Latest reviews from Napa
| 72 /100 610 1ST ST “Nice tap room next to Oxbow market, about 20 beers on tap as noted. Lots of German influence which i look for. Nice staff, didn’t see any food but Oxbow next door.“ |
| 54 /100 Whole Foods Market - Napa (Grocery Store) 3682 BEL AIRE PLAZA “Ratings are too high. I suspect because since the last rating in 2016, Whole Foods has demphasized craft beer, it seems to me in 2020. They don’t purchase from local breweries, just larger craft breweries. There are some exceptions, but Napa Whole Foods is Meh for beer....great for everything else.“ |
| 84 /100 610 FIRST ST, STE 23 “Kind of redundant to review Oxbow market and Fieldwork brewing. Fieldwork is inside the market with 24 taps at $2/4oz taster of awesome beers. The rest of market has great foods and wines, but little beers. Best place in Napa.“ |
| 84 /100 610 1ST ST “Tasting room at Oxbox market. During Covid you have to order food with beer, and you can only order 3 tasters at a time. Limited seating inside, but the dry September heat outside is kind of nice. Huge selection of maybe 20+ taps. Fieldwork beers are always excellent.“ |
| 84 /100 610 1ST ST “In a mixed used market type area off the main drag in Napa, with a good amount of high tops and bar space inside, and a few small tables outside. Service was great, knowledgeable and able to help navigate the fairly large selection. Varied beers, from fruited sours and hazy IPAs to West Coast old school and even a stout in the summer. Can grab food from any of the stalls in the market and have a good time other than wine in Napa, definitely worth a stop.“ |
| 82 /100 610 1ST ST “Now this is how to shop. Tucked in a large corner of a trendy Napa market. Great beer selection and super friendly service. Can be crowded, but lots of space inside and out. Pleasantly a different tap selection than the Sac location.
Food all around the brewery spot.“ |
| 72 /100 610 1ST ST “Good ranch of beers. Lacks space and food but a good spot to relax and have a beer.“ |
| 78 /100 Whole Foods Market - Napa (Grocery Store) 3682 BEL AIRE PLAZA “Pretty much what everyone else said. I was really impressed with their selection of local and California craft beers.“ |
| 64 /100 Raley’s (Grocery Store) 217 SOSCOL AVENUE “This is a supermarket with a terrific selection of foods, beverages and routine household necessities. Their beer selection is impressive and features a lot of top notch California-brewed craft beers. However, this is nothing close to being a high end bottle shop, and it isn’t supposed to be.“ |
| 60 /100 902 MAIN ST “You don’t visit Napa for great beers. The town is all about wine, of course. But when I saw this brewpub, nicely located at the riverfront promenade and Veterans Memorial Park, I had to try a beer. I chose Tantric IPA, not really good but acceptable. Small pours are 10oz. The brewpub was well attended at lunch time and service was efficient. Worth a visit if you are downtown Napa. (Visited July 1st 2016)“ |
| 52 /100 902 MAIN ST “Visited on the afternoon of Monday 01/02/15.
Welcome to 1995 ! Old Skool with a capital O and S ! Three or four locals lurking at the bar who stared at us as we entered. 6 beers on tap and boy were they bad ... highest was 2.8 for me and a few sub 2’s ... the average over the 6 was a paltry 2.25. Service was a little frumpy at first but was fine in the end when the lady (I think) appreciated our ticking game. Strange thing though is there was a solid Russian River sour available in the small bottle section ! And this at the home of the guys who give you not just one wheat ale in their line up of six but TWO and a red wheat at that ! Scroll past really ... unless you are a desparate ticker !“ |
| 66 /100 1234 3RD ST “Visited on the Peter Hale Hates Beer tour, 01/02/16.
