One of my favorite breweries in the Durango area. Food and beer are very good. My favorites are the burger with wasabi coloeslaw and the portobello quesadilla. As the beers go, some of the finest. Old Oak Amber Ale, Big Bike Double IPA, and Jack Rabbit  Pale Ale are the faves with our party. Always great and friendly service.
Review Source:This review was written before trying out their menu revamp and seeing their remodle.
I am so spoiled. I have been living in this area since 2005 and have loved this place since we moved here.
Food: consistently good! They raise the bar on bar food! Their dishes are well thought out and executed. SImplicity and quality are their strengths, while they take advantage of lots of local product. Their steaks are wicked good, their tuna steak dishes are awesome, desserts (although I rarely have them to save room for beer) are great!
Beer: WHOA! The brewmaster knows his stuff! Everything they make is of such a quality you would want to drink here every day. Their seasonal selections are top notch, with one of the most famous offerings being their "Celebrated Raspberry Wheat", it is to die for after a great day outdoors. SO many other offerings it is difficult to summerise it other than saying: if you want excellent beer, GO HERE!
The atmosphere is cool. Typical brewery seating inside, and then there is their seasonally open back patio. I opt for the patio every time I go from Spring-Fall.
The service is great. The only times I have had a bad service experience is when someone was being oriented as waitstaff. The kitchen is pretty quick, too.
This brewery is perfectly fine to bring kids to. In fact, Carver's makes its own Root Beer, which is damn tastey. Kids seem to junk out on it all the time. :-)
If you are in Durango, take it from a local: GO HERE! I cannot imagine you would disappointed.
PS - For those of you whom want a beer with breakfast, ASK FOR ONE! They do not blink at you, it is normal to have beer with breakfast at Carver's. Just keep in mind there is one restriction: they serve their beer after 7am.
This would have been 5 stars had it not been for the manager. Â Bartender was great, beer was excellent, and we had plans to take some growlers with us back to Austin. Â As we began contacting our friends back home about a great new find, the manager made a comment about us being on our phones to some of the other staff. Â It was loud enough that we heard it at the other end of the bar. Â You could tell that the rest of the staff was uncomfortable. Â He also was trying to give shots away to friends while the bartender was cleaning. Â If I was the owner I would be concerned about how much this joker is giving away. Â (Maybe you should get Mystery Diners in there). Â He also left for about 10 minutes and left a young waitress in charge. Â
To the owner and manager: Â We were going to spend a lot of money in there before this happened. Â If we come back to Durango we'll stop in but if that guy is still working there we'll probably leave. Â He's loud, obnoxious and made the visit pretty unpleasant. Â I hope this was an off day but I doubt it.
Carver's delivers on what it is. Â It's a nice, friendly, family-oriented, affordable, healthier option. Â Good veggie chili everyday of the week, good soup options, fresh salads, nicely done entrees. Â The staff are super friendly, order from a good selection of scotches and talk music with Guy, one of the managers if he's slows down enough to chat. Â Thanks for that Joe Firstman recommendation!
Small complaint, how difficult is it to warm those rolls in an oven before you send them out to tables? Â In fact, a small basket would be nice rather than 1 cold roll. Â But then, I'm from New Orleans, the home of hot, warm, crusty bread at all meals.
Overall, a good job for what they do. Â I'm clueless about the beer but the root beer is good!
The great: outstanding beer, best bar staff in town, healthier ingredients and techniques than most pub food, tasty breakfast offerings including good coffee, a well-priced happy hour and a convenient location, vastly-improved lunch specials at fair prices, larger than average portion sizes.
The less than great: I have a hard time finding something on the dinner menu to eat. The burgers are merely average, the pasta is hit-or-miss (I like the Southwest ravioli), the pizza is not so great. I tend to stick to green salads and soups. The veggie chili tastes great to this meat-eater. It can get crowded. They recently engaged a new chef and the food is improving by the week.
All in all, a wonderful little neighborhood pub. Family friendly, warm and cozy in the winter, with a nice patio for summer dining. My only caveat for folks who might be visiting for the first time: although they have a full bar, this is a brew-pub that is very much about their own beer, crafted on site. They sell nothing else, but have a good selection that should please any palate.
