Firewaters

I stopped by here last Friday evening on my way home from work to finally check out the selection of 50 craft beer lines. I'm a big-time beer nerd, but the lack of chatter about this place gave me reservations. Well, I get in there around 7:30pm, and there are a total of five people there - three guys at the bar and two women at a table. The place is cavernous, oddly-decorated, and had loud, pulsing dance music playing. I was there to watch the rest of the Yankee game, but had a hard time paying attention with the crappy music. The bartender was pretty friendly, but clearly wasn't a beer "insider" and therefore I didn't have anything to talk about at a place that brought me there for the beer. I got some of the Hooters wings, which was only the second time in my life I've had them. After the first time, in Atlanta 10 years ago, my comment was that the best thing about Hooters wings were the boobs on the waitresses serving them. With this serving, half of my wing order was dried-out, no-meat crap, and the ones that were servicable barely had any meat on them. I had a pair of draft beers, and while I recognized most of the names, they were all shelf-stock choices. Out of 50 lines, not one of them was something that any sort of exclusivity or rareness to it. For those, I'd rather just save the money and get a sixer at Stew Leonard's.

Now, as bad as my review is so far, it still hasn't gotten to the worst part. I was there for about two hours, and when I got home, I started feeling really, really awful. I went inside and immediately got sick, and it continued into the next morning, puking up bile for several hours. The only other time this happened to me was the last time that I had draft beers at a sketchy place in Key West. The connection that I made was that I probably have a reaction to some sort of bacteria that occurs when tap lines aren't cleaned. I can't state this as a fact, but 99% of my draft beers are at places that specialize in catering to beer nerds who are serious about their suds, and I never get drunk or sick at those places. My beer intake for the night would have allowed me to pass a breathalyzer no problem, so it wasn't over-consumption that got me. Suffice to say that you couldn't pay me to go back here. Well, maybe for a million bucks. That would be worth being sick for.

Ok...this place seems to be under new management and has actually gotten a bit better in the past year. The mind-boggling selection of bottled beers hasn't returned, but they added a few dirt-cheap "keg-kickers", ditched the DJs, and even brought back the sampler. The couch is gone and the place can still have a pretty depressing and lonesome vibe, but it's not the pit it had been

Such a waste of a place! They have 50 craft beers on tap with an impressive selection. From 5-7pm they offer $3 beer samplers. On top of that, you can order from hooters next door. Yummy wings + great beer = awesomeness!

Then why only 3 stars? First, there is no ambiance heck there is never a crowd when I go. The place feels so dark and drabby. Probably what a bar would look like in a ghost town. Second, the bathroom is a disgrace I think gas station restrooms are cleaner. Third, some of the bartenders know nothing about the beers on tap so please take advantage of the sampler to avoid a roundabout of questioning.

So sad to see such great beer go to waste...