Large open billiard hall, with some darts action also offered. Place is a little basic and rough around the edges - not somewhere I’d care to linger long! Plenty on tap although two points to factor in .... i) lots of filler and common pap. ii) can a place like this rotate so many different taps without compromising beer quality ? My take on the latter is no - a few hoppy beers just seemed too stale or off their best. Beers are rather annoyingly advertised on a computer screen above the bar that rotates slowly over 5 or 6 pages ... tedious! Service fine and friendly. Definitely worth checking out if in the area and likely the best selection on tap in the area but came across like a dive bar Yard House.“ |
| 68 /100 1234 3RD ST “Recommended by our waitress at Downtown Joe’s. I was pretty confident it would be good, but I understand why one may be skeptical when approaching this place. It’s a divey pool and dart place with a lot of taps, no idea on freshness and I’m sure they don’t get a lot of keg turnover but the selection was pretty good nonetheless and the beer I had was in decent shape.“ |
| 60 /100 902 MAIN ST “Yeah, pretty bad brewpub with pretty bad beer. The waitress was quite friendly though, so that made the visit nice. I wouldn’t return though.“ |
| 72 /100 1234 3RD ST “A somewhat improbable billiard hall/darts club/craft beer bar. The selection of beers is impressive in quantity (c. 60 beers on keg), but as you browse through the menu (which scrolls annoyingly slowly on a TV screen - high-tech, yet not quite there) you discover that there’s a lot of uninteresting stuff on offer. Nevertheless, we uncovered the more attractive options. The pricing was OK overall. The staff seemed cheerful enough, quite down to earth, and probably a bit entertained by our visit, during which time c. 10 men shared pints of obscure beers as if they were in a rush and then left leaving roughly 50% of all the beer unfinished. Some of the few locals shooting pool occasionally looked up to see what we were about, but they didn’t seem to mind our encroachment. Overall, this was kind of a fun place, and I can imagine it might get rather rowdy once the fellas get sauced up on Saturday nights. Maybe it was for the best that us geeks visited during the quieter afternoon hours.“ |
| 62 /100 902 MAIN ST “A rather mediocre brewpub that fits right in with its mediocre peers in the area. The beers here ranged from just tolerable to quite, quite poor. Thankfully, our server was friendly to a fault, and the place itself has the feel of a pretty decent neighbourhood bar. Probably not worth going out of your way to visit here.“ |
| 66 /100 1234 3RD ST “Blue collar pool hall that inexplicably has 60 beers on tap. Prices were a bit touchy for the more interesting beers, which probably explains why many of them tasted as if they had been sitting around for a while. Still, there were some deals to be had. One person in my party opted for a $10 16oz pour of Lost Abbey Bourbon BA Angel’s Share. Overall, I wouldn’t recommend a visit, but it might be an OK option if you’re looking to get weird in Napa.“ |
| 60 /100 902 MAIN ST “A deliciously outdated 90s brewpub that pumps out homebrew quality beer. Visitors will find things like red ale and fruited hefeweizen at reasonable prices. The highlight of the trip was our genuinely kind waitress, who was more than happy to accommodate our group’s strange requests. It seems that they consistently have a Russian River beer on tap. Overall, I can’t really recommend this place’s beer. However, the service is kind, and you can probably score something like Consecration on tap, so it might be an option if you feel like visiting an unpretentious place for beer in wine country.“ |
| 72 /100 1234 3RD ST “Pool/darts place with a huge selection of draft beers. A few were out at our visit though. Some of them seemed to have been on for quite a while. Prices fair for pints. Not amazing, but worth stopping by to cleanse your palate and restore your will to live after visiting Downtown Joe’s.“ |
| 68 /100 1234 3RD ST “Billco’s is THE beer place to go in Napa according to our Downtown Joe’s bartender. It certainly has a lot of CA beers on tap, but only about 15% held any interest to me. Prices are too high, but Napa is full of suckers - tourists and locals - who spend too much on everything. Not that many tourists find themselves in a pool hall, and that’s what this place is. It has some dart boards on the walls, but 85% of the floor is pool tables. The interior is musty and dated, and feels like something from St. Louis’ Metro East area, the kind of bar I’d have wound up in on some wild bender during a summer between college years for no reason. A place time forgot. The bartender was friendly enough. They could maybe get a little more interesting with the offerings, but they probably don’t need to. I wasn’t really in the mood for this place, but can see where it can be the right thing for the right time and group.“ |