Beware the "steak" sandwich! Â It is actually a chopped beef sandwich. Â Hmmmm that's why they didn't ask what temp I wanted it.
Yes it's true, I am a Ranch snob & when a place doesn't make there own- it's an automatic point knock off. Â The Asian orange dressing was decent though.
The Duck Tacos; while the duck itself was tasty, the rest of the cabbage ¬-so-fresh flour tortilla was pretty mehh. Could of been 10,000 times better if it were served in any type of fresh shell, maybe a wonton or a pan seared white corn tortilla, with the addition of fresh cilantro?
2 people in our party got the Reuben & said it was excellent. Â It looked excellent; piled high with meat, soft toasted bread & smothered in sour kraut. For sure a crowd fav.
The beer samplers came in top notch presentation, although most we're a bit on the flat side. Â The place was packed & service was good but the lack of house made dressings & good sauce accompaniments will not encourage me to visit again when there are so many other dinning options nearby.
My family and I like coming here for breakfast. I have eaten here for dinner but I'm really not a fan of their late night offerings.... mornings are much better!
First of all I really like the jam that they have on the tables for your toast/english muffin (that's what I like to substitute for toast). It's a sweet, yummy raspberry jam that I love; i even put in on top of my blueberry pancakes this last time I went and didn't have to use maple syrup! The egg miner breakfast is really good too because you get your eggs, sausage or bacon, potatoes and toast/english muffin. Ham is nice and thick and good here too. Eggs Benedict is pretty good but get the Hollandaise sauce on the side so they don't drown it; since they give you two eggs it's quite a bit of food!
It can get pretty busy here in the mornings so be careful! We went Sunday around 9 AM and they had to seat us in the back area because it was crowded.
Carvers is much more of a restaurant than a brewery, but it is clearly a staple of the Durango culture! The bar (and restaurant) were full at 6pm on a Thursday evening, but I found a seat at the secret back bar and the service was excellent! I order a flight of beer, and the five I tried were all exceptional. They had a great selection, from light to dark, and a raspberry wheat on tap for beer-beginners. I did not have high expectations for the food - I was expecting your average bar fare. The salmon salad that I ordered was quite possibly the best salad I have ever eaten. Granted, I had that post-skiing hunger that could have been satisfied by a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but I think I would have felt the same way about this salad on any other day. Five stars, for sure. I wish I could take Carvers back to Denver with me!
Review Source:We tried to hit most, if not all, breweries in southern Colorado on our recent trip. Â We tried a flight of beer at this place, just like the others. I'd say this place is probably on the bottom of all the breweries we checked out but it was still a nice place. The staff were very friendly and informative about the beers. It is on the main street so you have a nice view, depending on where you sit, for people watching. Â Their menu looked extensive but we did not eat here so I cannot comment on the food.
I might go back if I'm in Durango, but honestly I think I would probably go back to Steamworks Brewery before going back here, only because I thought the beer at Steamworks was better.
Great beer and good food.
We had the Asian chimichanga, bacon cheeseburger, a salad and corn dog (2 adults and 2 children). The food was well complemented with the beer selection. Our waiter was very helpful in reviewing the beer options with us. Despite other low reviews, we found the service prompt, attentive and courteous. Definitely up to expectations.
The atmosphere on the back patio was relaxed. The restaurant has a number of hanging hammock chairs that were a hit with our two children.
Great filling food!
I ordered the Raspberry Wheat Ale, tasted great but has low alcohol content (like most fruit beers).
For two ppl we spent $40 including tip.
Ordered the Beef Tips cooked in beer which was amazing,
And my bf ordered BBQ chicken which was his favorite.
If you don't know what beer to try, get the sampler! Â
If the weather permits, sit outside! So much nicer.
My son did not like anything that he ordered off the kids menu. He first chose the pasta with butter. It was way too bland for him. He wanted alfredo and they did not have alfredo only marinara sauce. Since he would not eat that I ordered him the grilled cheese and french fries. He did not like it either. All the kids meals come served on top of a frisbee which you can take home as a souvineer. The waitress was kind enough to take off one of the kids meals because he did not like it. My son is pretty adventerous when it comes to food so everything was to bland for him. He loved the fries though. What kid doesn't like fries.
