Williamsburg VA trip

The best bottle shop hands down is Hair of the Dog. Decent selection of bottles, they get all the new releases, the prices are about par, and they have an okay growler fill station with a tiny bar. It's connected to the Dog St. Pub, a restaurant with decent food and a good beer selection as well.

Across the street is the wine cellar beneath the Cheese Shop. It's seen better days, and is an option but tends to be a little more expensive and not nearly as wide of a selection.

A few miles down the road is The Wine Seller. Relatively large selection, some good prices on 6ers, and you might get lucky and find a few things you wouldn't find at HotD.

Finally, Alewerks is closeby as well, the best brewery in the area. They have a few beer releases in November I believe; they have a great tap room, and will have bottles for sale then (though it's hard to say what, outside of their regulars).

Cheers!

 

Brass Cannon in another brewery worth worth checking out. Small now but they just announced expansion plans. I.s. Alewerks is right across from the outlets if that is you WBurg intentions

 

Bill said it pretty well. Just adding on. Dog St Pub has a pretty ridiculous bottle selection and the taps usually rotate out some pretty cool things. They'll also do growler fills on most anything at the bar too.

Hair of the Dog has a counter-pressure system, they also do crowlers. Their taps rotate pretty quickly. They also will pull some cool things out of the cellar seemingly at random so you never know what you might find on the 1 per person shelf. Small warning on Hair of the Dog, might want to check bottle dates.

Also if you're going up to Brass Canon/Alewerks - you'll be right by the newish pottery Their wine store has a relatively decent beer selection. Lots of locals, like some Hardywood stuff that's long since disappeared elsewhere (great news on things from the barrel program, not so much for something like the RVA IPA).

 

I'll also be traveling to Williamsburg this weekend, and I plan on hitting up the Dog St Pub, as well as Hair of the Dog.

Any good restaurant suggestions (regardless of beer selection)? I have a toddler, which is something to keep in mind. We plan on hitting up the Christmas Parade on Saturday morning, but any other things you recommend that we do or see?

 

Hair of the dog. Also try to make it to Richmond and go to the answer brewpub, as well as the Thai restaurant next door. (I believe it's Thai)

 

If you're talking about just straight food, then Fat Canary and Le Yaca(French cuisine) are probably the best restaurants in Williamsburg. Fat Canary has an okay beer selection, obviously Le Yaca stick with wine. I've heard good things about Silt, a locavore, farm-to-table centric place over by Busch Gardens, but haven't been yet.

 

I saw Fat Canary and Le Yaca, but my kid is peak Toddler right now. Not sure French food is the best idea. Any thoughts on Food for Thought or the New York Deli / Pizza joint? I wish there was a place to get some quick good Thai or Vietnamese food, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

 

Food For Thought is fantastic. It's a good mix of family-friendly environment and quality, fresh ingredients. I taked out-of-town people there often and they've always been impressed. Beer menu is tiny, but usually decent with Hardywood, Alewerks, and they had Breakfast Stout on tap last time I went.

 

My thought was exactly that when I saw Le Yaca - I have a toddler and wouldn't go there, Silt, etc. Dog St and most of the places in the colonial part are fine.

There really aren't any "good" thai places, but there is Peter Changs.

The NY Deli has some pretty solid sandwiches, but if you want to stay closer to the colonial part of town you could just hit up Paul's Deli across from the football stadium. NY Deli will have less of a college crowd though for sure, and is pretty close to Alewerks if you're going there.

I've also heard great things about The Crust if you're looking for pizza in the CW area, though I haven't been.

Generally speaking, Williamsburg is pretty family friendly unless you go into a college bar in the later part of the evening so it's mostly a matter of where you're comfortable taking your kind imo. You can take your kid to Alewerks, I have. But if you're like me you'll be racing his/her patience and trying to down a Jubilee or Cafe Royale before the kid's patience level drops to zero.

Hope that helps! Feel free to send me a message if you have other more specific questions.

 

sorry, didn't catch the toddler part

 

If not too late, try Oceans and Ale, Olde Towne Rd, google map calls it located at premium outlet but it's on a corner of a small shopping center adjoining the outlets, so don't let that fool you.

For any in your party wanting other than what is always a decent variety on tap, Sunday's have a body mary bar buffet if you will, everything you could ever dream of putting in a Bloody Mary-- along with little snacky things, that go with your drink concoction.

Not my thing personally but have taken non beer lovers, and they raved.

 

Skip Brass Cannon they are easily in the bottom 5 of the whole state.