The Boulder DraftHouse

Stopped in here for lunch when we were in Boulder for a beer conference. We were still on EST so we were ready for lunch when they opened at 11:00 am. The doors were wide open so we walked in, but then we had to stand around a while before someone came out and said that they were indeed open. Variations on this repeated several times before we finally got a server to take our order.
We split a beer sample and enjoyed the 44 Pale Ale. The Fiesty Fiddler IPA was very piney on first taste and unfortunately had a soapy aftertaste.
The food was not to our liking (especially mine). The chili and beer cheese soup were fine, but everything else had too much pepper on them. I’m not a fan of pepper and couldn’t really eat my food.

Colorado Brewing Company’s Boulder Drafthouse redeemed the previous night’s lackluster experience at Walnut Brewery. The beers were tasty, the $ 7 beer n burger special deliciously affordable and to top it off, the Giants won (and we had a big screen to ourselves!)! Hooray!

I attended the draft house for a reception. They helped us coordinate about 20 – 30 people that were coming and going. We took up part of the back room. The service was fantastic, but the space was so big and open. I imagine it would be good for live music, but it’s pretty average for a gathering and socializing space. Decent beer – nothing to write home about.

Please go to Boulder DraftHouse for beer only. Every time we’ve gone to the DraftHouse, we have had a great time with great beer. The location is HUGE and I love their garage doors in the front. So this last time was no different with the exception that I was hungry. We ordered the calamari salad to start with. We were still deciding what entrée to have for dinner. Well when that $ 8 or $ 9 calamari salad came out, I wanted to tell the server to take it back EVEN before I took one bite. The portion was super small — WHAT AM I PAYING FOR??? And to make it worse, the calamari was chewy. It seemed like it was fake calamari, not fresh at all. After we finished our beer we left without ordering dinner. That plate had done us. NEXT!

I hate to give this place such a low rating, frankly I hate to write negative reviews in general. But I feel that it is really warranted after my experience at the Boulder DraftHouse. It was just so ‘meh’ on every level, what can I say? The space is nice, very different from Redfish which was here before for a long time. But good. It looks like a classy upscale brewery bar/​restaurant which could be partly why I found it so disappointing! I just did not feel that the food was upscale at all and in fact it was pretty lame. I had a buffalo burger with sweet potato fries and a spinach salad (I was really hungry, we rode our bicycles for a very long time before we went). The burger tasted okay but the bun was totally awful. It was like a store-​bought, store brand onion bun. Not toasted or anything. I don’t know, I guess I am just crabby today, but I think when I pay $ 10 for a burger I should have a tasty, toasted bun. Without little dehydrated onion pieces on it, that is just gross. The fries and salad were okay, nothing to write home about.
As far as service goes, it was pretty ‘meh’ also. The waitress was nice but we had a huge group and she flat out refused to do separate checks because she said it was a pain (this was before we even asked about it) which I guess is okay but she seemed pissy about it, and we didn’t even ask! Strange.
I would go back to give this place another shot, and I hope someone suggests it because I wouldn’t, but I would like to bump up my review. So note that friends and please insist we go there!

*** Life’s too short to drink mediocre brew. ***
So I must ask … why drink at Drafthouse?
The stout that I had on Wed tasted more
like a «porter that wannabe more». (lmao)
I didn’t finish it.
Buffalo burger & fries? Hmm, par at best.
The space? Huge but not very warm.
The live music? Wannabe reggae. ;(
*** So much potential, so lil time … g’luck. ***

Beer was mediocre. Mountain Sun 3 blocks away is 10x better. Food was a great deal with half price appetizers, but at anything over 50%, not a deal. Service was blah. Not going back; far better choices in food-​rich Boulder.

***CLOSED.***I like this place. Their beer is pretty good. and they do GREAT promo such as $ 1 drafts between 3−4pm, and that sort of thing, which makes it completely worth it. I like the non-​pretentious feel, and the garage door they can raise in nice weather is sweet! In March, you can feel like you are sitting outside, but still getting to watch March Madness. It’s sweet. My only bummer is that I can’t eat there bc they don’t have anything vegan on the menu. :(I would eat there much more regularly if I could nosh on some sort of burger or any other sort of nibbles. As a result, I find myself rarely there (bc really, who doesn’t like nibbling while they drink and watch sports?)… but overall I think this place rocks. I hope they stick around.

