Bocktown Beer and Grille - Robinson

No Longer In Business

The beer prices are what you’d expect at any restaurant, but the difference at Bocktown is the selection. If I’m going to pay five bucks for a beer, I should at least get something better than a domestic, and at Bocktown, you can find a plethora of micros and imports both on tap (16 taps) and in their line up of fridges (4 or 5). The place was packed, but the service was friendly and asked if they could get me a beer while I waited for a table. That alone made the 45 minute wait tolerable. Considering it was a Saturday night and I then had a tasty beer in my hand, I didn’t mind waiting at all.

Huge fan of Bocktown. Rolled in about 11:00 PM after 10 hours on the road, it was a nice classy place upscale in apperance, down to earth in treatment. They had about 8-10 coolers of beer to look thru, I was smoked, so I told the server I was Chicago , I liked Barley Wines and would prefer to try something I can’t get at home. He brought a 6 pack over, gave me a description of each and let me choose. The food was better than bar quality bar food. Thee service was great, they have a Randle on one of their tap lines and do some funky infused brews. I will hit this every time I’m i within 100 miles. I liked it so much I venture back out from downtown 2 days later just to enjoy then joint a second time.

Great selection of beers, but prices are high for 6 pack to go.....too high. They have a "mystery" six pack for $10, usually beers that are close to going out of season. Overall not a bad beer bar.

So far, this is the best beer establishment I have been to in the Pittsburgh area. And it rivals many great beer bars throughout the country. Very high quality regional, national, and international drafts including a few limited release type brews. Overall, an impressive draft list, although not long. Many bottles to choose from within the wall of coolers as you enter. Again, these have been pruned to include only great beers. To make things even better, the food is great. Prices are a little bit high, but this is a nicer place with very high quality products. If you had to choose one place in the Pittsburgh area, this should be it... Kind of small, so I imagine it gets very crowded.

An awkwardly small place squeezed into a strip mall storefront, the ambiance would be better were it not so crowded. But then, being crowded speaks to their success and they certainly succeed in a lot of places. The food has all the taste and flair (including lots of local attributions) of a brewpub but without the "brewpub snootiness." There are only 16 taps but they make the most of them with quick rotation, specials, and I thought there was even talk of them having an organoliptic hop transducing module. Again, if you aren’t used to PA beer laws, don’t go near the beer case - it will make you want to smash your head through the glass doors. PA law has created an environment where taxes and legal protection have left consumers with a huge bill when it comes to buying singles, sixes, or anything less than a case (288 ounces). Expect to pay "bar prices" for any beer that you purchase "to go".

Indoor/Outdoor Seating. Decent sized bar. Food is very good. All three times I’ve been here its been good. Pretty good beer selection. Fairly expensive. Especially the bottles.

Nice place located in the middle of your typical strip mall stores. Outside patio during the summer gives it a little more room (can get crowded on the weekends). Decent selection for a bottle shop. Best attribute is the food. Have eaten there a few times and so far haven’t had anything bad. Definitely worth looking for.

Ambiance is a small place in a shopping center a bit dark and cozy. Service is fast and friendly, with bartendering willing to talk beer who are also knowledgable. Selection is pretty comparable to other good beer bars in pittsburgh, may have a few seasonals that others are out of. Did not eat there so was unable to rate the food. Value is just terrible, pretty much everything they carry is at least 50% more than any other place in pittsburgh. Overall a decent selection, but the prices are so high you would be better driving all the way to Boardman to Vintage Estates just to get one bottle.

Selection, selection, selection. This is your place if you really only care about the beer. The place is in a strip mall, so if you need to get some flooring at Home Depot, maybe hit Bed bath and Beyond, you don’t know, maybe you won’t have time - stop in a get some great brews. This is on the outskirts of Pittsburgh - c’mon, this isn’t Pittsburgh - anyhow, being Pittsburgh, they put fries on everything (your salad included) - you wonder why everyone there is fat. Sorry - I’m fat too. Back to the beer, they have usually 15+ specials on tap that are always fantastic, tried the Stone Black IPA thing (which I can’t get home in Chicago), Founders Devil Dancer (again) - they consistently select some great brews and have 10 million bottle options if you need them. The food is good - mostly bar food on steroids...not a bad little place to hit on a business trip or with friends.

This is a very interesting place that is sadly a bit out of the way for me. The location is strip mall and the atmosphere is a bit of a trendy mix of brick and block with high celings and a nice angled bar area. They had 16 taps which was notable for not having any macro beers on it and advertised 400 bottles. It was fairly slow when I went and the bartender was happy to give me good details about the beers on tap and a was very knowledgeable and willing to chat away with me in the depths of beer geekery. The food I had was fantastic and a reasonable value given how exceptional it was. I particularly liked the house made beer infusions and that they advertised the upcoming rare beer tastings. Price was fine for the drafts though I did not purchase any bottles so I can not say how those prices stack up. All in all a very nice place and if they had about double their number of taps they would be outstanding.

I stopped in to this place on my way back from the airport, having heard that their selection of beer was very good, and wanting to patronize a supporter of high-quality brews. It is relatively non-descript from the outside, sitting at the end of a small, newer strip mall. The inside is dark but not forboding. Glass coolers of craft and European beer line the one side of the place, while tables sit on the other. There is a bar about 50 feet in with a decent selection of better craft stuff. The staff was friendly but unhelpful in the utmost. First, no prices are posted for the bottled beers. The staff has (or claimed to have) no idea what many beers cost, and needed to ring them into the register to tell me. This led to a second, and for me, ultimately fatal issue: price. The prices here are a joke. 22oz bombers going for $7.20 elsewhere are $20 here. I paid $34 for four beers, three of which were 12oz bottles. It’s a shame, because this would otherwise be a great place to visit, when in the area. Sadly, this is an example of gauging people who don’t know the true value of the product.