Great Lost Bear

Rustic hunting lodge vibe with lots of kitschy memorabilia on the walls. Service was great, food was tasty and the selection was excellent with 80 taps.

Unfortunately, no belligerently intoxicated town-drunks or gracefully distractable bartenders were seen upon either of my two visits from last winter. I noticed their large beer menu was filled mostly with widely distributed New England offerings and generally three one-offs from the area, much like what most of the reviewers have said in one way or another. Not terribly exciting as far as selections go, dare I say. This is the place in which its best use would be in meeting fiery and interesting local people. So many distinct, storied faces it was a lot like walking into an Edward Hopper painting. Their kitchen pushes out some decent, inexpensive pub food. It hadn’t been particularly memorable but I didn’t remember anything specifically negative about the experience, either.

Its definitely a dive bar and not in a good way. Parking is very tight next to the bar. It looks like it was much nicer a decade or two ago. They have a lot of taps but aside from the Allagash taps not a lot of interesting or rare beer. The wings were just this side of edible. The bartender was in the weeds the whole time and seemed confused as to why I’d want a separate check for beer. Hello Business trip.

Neighborhood institution with a huge taplist, mostly beers from Maine and the Northeast. Definitely a place that goes for breadth over depth. No, they don’t have many rare experimental brews, but they do have a lot of stuff you won’t find other places in town, mostly from smaller, less-hip Maine breweries. And the prices are much better than the places downtown. Also has a big food menu with good portions for good prices. Always a fun evening, great place to meet friends!

This place was depressing, it’s like where the townies all went to die. It was dead quiet as people drank away their sorrows lonely. The server seemed to busy, and not friendly at all. As a plus they offer flights on their 70 drafts so you can go to tick, but not a place I found very fun.

Dark and gloomy bar to walk into after enjoying a lovely clear spring day around the breweries. The tap selection has a good representation of Maine breweries but much of it can be found around Portland’s beer bars. A lot of pedestrian and easily accessible interstate beers on that list. Service was OK. I guess it’s a true local pub but somehow doesn’t have much character and kind of souless. It probably didn’t help I had an old drunk dude sitting next to me on his sixth can of whatever crap swill he was drinking. Anyway it’s worth a look if heading back from the breweries further north.

Very laid back and chill atmosphere. I enjoy sitting in the lounge area which is always busy. The selection of beers is incredible and the food menu is quite large. The service could have been faster but I’m sure that my server just had too many table which happens sometimes. I like the wings and choosing many different beers each time I come back to the GLB.

Another Maine place, I’m about to upload for information purposes. I was once stationed in Maine and here’s my take on this awesome place. Though a tad dark most of the time, I’ve been there, its still a great place to have almost any brew you’re lookin’ for from the New England states. Even when its pretty busy, the service is mostly still good. I’ve had a fair amount of somewhat rare beers here, but also somewhat new for the most part. The food is absolutely excellent every time I’ve had it. The value, hmmm...well, it is New England (go figure, not gonna say too much). Overall, thought a tad more pricier than other places, I went there when I could and almost always loved it. Last thing, if you’re not a local, take a taxi, parking leaves more than enough to be desired - it sucks the rat’s ass.

This place was really hoppin’ on a Friday evening. Went up to the bar, which was rather large and found an empty seat way around the back. Lots of beer on tap, including about 6 Allagash. I only stayed for 1 beer, however, because of the drunk frat assholes sitting next to me at the bar. Loud, obnoxious, drunk. Just bad luck for me, I guess.