I am updating this simply because of the portabella fries & the long island iced tea. If you have not had your mushrooms fried before, you should definitely try it. They were fried in a corn meal batter which made them extra crunchy instead of soggy with grease.
We were there to watch football Saturday night and Bree (not sure of the spelling) hooked us up with a killer Long Island iced tea. It was so so good, not even a hint of alcohol taste. Amazing. Ask for her if you’re sitting at the bar ;o)

Formerly the Red Fish (an institution among the college crowd), the Draft House boasts live music and craft beer brewed on site.
Despite some success at the GABF this past year, I’m not entirely sold on their beer. Certainly, I’d rather drink it than a Coors, but for a place that offers no alternatives, it needs a bit of work. To be more specific, they lack at least one beer that stands out, one beer that provides flavor characteristics that can’t be found in another beer.
Reggae Night, a holdover from the Redfish days, continues to be a lively and fun event. The rest of their music nights, however, continue to need work. They get some really great acts in– and yet, they lack promotion. Thus, I have seen some great bands playing to an audience of about 5. Sometimes, when people are there, and want to dance, they leave the back room full of tables, keeping people sitting down or pushed into the corner by the bathroom hallway. It’s a relatively big room in the back, so if the ownership was willing to spend the money to get some bigger name groups in, do the legwork to promote, and make this a consistent practice– they could make a name for themselves in a town that has a large demographic of people who like to see live music at bars.
My REAL complaint here is with the bartenders. If there are more than 5 people at the bar, and you are a male, do not expect to get service from the male bartenders. Generally, bartenders will work their way down the bar. I have, on MULTIPLE occasions, been next in line at the bar, and had a male bartender return to the opposite end of the bar to serve a woman.
I give the Draft House 2 stars, but there is a great deal of potential here. Some improvements to their philosophy on live music, a bit of tweaking to their beer, and a revamping of their bar staff would make this a twice-​a-​week destination for me. Definition of «good bones».

The Boulder Draft house was a little hard to find, it almost seems nestled right into the side of a block of buildings along 13^th at the corner of Spruce. Once you see the sign though, you know you’ve got it.
I went up here for the first Sunday of NFL action with the ladyfriend and some other friends with whom I participate in a football pool.
The place is quite large, well decorated, and feels pretty open. We sat in the «back room» near the stage, and I can see why this would be a pretty fun musical venue.
There are a ton of HD flat screens hanging all around, so there’s plenty of opportunity to catch any of the games they have on. Service was pretty decent — though I’ve heard from other people that it’s pretty slow most of the time (the owner of the bar was sitting with us, that may have been why service was good.) The food was also pretty good, though I made the wrong choice. I had the chicken adobo which was a grilled chicken breast with cheese and lettuce and all that stuff on it – but each half of the sandwich also had an entire half of a pepper. It wasn’t bad, but by the end of the sandwich that’s all I could taste so I ended up pulling it off. I should’ve gone the way of the Cincinatti chili (which my friends told me was awesome) or something along the lines of a burrito or burger, it’s hard to go wrong with one of those.
The beer they have there is actually pretty good. I tried a red and then a Folsom Gold, both of which were pretty tasty. The red was a little hoppier than I had hoped, but still had good malt undertones. The Folsom Gold is a kolsch style that had a much more fruity aroma than I expected, but I’m definitely okay with that. It was very light, with good malt flavor, and finished very very well. If they keep up their good brews, they should have some success.
Overall it wasn’t a bad place. It was nearly empty (maybe 20 people inside) so I’d love to see them do some more marketing and advertising and get more folks in there, but clearly (as many people say) they’ve got a little work to do with their service. Once they find their «gimmicK» — football, soccer, tuesday night happy hour, 25 cent wing night, etc, then they’re gonna be just fine.
Since I live in Denver this place is a haul to get up to, but once a month for a party with the football pool is fine by me. I won’t fret about going back, though I really look forward to the time that they’re busier!

Wandering in off the street the dual sirens of live music and local beer drawing me in, I made my way to the bar-​and it being too early for the band I commenced to selecting a dinner meal. Being as it was Bad Food Saturday and I could eat whatever tickled my fancy the entire menu was open to me. The bartender, after explaining to me that she was a steak and potatoes kind of gal, steered me onto the fish and chips. Plain and simple I know, but they did serve them with malt vinegar. (plus in my book) The fish was actually really tasty, the chips were solid but the cole slaw, with a little extra vinegar was Outstanding! Enough so that I would order it again, even make a trip in if I was walking down the street, I really enjoyed it.
You’ve by no doubt noticed that I have not even touched on the beer yet… well I had the 13^th Street Wheat, and it did nothing for me. I am not sure if I was looking for something more «hefe-​weizeny» or maybe just something with a little more wheat and a little more kick. With all of the great brews in the area, I would not recommend this one to my friends. I expected more.
So while it is not off the list, I’ll need an enticement to head back in, especially with all the other great offerings in Boulder.

Food is decent although portions are small. Their service is pretty horrible. Apps came out and then we waited for over an hour for our entrees. They comped us two beers and that was about it. Won’t be going back here to eat, but would go here to drink and watch bands in their backroom/​stage area. Thought it would be an upgrade from the old Red Fish, but with the lack of service and quality food, it is basically the same place just redecorated.

