Reading the reviews, I had not known what to expect. This place has to be seen to be belived. The kind of concept bar I expect to see in Brooklyn, but you’re not in brooklyn. The crowd consists of suburban Pittsburgh folks: not the hipster type, quite the opposite actually. I don’t know that I’d spend an evening here, maybe with a bunch of friends, but not alone. Basically, there are 3 rooms. You enter into a bar area, pretty typical. Adjacent is the restaurant side and when I say restaurant, I really mean a hot dog joint. I’m almost sad I have not tried one yet I generally hate hot dogs. On top of the hot dog bar thrones a cheap white board on which some 20 or so beers are offered on draught. Pretty good selection actually. Expect the likes of Stone, Troegs, Victory and the likes on tap. And in the back of the bar area is the beer cave where you can pick up bottles to go. I doubt there are 800 of them, but it remains the largest (though not the best) selection of singles I’ve seen in PA (I have a lot more to see). You’ll find stuff from California, Michigan, Ohio, PA. Solid selection, though not packed with rarities. Prices remain a bit expensive, but I guess that’s the PA way, at least you remove 1$ of the singles prices for takeout bottles. Even if I was not overly impressed, I can still imagine that this is the best selection within a few hours of driving.

For a PA bottle shop, it’s not bad. The place has two entrances: one that looks like a cozy pub, the other that looks like a diner. The bottle shop is in the back with a walk in fridge. Prices are kind of high til you realize they discount a dollar if you buy your own pick six. Selection is strong on PA and domestic craft, less so on Belgian or other European’s. (it’s about as strong as you can get without stocking anything imported by Shelton Brothers.) so from a local perspective this selection is quite good, but I don’t think of it as a destination place.

oddly, the friendly staff person sent me to the coolers instead of the shelves. I was on my own back there, which is fine as there are many many single bottles, very well organized in alphabetical order. My expectations were met on American and German beers. It is comparable to selection to perhaps Beers of the World in Richester. There were a few taps, all high quality, and I had the Lagunitas Imperial Red and the 10th Anniversary Alt by Victory. Tight to get around, and a narrow bar, with more tables in the adjoining space. This place must get crowded.

Stopped here in the Summer of 2008 to buy beer to go. Decent selection. Did not end up seeing any Westy. There was a decent selection of some locals (Church Brew and East End), but not what Id hoped for (no limited Penn or East End 750s). Also, they were advertising Peche Mortel, but there was none available. The shelves were majorly disordered and the beer was split between the cooler and a cave. Prices seemed a nip high. But, definitely worth the stop.

So far my favorite beer store. This seemingly dingy hole-in-the-wall is only a charade - or is that facade? Anyway, food is hot dogz and fries, but on tap are alway 5-6 good beers. In the back are shelves and shelves of bottled beer. Over 800 beers (no macros) from around the world, including a nice selection of Belgians. Prices are a bit high, but then again - it's Pennsylvania. Worth the trip if you're in the 'Burgh.

Visited last November on a Saturday and luckily had a GPS in the car or I might not have ventured so far from my fellow lindy hopping travellers -- but boy am I glad I did, what a selection!! Dozens of interesting little bottles and bombers were in the huge walk-in fridge (Weyerbacher, Victory, Stoudt, Sly Fox, local stuff, imports, etc) and when I thought I was done, I belatedly noticed there was a huge room in the back with dozens and dozens more! I had to laugh. Prices were good, service was sub-par (they left me standing there for a rather long time while getting on with other things), hot dogs in the room next door smelled delicious and every guy in the place had their eyes glued to the game on TV (though they gave me funny looks as I ran back and forth with a few six packs in my arms). Would definitely check out again.

nice place... good dogs, decent service, a large selection of beers, although not much in the way of rarities, mostly just locals though.

When I saw the ratings on this place I thought it would be great. The traffic’s terrible. Fruit cellar in the back where they keep the beer. Expensive and nobody to help you. The pricing seemed easy but once you get to the checkout, they pull the wool over your eyes. There’s this sign, $6 off a mixed six pack. Well, put my six pack together, come to a total of $14.50 less $6 and the total cost should have been $9.50 Right? At the checkout with the $6 discount it came to $12. Went over the prices with the girls and discussed in simple math how it rang up incorrectly. Well, the girls at the checkout were too busy watching TV and could care less about what I read on the price tags. She just kept insisting these were not the wrong prices. Little did they know I just spent 30 minutes cruizing thru the selection trying for low price beers. Ended up paying $2.50 more than I should have. I know $2.50 is no big deal but I couldn’t help feeling I had been ripped. There are other more friendly bottle shops in the Pittsburgh area. The Beer Store in Moon, 3 Sons in Wexford and Vintage Estates in Boardman Ohio. Go there, you’ll have a much more enjoyable time. The ratebeer tour guide’s comment on the top of this page must be ancient, it should be updated. Note (6/15/07): had a draft there since above rating, service is a little better.

I think I’m growing bitter and curmudgeonly in my old age. This used to be my favorite place to stop by for singles in Pittsburgh, but I managed to stop in today and not find anything at all that I wanted to pick up. Truth be told, this place has a great selection of probably 500+ bottles, but the selection is patchy and any rarities have long since departed, leaving a scattered selection of questionably fresh bottles. Don’t get me wrong: loads of great beer in this store, and the tap selection at the bar was excellent when we were there (~20 beers, lots of regional selections). The prices are pretty high in the beer cave, and even the mixed six-pack discount doesn’t fully fix that, but welcome to Pennsylvania. Definitely a place to stop at least once, and stop by the Map Room next door for East End beers afterwards.

a kind of a hobbit like low ceiling bar it is an old hole in the wall basically. but the beer colllection is quite respectable the place is pretty darn clean and the staff were all quite helpful, friendly and pleasant. the place snakes around and they have a fairly large cool room stocked with a pretty good amount of beer, about twelve wiresteel shelves full of cold beer. right behind in another long room they have a pretty decent collection of warm stuff with some stuff hanging out in the walkway. i thought i was getting fleeced on some bottles till the guy let me know that everything taken out receives a $1discount on the bottle. that made things fairly good as i got some hard to find bottles at $2 to $2.50 a bottle. wish i would have eaten there because i knew that i would have eaten the dogs because they smelled more that worthy! about a dozen or so quality taps hniging out by the counter.