A lot of great posts this week! Thanks for that really nice marathon report, RF Reader. Nothing to feel down about in how it all played out. Seems you did quite well relatively speaking.
Racerdb wrote:
I'll defer to L2b on other places but the two brewpubs I've been to have been really, really nice. (Great beers, great food, great atmosphere) In September, my wife and I met L2b at West 6th Brewing for a few then we headed over to Ethereal Brewing for a few more. Then there is the post race party at Sawyer’s Downtown. It looked like they have local craft beers on tap. Our team is staying at La Quinta
Well, the brewpub scene in Lexington has gone bonkers in the last five years, but it's supposed to be pretty cold, and I'm not sure what the transportation capabilities are of those flying in. Reality is that most the good ones are within walking distance of downtown when the weather is good, but could be a miserable hike if it's cold and windy. Pies and Pints is good, but it might be busy. On the other side of that same Victoria Square is Hopcat, which has a very large local selection (even though they are a chain,) but could also be very busy. Thankfully, UK basketball is playing at Madison Square Garden this Saturday, so there won't be the typical UK crowd mulling about. I don't think that the regional NCAA Women's Volleyball Championships will pose too much of a problem. I've also heard that the Village Idiot is pretty good, but I haven't been there.
Other options:
i) If you can venture over towards Jefferson St. There are few good options : Namely West 6th, Blue Stallion, and Chase Taproom. West 6th brews more IPA and Stout, while Blue Stallion brews more Germanic-style beers. Chase doesn't brew their own, but has a nice selection. West sixth would be a bit of a hike by foot.
ii) Country Boy is the other direction from downtown closer to the Town Branch Distillery that y'all talked about. It has a hole in the wall feel, but they brew a lot of good beers, tend to have more on the IPA side...especially their experimental batches.
iii) If industrial chic is your preferred atmosphere, I'd highly recommend heading over to Ethereal and/or Godfathers Pizza next door to it. But you're not going to walk there from downtown.
iv) A friend of mine owns Pivot Brewing over on Delaware, and he caters more to ciders, if that appeals to you. They also brew some good beers. In particular, I like their ESB, one that you don't often see in local offerings. But you're not going to walk there. Over in that area is also Mirror Twin Brewing, that has a broad spectrum of tasty microbrews and shares the space with a really nice pizza joint.
If push came to shove, my top 5 would be Ethereal, Blue Stallion, West 6th, Pivot, Country Boy...that might also be my order of preference, but I like them all. Hasn't helped my waistline, though, especially since I've been running so little of late.
OK. That's the lowdown.