It just wasn’t what I expected after reading the reviews. Perhaps we caught them on an off night but no restaurant should be quite that off. Waitstaff was slow and inattentive. Of the 5 or 6 in-​house brews, only 3 were available. The food was so-​so. My salmon Reuben was good but was short on the salmon and heavy on the buttered bread which overpowered the sandwich. My companion’s requested medium well burger came out medium rare. All that and the Brown beer wasn’t all that great IMO. Might try them again, especially when I want to see some live music as that seems to be a nice aspect of this bar/​restaurant.

I hit the Boulder Draft House on stop 2 of last week’s Denver Six Shooter. I know I’ve ripped on beer in the past, but when I see what’s in everybody’s glasses, I know that the shot of Jäger isn’t going to cut it. The crew has ordered a round of beers with this smoky, peachy color that’s catching the hazy evening light and making me salivate. It looks freaking delicious, and it is.
Bartender Rodrigo — a stalwart who stayed on from the days when this spot was inhabited by Redfish — tells me that it’s Blackberry Wheat and points out owner Jim Howser, who’s on the floor making sure things go right. The beer was released last night, Jim tells me. I tell him that I released last night, too, if he knows what I mean. That’s pretty much the end of the conversation.

I went to the Boulder DraftHouse because I was starving, and needed to eat. (But a beer sounded good also). I had their Salmon Reuben sandwich. It was great. I will fantasize about that sandwich in the future. The beer was so-​so. I realize that they were out of the IPA, but I was told that what I had was also hoppy, which it was not. I only gave 3 stars since it is a brewpub and the beer was lackluster. The food would be a do-​over for me, and it would be hard for me to pass up the gooey goodness of that Salmon Reuben.

With the renovation, this is a fun place to see live music. The sound is great and there’s room to dance. Beers are pretty good, though not my favorites among the all the Boulder-​brewed-​goodness out there. I did enjoy the seasonal imperial chocolate porter quite a bit. The waffle fries are perfect — piping hot and potato-​y and crispy all at once — and the onion rings are fancy, lightly fried red onion straws — though in my opinion they’d be a lot better without the bbq/​chipotle mayo they layer on top. I’m looking forward to trying more of the menu.

Maybe it’s the little things that count.
I decided to see how Redfish had evolved and dropped by one early Saturday afternoon. They had only recently opened and only a few tables, mainly outside, were occupied.
Completely unfamiliar with the menu, I chose to misbehave and get a beef slider (with cheese) and the pepperoni pizza roles. Admittedly, these items are probably not the best true test of a kitchen, but I had an impulse to eat something unhealthy for a change.
The waitress reminded me that sliders come one to an order, and that was fine with me (as I intended to try a pulled pork one if I liked the beef). Turns out they brought me two (no extra charge).
They were sinfully delicious. Good caramelizing on the patties, yet nice and medium-​rare on the inside. The buns were the highlight, sweet, and, from what I could tell, grill toasted on the inside faces almost to the point of overdone and this added to the flavor.
The pizza rolls were deep fried dark golden brown (not just tan and undone like I’ve had them elsewhere). I still feel bad about eating them… they were so good. Father forgive me for I have enjoyed the hell out of a high-​end junk food meal.
They were out of the pale ale (their brew with the least amount of alcohol, and with Boulder Police ignoring all crime except for DUIs I didn’t want any problems). She suggested the next one up the scale, «…it’s hoppier!» and it was delicious and refreshing.
Redfish ran its course. I don’t recall ever being drawn to their menu — it was the live music I enjoyed. The Draft House has moved the bar to the front, and repositioned the live stage (I think… I was too distracted by my meal to stroll back there). Moving the bar was a good idea, since it gives folks outside a view of the action, and the bar patrons a view out.
I’ll definitely go back and try some more items. What impressed me (along with the extra slider — thanks guys!) was the quality level of a couple of stupid appetizer items. If these simple things taste this good, I’m eager to try something more challenging.

Dinner for 4 with 2 apps and drinks: $ 50!!!
Now that I’ve caught your attention– that is not a typo. And the food doesn’t suck either, in fact, it is really good. The portion sizes are not astronomical, but they don’t skimp either.
There are tons of veggie, and meat options, and everything is fresh and delicious.

The Boulder Drafthouse inhabits the old «Redfish» in Boulder.
We found out about the place from a waitress at another bar who suggested we swing by and take a look.
This place had just opened. There were signs on the door literally pleading with pedestrians to come in. «YES WE ARE OPEN! Please come in for lunch!!»
We stopped in and were excited by what we saw. They quickly and eagerly seated a rowdy party of 6 and we proceeded to order their beer tasters and some appetizers.
Their beer is great. I especially liked their 44 Pale Ale and the Big Bella Brown. All of their beers were quite drinkable for a casual beer lover, and yet were distinctive enough to give you a good impression of the brewer’s personal style.
Appetizers were delicious, and I’m eager to return for a full meal.
The interior still smelled like «new,» but the woodwork is beautiful and I don’t doubt this place could turn out to be a rockin’ good time.