Skytop Steakhouse and Brewing Company

No Longer In Business

UPDATE: No longer serves its own beers, selection is medocre, plus it smelled like crap last time I was here. Visited this place twice over the last week. Located on a side of a hill not much more than a few minutes from the NY Thuway and the Rhinecliff-Kingston Bridge, it is fairly easy to get to from most areas in the mid Hudson Valley region. Walk in the door and greated by a large bar with plenty of seats. The room has a ski lodge feel to it, a fireplace and, a good view of Kingston. All but one beer served were some lager style. I had the Black Lager and the Pilsner. Both were nice. Beer was served in clean pint glasses. The bar tenders were friendly and prompt. Food was prepared pretty quickly after ordering. Selction of beer was all of their own beers. As noted before, mainly lagered styles. The beers were good, nothing to write home about but tasty none the less. Food was good, had a steak sandwich one night and a burger another. Most entrees were in $20 range, IT IS a Steak House. However, sandwiches were much more reasonable.

I was extremely excited to visit this place over the weekend! My friend and I booked a room at the Skytop Roadway Inn (right next to it) just so we could go to the brewery and walk back to our room. We went to the Skytop Steakhouse at 10:00 P.M. on Saturday night. When we entered the establishment we were told by the hostess that we would have to wait 5 or 10 minutes before she could tell us how long the wait was. After 5 minutes a manager came over and said "guys come with me" and took us to the dining room...where 60% of the tables were empty. I am a beer snob! I was very excited with the prospect of trying many of their beers. We were given bread by the manager and a menu. The first beer I ordered was unavaliable, so I went for the IPA. After ordering the beer the waitress made a big show about checking my identification. I am 25 and have a beard. She checked the ID’s and took our food order also. (As a vegetarian there were 2 things on the menu I could eat, a mushroom sandwich and nachos w/o chili). About 5 minutes after the waitress took our drink and food order another lady came up to our table and introduced her self as being the manager. She told us that she needed to see our ID’s. I casually said "The waitress already carded us" she said "I know, and that’s why I came over she told me to check your ID’s again" Frustrated, I gave her my drivers license again. After looking at the license and me and the license and me again...she asked if I had any other form of ID to prove my license’s authenticity. At this point I was getting pretty annoyed!!! I gave her my Temple University ID and she made a fuss of explaining that they don’t really trust out of state drivers licenses. At this point I was very annoyed....She told me that I looked young and that I should expect it to happen more often. Aside from the staff being rude. The nachos...were horrible. chips were a little stale and it had no real flavor. The IPA was good but was uncharacteristic of most IPA’s, which generally do not have a smoky oak tone. In defense to the Skytop my friend reported that both the Garlic Parm wings and Prime Rib sandwich were good.

Owned by the same people who own the Hyde Park Brewery. I figured it was probably time I made a trip up here (it’s really only about a half hour away) to check the place out. Based solely on appearance this place is great. Large open spaces in a big roomy location situated on a great vantage point. Large ample porch offers excellent outdoor seating. The one downside is that you miss much of that view depending on where you sit at the bar, though the only seats really missing the view are staring right at the two tvs, so I guess it’s a priority thing. We ordered 4 different small things, and my wife got a burger which she found fairly good. Daily app special was a sesame tofu over mixed greens, and was tasty. The garlic fried potatoes were a bit greasy, but really good, as was my side salad and garlic pizza. The beers however...I’ll be coming back a few times to try any new seasonals, but the six I tried tonight ranged from poor to barely passable. If you’re passing through, I’d say stop in for a decent meal and a great view, but some rather mediocre beers, the bulk of which were pretty heavy on the DMS.

It had a nice view from the back porch. Place is very modern looking for the backwoods backdrop. The place gives a very clean appearance. The food was very good I had the tuna and my wife had the steak . They only had about five beers to choose from but they were tasty. Overall a great find for the kingston NY area.

Very nice atmosphere for being located in Kingston, a town which has a lot of very shady locations. Sits up on a hill overlooking the highway so easy to get to. I was there on a Saturday night and it wasn’t crowded and had some live music which was nice. Didn’t try the food, but prices were expensive (4.50 for a pint). Definitely worth a stop.

This place has different beers than the other place by the same brewer, Hyde Park. Very good food and as it says Steakhouse. They are good I will say that. Steaks just the way you want it with good beer and sometimes have live music. Big place in the top of a mountain and has a nice view as will. The beers are not crazy but you have to want to go for the food too. This band I know, 3 plays there sometimes.

Huge place on top of a little mountain that is only a little detour off the highway. The estate taken just by itself is a boring generic big pub/restaurant. However when taking the view and surrounding into account it is rather pleasant. 5 beers on tap only. Most were so-so typical american resto-pub brews. Food was good. Ok for food and beer on your way to/from somewhere.

Dinner with the wife. It was a slow night with a small group of regulars at the bar for happy hour when we walked in. A nice table in the corner looking out on the patio smoking area. Carpenter bees dive bombing patrons. NIce touch I thought. Brew house is mixed 7 and 15 barrel systems. Well kept and shiny. I will return again to try all types since the barrel 28 is a seasonal offering.

I didn’t get the same exhilarating lager experience my pals got last year, but I didn’t leave completely disappointed. The pizza with goat cheese and portobello mushrooms was pretty good, if not crispy enough. The lagers were all very drinkable, but somewhat watery and lackluster. Not up to the standards of Franconia or the Czech Republic, for example. The scottish ale was very good though. An decent brewpub stop along I-87, but nothing more for me this time around.

Modern looking restaurant, airy. A terrace almost among the tree, perhaps 150 feet high is where we tasted their beers. Quality food is accompanied by well above average beers. Especially remarkable lagers. The selection likely will never grow much further than it was, I doubt you’ll ever see big bold highly alcoholic beers, but if this keeps on, the quality will make it worth your time. With the prime location close to Half Time, this is a must detour. "I like your geeky shoes by the way"