I ordered the tuna sandwich. It was not on the menu but I saw it on their website the night before. So the waitress said that they had to charge me sushi quality prices for the sandwich. OK. I guess. It was good but I think next time I will order it lightly seared. The medium rare was still too cooked for my liking. The sandwich was still a great sandwich and my son ate most of my french fries.
A friend of mine ordered the bread pudding. It was so good. It comes served with two scoops of vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. It was a rather large serving so everyone at the table was able to share and be content. Â I've never had bread pudding so the next time I have some it will be compared to the one I had at Carvers.
When I travel, readers may have noticed a trend and may say to themselves...."Hmmm...does it seem like Lee writes a ALOT of reviews for local brewpubs??" Â Why YES I DO! And my Summer trip to Colorado was perrrfect for exactly that purpose.
We decided to hit Carver's because it had good ratings on Yelp and we spotted it as soon as we rolled onto Main St. about 2PM on a Thursday.
Upon entering, we were prompty given a 4 top in the front window and ordered a couple brews. The bartener promptly gave us 2 pints of homebrewed goodness - which were pretty darned good and were just what we needed at the end of a long drive from Texas.
I decided to split 2 entrees with my son Grant - the Buffalo Burger and the Chicken wings - selfishly to facilitate me getting enough information to write a decent review.
While we waited for our food, we checked out the premises and found out that Carver's sports a very nice patio way in the back. Â However, we were quite pleased with our window seats in the A/C on this unseasonably warm day in Durango.
The Buffalo Burger was average as the patty was thin (or should I say lean) -and perhaps a bit overcooked (pardon me, but this this may be my ignorance of buffalo meat showing). We were not crazy about it. In the interest of fairness, this may be more of an issue of high expectations since it sounded like an exotic choice and we were very hungry!
The spicy chicken wings were large, and the sauce had some kick. I enjoyed each and every one of those wings until I managed to fumble the last one and splatter sauce all over my best 'road trip' tee shirt. At least the wife and kids got a laugh out of that.
Normally, I would rate Carver's with a rock solid 4 stars all day long - but Brewmaster Erik Maxon graciously gave my daughter and I a patient and very detailed Tour of their brewery - which easily earned Carver's the elusive 5th star from this Yelper.
-----------------
Caveat; I HATE Erik Maxon because he has THE coolest freaking job  on the planet. Although it is tough, sweaty work, and he gets to cook FREAKING beer - which...ahem...includes TASTING - HELL-LO!!  Oh, THAT, AND he gets to live in Durango, CO.  If there is EVER a freak 'brewing accident' at Carver's, just tell Inspector Clouseau that the suspect can probably be found in the stack of resumes for Erik's replacement. :-P
We stopped at Carver's tonight thanks to Yelp reviews and we were not disappointed! I'm glad we knew about the patio seating, as it wasn't offered up front but we were able to ask for it and received a great table on the beautiful balcony. You would never know it's there, but it was a perfect atmosphere.
The beer was tasty - my husband and I both had the seasonal Monkeying Around IPA. It was, as the waitress described, very fruity and refreshing. He ordered a burger and I ordered the Oriental Noodle Salad. Both were good - not amazing, but good. Our toddler enjoyed a grilled cheese, but as toddlers are prone to do he fixated on the accompanying fruit (fresh grapes & orange) and didn't eat much sandwich. I was happy that the grilled cheese was on some kind of multi-grain-looking bread, not just plain white, which I kind of expected. Oh - and his meal came served in a Carver's-branded frisbee which they let us bring home. Score!
The staff was great and the local clientele made it cozy. We ordered a growler (only $10!) to go and on the way out I was pleased to see that the brewery takes a lot of efforts to be "green" by using wind power and recycling their growlers as often as they can. Nice. We'll be back!
Another reason to miss Colorado.
