What makes a good beer restaurant?

Local, fresh and reasonably priced. Also, in your drive to become a good beer restaurant don't ignore the bmc drinker. People still drink budweiser. At the very least put some Natty Boh on tap and charge $2 a draft.

 

This thread is well above my requirements, good food + good beer = good time

A good looking waitress is a +. She does not necessairly need to know about the beer selections, I can make those decisions. Knowledge of the food however is a plus.

 

Tasty food, great beer list, fair prices.

 

Adding my 2 cents and saying: knowledgeable staff. Most of my non-beer nerd friends are still open minded people that are wiling to try new things. A knowledgeable and engaging bartender/waiter helps them try new things that they'll likely enjoy. EX: A friend fell in love with a beer that they would never choose on their own (N'Ice Chouffe) because the waitress at Owen & Engine in Chicago listened to the preferences and paired it perfectly with their meal ... as well as the snowy night.

 

You just described my ideal place! I'll add burgers to the list, too- have a custom grind, do it fresh every day...house made buns- you know the deal. To me all of that is definitely worth going out for, especially with a well-chosen beer selection.

On top of that, I guess I'll just echo what others have said:
Knowledgeable and courteous staff!
Clean Lines!

 

Certainly all of the other things previously above but here is my pet peeve:

Temperature (of the brew). And don't bring me a frosted glass.

 

In my experience food should be foremost & of excellent quality.
Beer selection doesn’t need to be particularly large but needs to be exiting, go well with food & avoid any common and obvious beers. It is not a bar, food should be the draw otherwise you are just serving food to go along with beer & you are no longer a restaurant.
Having some dishes cooked with beer is always a nice bonus.

 

I think your last point is very important. You need a good variety of beers to choose from. Having all IPAs and Pale ales isn't going to cut it even if they are all great choices individually just like having every flavor of BMC is a false sense of choices.

Good apps. let's face it. beer has a lot of calories per serving. so why should the appetizers at a restaurant all be unhealthy greasy foods? don't underestimate the power of a nice salad and a good beer. not everything has to be deep fried to go good with beer.

 

This is a very good, honest point. Especially if the subject bar is in a densely populated bar area or tourist area and especially if your beer restaurant is doing growler fills which leads me to my next point: If your restaurant is doing growler fills, don't make the growler prices based on some per glass/pint price multiple. That is rookie beer restaurant stuff.

Finally, I am fortunate to live near one of the best beer bars in the country (Cloverleaf Tavern) and besides fulfilling most of the points raised by others prior to my post, they also have a great set of loyalty programs. They have a loyalty card for returns on every dollar spent. They have MBA and PHD programs which once fulfilled have great benefits like an extra 2 - 4 oz of every beer ordered once you're in, etc. This bar is tits and the food is good enough to have you go there for more than a drink. Go there for some research.

 

Also, I think that beer geeks are less open to "compromise" selections than wine drinkers might be. For instance, a restaurant might really want to serve a high end Cabernet like Caymus, but realizes that none of their targeted audience could afford Caymus. So instead they serve Sterling or Columbia Crest. A wine drinker might still go there and say “I wish they had Caymus, but at least they have Sterling.”
I am not so sure that a craft beer drinker uses this same decision making process. If a restaurant wants to serve Funkwurks but thinks that it is too out there for their audience, and serves Blue Moon instead, the beer drinker will not drink the Blue Moon instead of the Funkwurks. That beer drinker will go somewhere else. Beers like Goose Island 312, Blue Moon, Stella Artois and others are not suitable substitutes in the same way that some medium priced wines have become for higher priced cult selections.
I think that 5 taps is enough as long as the beer is well selected. An Old Chicago will often have 40 taps, but often only 2 of the beers are well chosen and the other beers are just competing with each other.

 

No "frosted" mugs/glasses!

 

cleanliness
nice selection ( I'm spoiled by our 80 rotating tap, tap house)
price- reasonable prices with some type of specials (happy hour, certain day specials(ex. $3.50 draft Monday and Wednesday)
staff - I don't care so much if they are a beer expert or not but I really hate it when I'm trying to have a good time and my server is having an attitude problem for whatever reason.

 

My favorite local restaurant is something of a hole in the wall. Long and narrow with about 16 tables and a bar that runs about half the length. Why do I like this place so much (besides the food?)

Selection is king for me. But I don't need 50 taps, or even 24, particularly in a restaurant. This place has about 10 taps. They always have Racer 5, Weihenstephaner Hefe, and Allagash White, and a couple others (Radeberger Pilsner and PBR) round out about the full-time taps. Then they rotate a Jack's Abby, 6-Point, Mayflower, and a couple others. A Backlash DIPA was on last week. My point is they have a great, ever-changing selection. They also have a large bottle selection (on its own menu), but I always order from the taps.

Second, the bartenders always pour the beers properly in the appropriate glassware. I think it adds to the experience. Most times the beer arrives in actual brewery glassware. It's also very clean. I've never seen a bubble clinging to the inside of a glass.

Last and least important is the knowledge of the wait staff. The beer menu is clearly marked and the wait staff knows enough to be able to identify the style of beer. If the waitress doesn't know a style I've asked her for a sample glass and have always been met with a cheerful response. If you don't want to put the wait staff through a rigorous training process, just make sure that samples are offered. The bartenders also make up for any inadequacies that the wait staff may have. I've always had interesting conversations with them when I stop in after work for a beer or two.

Porter Café in West Roxbury, for all you Bostonians living south of the city.

 

I like when a bar has a Twitter feed that updates a few times a week with what they have on tap. If I know they just tapped OB Ten Fidy, I'm going there first chance I get to grab a pint and food.

 

Full pours with top-up understood
No smoke
No TVs
Clean pissers
No tipping necessary (pay staff a living wage for godsake)
Darts

 

Yes Knowlegeable is important. It is frustrating when the bartender describes everything except the BMC as "Hoppy."

 

I would tend to agree with you completely. Just to play devils advocate though, what about the people that just want to get a couple pints and get the fuck out? I can only speak for the Portland market, but it seems like there are places to eat, and places to drink, but not much in between. Im tired of going to Apex(one of the more reputable beer bars in the area) and staring at that huge TV that is either off, or showing mountain biking highlights. Put the fucking Blazer game on and call it a night. Its not bothering anyone to have it on mute....Anyway. Do you think this kind of place has a future? Rotating taps, with a TV at the bar, serving fresh local food with an everchanging menu in a space that is clean, accomidating, and well designed?

 

Sounds like that place would have a potentially great future. I got nothing against the folks who want a few pints and then want to leave, but the OP seemingly wants people to stay and eat so I shared my point of view on the matter.