enjoy your stay and if you have any questions, PM me. Also, if you are there the next 3 weekends, watch out for gameday traffic with the football games; it can seriously screw up your otherwise short commute.

Retail suggestions: Morganelli's and Greene's on Piney Grove as mentioned.

References below:


Thirsty Fellow
http://www.thirstyfellow.com ask for Chuck

Flying Saucer
http://www.beerknurd.com/stores/columbia/

World of Beer
http://wobusa.com/Locations/TheVista.aspx

Speakeasy
http://www.delaneysspeakeasy.com

Delaneys
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Delaneys-Music-Pub/237907367229

Bar None
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/117/879196/restaurant/Bar-None-Columbia

Publick House
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/117/879962/restaurant/The-Publick-House-Columbia

 

Westbrook IPA, yummmmmm. But keep the cans out of the heat!

 

Interested in what you thought of H-G. Full disclosure: the brewer and owner is a personal friend of mine, and I used to drink his homebrews back in the late 80s early 90s. Complete full disclosure: I think the beers have lost quite a bit over the years, unfortunately.

 

I like and enjoy deliberate redundancies on purpose.

 

Looks like Coast Boy King is making the Rounds again. Downtown Columbia is nice, the surrounding area you need a gun for protection.