| 64 /100 902 MAIN ST “Oh, Downtown Joe’s. This place became the stand-in for "dated place with sub-par beer" on our whirlwind trip of the area. Which is a shame, because there’s nothing really *bad* about it. The beer is certainly below average but not like CIB or Area 51-level shitty. Just dull and a little off, like uninspired homebrew. The bartender was super sweet and made the unfortunate move of asking us, "What do you guys think?" and we just watched each other squirm while saying things like, "The Red is my favorite." The atmosphere and styles suggest your typical leftover Western US 90s-era brewpub, which you can still find in places like Denver. It’s wood-paneled, a bit dusty and low lit, with a lineup along the lines of APA-IPA-Red-Wheat-Stout. The beers are a bit chalky or mineralic, keeping them a little below average for the already dull styles. She said they normally have between 6 and 12 on tap, but I’m not sure we needed more (the Raspberry Wheat in particular sounded dangerous). We didn’t eat but that doesn’t seem to be a problem. So if you’re in the right mood and not with a group of beer snobs, this place at least has beer, which is more than most places in Napa can say. Hopefully it has some guest taps when you visit to keep things interesting.“ |
| 58 /100 902 MAIN ST “Welcome to the ’90s. Where the beers are horrible and the interior cliché. Probably the second or worst quality brewpub we visited in our 15ish visits during our trip. Ticks are ticks, but it’s just not worth the trip. Service was nice though. Prices along normal brewpub level. Other patrons seemed to be local alcoholics. They had Consecration on draft though. I’d choose that over the Red Wheat Ale any day of the week.“ |
| 74 /100 1234 3RD ST “A large pool hall with a good sized bar. Tons of taps with a good selection, only issue is age and cleanliness of the taps. Prices are great but no small pours. For a billiard hall, pretty amazing, but just for a stop I would check to see what is on.“ |
| 70 /100 902 MAIN ST “An old dated brewpub that is like an old shoe. Service was very friendly and accommodating, giving advice on other craft beer destinations. Beer was pretty average. Not worth a specific trip.“ |
| 50 /100 610 FIRST ST, STE 23 “Little tasting bar and bottle shop located in the Oxbow Market, just across from Hog Island Oyster Bar.
The beer list here is very small, maybe a half dozen taps you can find most places and a handful of bottles in the cooler. Seemed to have a better wine selection and they do have some cool cheeses as well (all that Point Reyes blue...nom). I know Napa isn’t a beer town, but even here you can do better than this. Might as well go to a Chili’s.“ |
| 66 /100 902 MAIN ST “Convenient location in downtown Napa and a pretty large location as well. Plus, it’s open both early and late, so you can pop in pretty much any time.
Pretty much your typical mid-1990s brewpub here. A dozen or so beers on, though not all house beers. Most of those house beers are pretty much meh, but some are at least okay. Service was okay on a Sunday morning, though I felt like we were being kind of glossed over due to not ordering food. Looks like pretty typical brewpub fare, burgers and such. Normal $10-15 for most things, it seemed. There’s really nothing about this place that really makes me want to go back, but it’s there for some ticks and some mediocre beer.“ |
| 74 /100 1234 3RD ST “Came here after Cadet. Definitely more of my kind of place. Not sure when I last visited a pool hall, but it was certainly before I could drink and I’m pretty sure they didn’t have a selection like this.
While there are a large number of tables to play on (and lots of dart boards), this seems to be as much of a bar as anything. Small bar, all things said, but a lot of taps. And a lot of good ones. Beers are listed on TV monitors overhead. The downside here is that the monitor can’t display all the beers at once, so they flash to a few different screens, so you’ve got to read quickly. All the beers come in a pint glass, it seems, which is fine. Easily the largest and best beer selection you’re going to find, and it doesn’t close at 8 PM like everything else.“ |
| 76 /100 Cadet (Bar) 930 FRANKLIN ST “Fancied bar in downtown Napa that focuses mostly on wine (duh), but also has a good, though small, selection of beers.