My sister, her partner (aka our reverend), my husband, and I took a 2 week road trip from Austin to Colorado where we had some hits and some misses when it came to food. My sister says that if it wasn't for their beer, Carver's would be a miss, but I say, she merely ordered wrong. Â
We had just come back from white water rafting, where I fell off the raft and lost my left shoe and sunglasses, and were dying for two things, Food and Beer. Â I was obviously soaked and brought in my towel (which they did not mind). We first sat inside and the grimy smell left me somewhat unsure of my future nourishment. Someone had the ingenious idea to go outside, ohh, what a world awaited us.
The outside dining area was shaded and sprinkled with fans (which was not really as necessary as my home town considering it was at least 10 degrees cooler here than back in Austin, ahhh how I miss Colorado). The ambiance was laid back, and instantly the smell changed from uncertainty to invigorating. My sister along with my husband ordered the miss, Chicken Potato Pie, Reverend ordered the Cordon Bleu sandwich, and I ordered a big ass "The Good Life Burger." The burger and sandwich came with these non-fried crispy wedges that I am trying to stop dreaming about, and my burger had thick strips of bacon, loaded with avocado and blue cheese. Jebus it was good. The Chicken potato pie, was forgetful and really lacked texture of any kind.
As for the beer, I think that they had a magical leprechaun making their assortment of beer, maybe it was the ghost of Ben Franklin who they quote online as saying, "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." With our reverend and our beer, God was with us that night.
The special Rueben Hamburger listed on the board outside helped make our decision to pick this microbrewery in downtown Durango. And it was delicious with baked potato wedges and a sampler to wash it all down :) Very good and friendly service, veered from my usual "sit at the bar" and sat at a table at the front window to people watch. My burger was undercooked, but a quick return to check on us from our server who whisked it away and returned with a properly cooked one :) Â
This is a great town for microbrew lovers :) I had a  5 beer sampler.  Don't know why I tried the raspberry...I never like berry beer, but I did (what is the definition of crazy?). Was disappointed with the Porter too :(  But the Monkey Wrenched IPA was super yummy and I opted to have a pint for dessert before leaving.
If you like better than average brewery fare, this place should be on your list in Durango.
The food was great, as was the beer.
Service was fast and attentive, even though the place was busy.
We were here for dinner, and ordered the Navajo taco and soba noodle salad with tofu, along with the Sucker Punch black IPA. The outdoor seating was worth the wait.
From the other reviews, I hope we can try their breakfast here before we leave.
We visited for drinks and dessert based on the great reviews on Yelp. Â We were seated in the back room next to a noisy family, so we talked to our waitress and the hostess to see if we could move outside to the patio. Â Our waitress and the hostess were super sweet about moving us, but apparently didn't communicate with the waitress outside.
The waitress outside was SUPER rude. Â One of the most rude waitress' I've ever encountered. Â She came over visibly upset that we were outside. Â We explained the situation and apologized if we had done something wrong. Â She huffed off angrily, and then came back still visibly angry a couple times to try to sort out our orders. Â Every thing she said was angry and rude. Â We spoke to the manager who just assigned a different waiter to our table, but the first waitress still gave us evil eyes all the time. Â We will never ever ever be back.
Had breakfast here twice in the last week!
First go-round, E was hankering for a waffle and we had never eaten here for breakfast. Why not?! He got a HUGE malted one, thoroughly enjoyed it, and washed it down with a Powerhouse Porter. Beer for breakfast, Carvers? Pure genius. I'd rather do your raspberry wheat ale than a mimosa :)
I got the morning special, which was eggs with spinach, tomatoes, cheese, and pine nuts. I didn't thoroughly enjoy it, but I think partially to blame is the fact that after a bite of the malted waffle, everything seemed less tasty...
A couple days later, E and I came back with his sisters B and L. E got another waffle and paired it with the raspberry ale. L got coconut-cranberry pancakes, B got an egg scramble, and I got the California Benedict with tomato and avocado in place of the meat in a traditional Benny. Yummmmm. It was dee-licious :)
As is our family practice, we all shared each others food. And it was all good. I have nothing bad to say against Carver's, but it's certainly not Snooze! Still, a good, solid place to have breakfast, and slightly lower on the tourist ratio than other breakfast spots in town.
