Lost Colony Brewery and Café

This is an old-school brewpub in a historic building that fits in well with downtown Manteo. The inside is quite small but they have seating in a courtyard. It's a British pub concept which was getting a bit tired over a decade ago but now it brings some nostalgia to me, especially in such a historic area like this. The beer is pretty solid and it's not like there's an abundance of bitters and British pales these days. Lost Colony is most certainly not an innovative, modern brewery cranking out stellar beers but sipping on a local beer in the surroundings of downtown Manteo is a great way to spend an afternoon.

Stopped in for lunch in the off season and the bar was pretty full. Mind you it is a small space. All in all a nice beach vibe, even at the end of November. I tried all 8 beers on draft, and they were solid, as was the food. Nice stop.

My wife and I made a special trip to visit as we have an affinity for brewpubs. Sadly, we conclude that it was not worth the time, money and effort. The server committed the cardinal sin of failing to deliver the proper beer. The tuna sandwich was delivered raw, not medium rare as specified. After the meal, I discreetly registered my complaint with the manager, who couldn't be bothered: no apology, nothing. This place spent a lot of time, money and effort in developing graphics for each of their beers. They should have concentrated on customer service and basic pride of ownership. I got the distinct impression theycould care less now that the tourists have arrived. Shameful!

Small indoor space, bar is cramped. Nice outside eating area if the weather cooperates. Food was pretty average, as was the beer....Nothing horrible, just nothing special. Felt everything was pretty average, like they know they have you here on Manteo & there are limited places to go....so enough folks end up here for them to get by. I think this place could be so much more if they put forth more effort, need to start by making better beer! I know it’s hard for them to get enough good help here....but I found other places on Manteo which were so much nicer & were making things happen. I tried coming back here a second time a year after my first visit thinking maybe I was a little hard on them, but I ended up walking out w/o eating after sampling a couple very average beers.

There is an interesting division of space at this place. There is a small separate bar area that seats about 12-15 where the brewing equipment is and then the main dining area. The staff were friendly but didn’t seem very knowledgeable about the beer. We got two appetizers to share (crab dip and calamari) and weren’t terribly impressed with either. The beer was rather mediocre across the board and it seems like the brewer is trying to use a limited list of ingredients for all the brews (a lot of taste cross over). Given the small brewing space, it seems like they are trying to make the most of it. The prices were a bit of shock ($7.50 for snifter of the higher ABV stuff). I guess you can get away with it since it’s one of the only breweries in the Outer Banks. They did have some guest taps which was nice. A much better bet for the wallet, food, and beer quality is the Outer Banks Brewing Station. It might be worth stopping by if you are in Manteo but it’s not worth a trip to go just for the beer.

Very small bar area, just a few tables. outside deck table area. very friendly service, decent prices, tanks behind the bar. nice little place to stop and have a decent beer.

Sat in the bar area. Great service and decent brew.

Nice place but it seemed thay tried to put as many tables as possible. Some of the staff was less than happy or caring. Our server was polite but he screwd up our every single order. Pricess reasonable. Beer still needs some work.