During a later evening visit, they had the lights all off pretty much with some borderline nightclub colored lights going. This place is almost obnoxiously modern in terms of the decor, but doesn’t really feel snobby or anything. They have a small patio outside if you want to escape the cool kid vibe, too. Really good list of bottled beers as well as tons of wines. A number of sour and funky bottles from Almanac and Prairie for instance with classics like the Chimay offerings or plenty of US micros. Settled for a cider for the better half and a Mare Island IPA for myself. Extremely friendly service and quick as well. Cool enough place and a good one to get a beer in a town that isn’t really known for it.“ |
| 58 /100 Vallerga’s Market (Grocery Store) 3385 SOLANO AVE “Number of beers is not huge. Variety is not super impressive. Might be best to go to the nearby Whole Foods. However, it’s more of a local produce grocery than WF and if you want beer to drink that’s decent, it works.“ |
| 72 /100 Whole Foods Market - Napa (Grocery Store) 3682 BEL AIRE PLAZA “Selection is decent. I got a new to me Shmalz. Might be the best place in town for craft beers.“ |
| 72 /100 1234 3RD ST “Went there after bottlerock festival. Very solid selection, especially of west coast hoppy beers. My brother got an Old Rasputin, and when I saw the pour I knew it was a nitro. I asked the bartender and she didn’t know what a nitro beer was. Ok, fine, but you’re primarily a beer bar. Your staff should at least know what beers are being served. The menu was also wrong in this regard. I had a Simtra Triple for $8 so I was fine w/ that, but underwhelmed by the staff. Definitely the best selection in the downtown Napa area that I saw. If you’re there anyway definitely go. But I wouldn’t seek it out as a stand alone.“ |
| 52 /100 610 FIRST ST, STE 23 “Plus: Next to Hog Island Oyster Bar
Minus: Bar prices for a local bomber.
At opening service was a bit confused.
Not many bottles. $9.95 seemed excessive for a Mare Island bomber. Still, it would have been a gasoline cost to drive to Vallejo. :)“ |
| 66 /100 902 MAIN ST “Nice place to take a break from all the vino. Decent food menu, live music on weekends, decent beer selection and good service.“ |
| 70 /100 902 MAIN ST “Interesting stat: this will be my 400th brewery rated here, unless some of the BJ’s locations get turned into restaurants.
This is a quiet place in Napa that we visited one weekend. I had never actually been in Napa before that though I’d been in the area plenty of times either passing through on I80 to go to Sacramento or coming from 101 to go to Sears Point. It’s a quaint little town that is in the heart of wine country, but beyond that it’s no better than any other little town in northern California. The pub itself is old looking and is cozy, with some outdoor seating. What I enjoyed most about the place was the guest tap list. The house beers are decent but most are not something I’d order again. The guest beers are a bit more interesting. I tried a Sierra Nevada beer made for Sacramento Beer Week as well as another new to me Sierra Nevada beer. The food was good and mostly American in style. I had a burger naturally. Prices were standard for brewpub prices, so higher than they should be but no worse than any other brewpub. I can’t recommend travelling all the way from 101 just for this place but there are other beer stops out this way and there of course is other stuff to do out here. .“ |
| 78 /100 902 MAIN ST “Tried a sampler of their own brews, nothing that really stood out but decent beers all the way. The food was good and service was friendly.“ |
| 60 /100 902 MAIN ST “I was kind of excited to visit here since I’m a fan of The Brewing Network, and they used to broadcast from here all the time. The location is good right in downtown Napa. The place definitely has an old school brewpub vibe going on. Nice bar with lots tables and chairs. Not fancy or upscale at all. The service was enthusiastic, but I was less than impressed with the bartenders knowledge. He was a nice guy though. The beers were very forgettable. The bartender kept telling me I should have been there last week when they had all the good beers on… that didn’t help me much. Anyway.. the beers were mediocre at best. Didn’t have any food. Overall, this was an Ok stop, but only because there’s not much else in the area. Next time I’ll probably spend most of my time at Billco’s.“ |