After backpacking  5 days/4 nights in the beautiful Weminuche Wilderness,
we came into Durango for:(in particular order, although 1 and 2 could be switched)
#1 Shower (skinny dipping the Los Pinos river, not an option..too coldy and moving pretty fast),
#2 Beer
#3 Food that was not freeze dried.
I had heard all about the wonderful Carver's from J, people we chatted with on the trail and from all of the reviews here on Yelp!
We were quickly seated on the back patio. It was a beautiful evening, slight cool breeze...ahhh  miss it already(it's 108 in Az right now)
Lindsay was our server and she was super cool, very attentive.
We both ordered pints of the Cascade Canyon Cask IPA.
Really good.
We usually never order appetizers, but the green chili artichoke dip sounded yummy. It was pretty amazing. We ate the entire bread bowl.
For dinner , J got the southwest ravioli w/ chicken,(Cheese ravioli topped with red chili cream sauce garnished with black beans and Monterey jack cheese. Served with garlic-toasted French bread
I got the southwest steak sandwich w/ the seasoned oven baked fries(Thinly-sliced roast beef, grilled with onions, red peppers, green chilies, mushrooms, and provolone on grilled French bread with chipotle mayo. ).........hello heaven!
I really enjoyed the experience here, everyone was super nice and laid back. I also thought the prices of the entrees were very reasonable!!
We will most definitely return! Â ( I heard the breakfast is awesome, especially the blueberry pancakes!!!!)
The best dining experience that I had in Durango.
Their Colorado Trail Nut Brown Ale was a perfect brown ale. Nice roasted nut flavor, very smooth.
The Raspberry Wheat Ale looks exactly like pink lemonade, (complete with the lemon wedge on the glass!), but tastes almost like a lambic.
I had their delicious Chicken Stew for dinner: thick in all the right ways, with chunks of potato and carrot. Very very good, and served with a freshly tossed, crisp Caesar salad. Even the wheat roll I got with dinner was delicious. My husband went with the classic burger and fries, except the fries were delicious spiced potato wedges.
Service was fast, the restaurant was well decorated, and our meal was well-priced.
My sister and I needed some quick comfort food and a beer after having our tent blown away in the crazy high winds. We had been camping in the desert at Chaco Culture National Park in New Mexico, but after the tent incident, we were ready to get back to Colorado. Don't worry, my sister caught the tent after some amazing sprinting. She also had done research online to find that Carver Brewing was one of the best vegetarian options in Durango. Lucky for us the internet was right and we found ourselves looking at a menu with several easily veganized options.
I had the Navajo Taco: an amazing vegetarian chili in a baked flat bread. It was hearty, beany, delicious and just what I needed. My sister had the Oriental Noodle Salad with tofu. I was a little jealous of her choice but luckily she let me try it. It was incredible as well. Who knew a salad could be so inspired? Who knew I would fall in love with lotus root in Durango, Colorado. Last but not least, our beers were delicious as well! I had the Colorado Trail Nut Brown Ale, and she had the Cascade Canyon Cask IPA. Our waitress was so nice and helpful with all of  our vegan questions!
I was fortunate enough to make it back to Carver's last weekend. Â I didn't get a chance to eat here last time, but finally did so on this trip! Â The service was great and the atmosphere was relaxing. Â There was a guy at a table next to us that kept playing his harmonica. Â At first it was really annoying, but it kind of grew on me.
I had the tequila lime mahi mahi and my sister had the turkey reuben sandwich. Â Both dishes were tasty! Â We each tried a bite of each other's food. Â We also had Carver's signature root beer. Â It was GREAT!
The next morning we even came back for a couple of growlers for the Super Bowl. Â The raspberry wheat is FANTASTIC! Â If you're a beer connoisseur or just like good food, I recommend you check this place out!
This place was great. Â The beer selection was decent (not the same old generic crap you find everywhere else) and was actually really good.
The food was pretty good, nothing too spectacular, but since I was so impressed by everything else (service, beer and beer selection, atmosphere) I still give it a five.
If you have people in your party that are not beer drinkers (even fruity ones like the Raspberry Wheat they had) then this place is probably not for them as the other drinks from the bar were not good at all.
Where else can you go for an eco-friendly restaurant that also serves Bloody Mary's and Mimosa's on Sunday, but only Carvers!
We've been up here a number of times and was impressed that there were some changes to their menus offering low calorie option breakfasts.
I ordered their asian scramble, which consists of brown rice, soy sauce, edamame, red bell peppers and egg whites all scrambled together. It was like eating a healthy version of fried rice in the morning, which I'm accustomed to in my child hood days.
I also had a side of fruit, which comes with the meal and had a better variety of fruit than most restaurants offer: pineapple, strawberry, grapes, kiwi, honeydew, oranges, and grape fruit. All of the fruits were served in slices and not mixed together in a salad like fashion like you would see in most diners, which is nice because then you still have crispy fruit and not mushy fruit.
What better way to have sunday brunch than with a $6 Bloody Mary special?
Since its autumn season they also had specials of pumpkin pecan pancakes and it looks like their special of biscuits and gravy sold out because they had to take it off the board.
This place was incredibly depressing. Every staff member looked like they were about ready to beat themselves to death with serving trays rather than work another second. Maybe because it was kind of late (10:30ish?) at night?
Stopped in here for snack/dessert type food and it was just ok. If memory serves, bread pudding, cheesecake, chocolate cake and stuffed mushrooms were ordered. I don't remember being particularly excited about anything but my visit was about 5 months ago. Should really get a bit more timely with these reviews!
Great place for breakfast! Excellent coffee, excellent food. I had the Mexican Scramble with chorizo. As to be expected in the Southwest, the eggs were covered in a very tasty green chili sauce along with a side of potatoes.
This will definitely be a must-eat-at the next time we're in town.
We chose here for dinner tonight. There was such an overwhelming amount of good reviews we had to try it!
We had Jessica as our wait staff as well as Dave and were super pleased with the service, suggestions and friendliness!
I had a little trouble deciding what to eat - i was attempting to decide between the san juan salad with the Portabello mushroom, or the Navajo taco, or the Turkey Reuben, or the Portabello mushroom sandwich... Â Jessica suggested the Navajo taco with the veggie chili. I decided to go with it! It was really tasty!
Hubby knew he wouldn't  enjoy the Raspberry Wheat - since he doesn't normally like too fruity wheats! Jessica brought him a taste just in case and a taste of the pale ale. Hubby really enjoyed the pale ale she suggested!
Cute location. Neat tall tables in the bar and different types of tables in the dining room!
Near the end of main street, free parking at the meters after 6pm.
I probably would have gone with 3 stars, but am adding a 4th for the level of service!
Because Carver Brewing Co. is both a brewery and a restaurant there are two parts to this review.
The brewery part: The beer is great. I'm not sure how many beers they brew, but every one of them that I've had has been great. The Lover's Chocolate Stout particularly stands out. The bartender was super nice and friendly and gave me plenty of samples.
The restaurant: The food is good, but not great. The service is good. The prices are a little on the high side, but not terrible.
Even though the food isn't five star worty I'm still giving it five stars because the employees are friendly and the beer is amazing.
They also have a great selection of Scotch.
Recent Happy Hour visit was tasty on multiple dimensions - both the food and the drink. We sampled a few different brews and we were very happy with them all. We tried the Oriental Noodle Salad - it was yummy, but would've been better with the seared Ahi or sauteed tofu.
The beef chili was tasty and spicy. My son enjoyed the steak fries with cheddar cheese (who wouldn't?!?).
BTW, there is no "Happy Hour" pricing at Happy Hour...
From the outside it looks like a small and dark pub. Â We decided to brave it anyway because they had a beer on tap that we just couldn't resist. Â They took us in and asked if we wanted to sit on the patio. Â Patio? Â What patio? Â Sure, we innocently said. Â They snaked us through the typical pub part, then through this other garden bar part, and finally ended up in this wonderful patio with live music and a totally chill vibe.
We perused the menu and decide on some chocolate cake for dessert and the seasonal brew never experienced before: an Oatmeal Stout IPA. Â The beer and chocolate cake hit the spot and our night in Durango seemed complete at that moment.
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