| 78 /100 1234 3RD ST “Stopped in here recently on a business trip. Very cool place with a TON of pool tables if that’s your thing. Great beer on tap including Pliny (sometimes) and SN Bigfoot 2003. (mind you this is 2013) I was pretty excited to get a half pint of that bad boy… anyway, the server was friendly, but seemed a bit out of touch with the beers. No worries. I can handle myself just fine. It was a bit dead that night (Monday around 10 pm) but I can imagine this place gets pretty busy most days. I would frequent this place often if I was a local college student.“ |
| 88 /100 Whole Foods Market - Napa (Grocery Store) 3682 BEL AIRE PLAZA “Stopped here twice to grab wine and beer. Like any whole foods, their beer selection is mostly local with some nice national beers. Prices were high (this is napa) but I was very impressed! Also, the beer guy I spoke to knew what he was talking about.“ |
| 84 /100 610 FIRST ST, STE 23 “Great place with a vast selection of cheeses, geeky selection of wine and a handfull of delicious beers in bottle and 5 on draft. Ambience alone is worth the stop as this place is located within the OXBOW public market... which is awesome. Pliny on draft almost always, seasonal stuff from a few local breweries, tons of cheese and snakes and TV... what else do you really need?“ |
| 94 /100 1234 3RD ST “FANTASTIC beer selection with an extremely knowledgeable staff. Pool tables look good, dart boards are great and did I mention the beer selection? A great place to bend the elbow and throw darts! A MUST VISIT if in Napa, CA.“ |
| 94 /100 Whole Foods Market - Napa (Grocery Store) 3682 BEL AIRE PLAZA “Best place to buy beer in Napa, CA.“ |
| 78 /100 902 MAIN ST “You can’t swing a dead cat in Napa without hitting 13 wineries, wine bars, or whiners, so Downtown Joe’s is respite. Colin brews pretty good beer and is wicked nice. Pub grub is decent and overall I recommend visiting this pub. Say hello to Colin when you are there!“ |
| 70 /100 902 MAIN ST “Nice brewpub vibe inside. I sat on the patio overlooking the river. Flight of 12 or 13 brews for ten bucks. Great spot.“ |
| 86 /100 902 MAIN ST “Good food. Needs a little bigger menu.
Beer is top notch. Something for every palate.“ |
| 84 /100 902 MAIN ST “I guess I’m against the grain here: my wife and I really enjoyed this place.
We sat outside on the patio with a nice view of the Napa river which made dinner even more enjoyable.
We split a sampler of their nine house brews, plus the bartender added a tenth, FW Union Jack. The house brews were decent. They also had six Russian River brews on tap.
The food was very good. I had cioppino and there was plenty of shellfish. My wife’s French dip was quite good.
The service was friendly and prompt.
I’d recommend it as a place to go in Napa.“ |
| 56 /100 902 MAIN ST “Downtown Joes could be so much better. The beer selection is small, the best beers on draft are not their own. The crowd is mostly tourists, evenings fill up with locals making the crawl. The food is fine, tolerable pub grub, more affordable and lower key than anything else around. I just wish the place was really making an effort! If its ever for sale, im interested!“ |
| 92 /100 Whole Foods Market - Napa (Grocery Store) 3682 BEL AIRE PLAZA “Great selection of beers and the specialist is really on top of it! The department always looks tidy and well stocked, prices are plain to see and the shelves are easy to shop. All the basics and whos whos are not at all accounted for which is great. In a town and valley not known for its beer culture, this beer department is rather progressive and certainly welcome! Now with 3 beers on draft! You can shop and drink in the same trip!“ |
| 66 /100 902 MAIN ST “Kudos to Downtown Joe’s for offering Russian River, Firestone Walker, and a few other great beer selections. They also have an onsite brewery, I didn’t try any of those, but this is a nice place in Napa to have a beer break from all the wine.“ |
| 56 /100 902 MAIN ST “Nice Old English style bar. The service in the bar area was bad. We were there on a Wed night and sitting at a table in the bar. The hostess (very nice girl) came and gave us menus and told us a server would come by to take our orders. Got tired of waiting so we ordered our beers and food from the bar, we never had anybody come to the table to get our orders the whole night. The food and beer was good though. We had a Reuben sandwich and pizza. Overall it was a great place to stop if your in the area. Glad I was finally able to visit.“ |
Latest Beer in Napa
Fieldwork Brewing Company - Napa290 days ago |
Fieldwork Brewing Company - Napa297 days ago |
