I went to Randi's next door for dinner based on other yelper's review, against my local friends' recommendation. However, this is what I had to say about the Library: Much better vibe, view & beer than Randi's!!!!
The vibe and beer here definitely are better than Randi's.
Fried pickles & sweet potato fries are good. Good beer: honey wheat, cream stout & ipa. My friends and I had a lovely time on rocking chair on the porch watching thunderstorm off the distant mountain. It was so relaxed - no waitress bothering you. Highly recommended for sweet potato fries & pickle fries.
My friends love this place so when we hang with them we always come to The Library. The service has always been great. This time I ordered the cobb salad and it was really good. I will definitely order it again when hanging out with my Library loving friends. They have a special card to earn points so it keeps them coming back. My husband ordered a chicken sonoma spinach salad he liked it more than mine but he ate every bite so I didn't get to taste it. My friends love the burgers and the spicy buffalo chicken wrap. They said the pizza is good too but I am on a low carb diet. It's good to have choices in Winter Park - while it's not my first choice it is for my friends.
Review Source:This place appeared fine from the outside. Having not been here before, we decided to try it out. Â We ordered the nachos and a couple of garden salads. Â The nachos were disgusting. Â The cheese was fake and gloppy. Â The lettuce on the salad was limp and appeared to be old. Â I could have excused all of that, to maintain the good mood I was in, until 3 bites into the salad, I found an old burnt birthday candle in the lettuce. Â That was the frosting on the cake - no pun intended. YUK! Â WTF! Â What a buzz wrecker. Â The manager didn't seem interested to know or didn't care enough to make any effort to explain why a used birthday candle was in my food or just to apologize. Â The only good thing that came out of this experience, is that we didn't pay for this awful meal. Â I don't usually bother to write bad reviews, but I felt compelled to do so in this case.
Review Source:I give this place 4 stars mostly because of their beer and the atmosphere.
Their food is ...ok. Â Their service is... slow.
Beer is awesome. Â The Winter Park Ale is a must. Â pomegranate is amazing.
Yes, the staff is a little slow. Â However they are very nice and make you feel part of their crew. Â I always prefer sitting at the bar because its a great way to socialize with out-of-towners and the barstaff.
Lots of TV's. Â They play multiple games, not biased with teams. Â
The setup of the restaurant is really unique, fun to look at, and comfortable.
They're are quite a few bar/restaurants in Winter Park, this is one of my favs.
We went in the afternoon, and it wasn't crowded yet. Â We sat at the bar, and had good conversation with the bartender and others sitting at the bar. Â We tried several different beers, which were all good. Â The cinnamon shots are outstanding. Â We had the green monster pizza, which was great. Â We will be back again.
Review Source:Great beer. That is all. This place is a dump. They have food, beer and late night menus, all of which were sticky and gross. Bottom line, this place needs to be cleaned. We sat at the bar, good service, food was not good by any standard and the grime and dirt was easy to see (ALL OVER). The beer is the highlight. Go for a beer, just don't eat or touch anything. Also, it seems they run 3-4 managers at one time, to  many cooks in the kitchen and from what i noticed some drama between the staff.
This place could be great. But they need some real leadership both in the kitchen and the floor.
Went over Christmas break. Â A party of 6 was seated in 5 minutes even though it was super busy.
We had good, quick, Â friendly service.
Food was above average and good price for ski resort town.
Everyone enjoyed their food, brews, Â and sample sizes. Â I loved the prime rib club.
My only complaint was the beverages were not filled up as full as they should have been.
So I'm going to follow the lead of most of the other reviews.
The service was not fantastic. We could tell our server was a ski bum and that coming to work was not something he wanted to do. Some people have a hard time getting over that. I grew up in the industry, I'm happy if the server doesn't mess up my order, he doesn't need to smile at me or make small talk.
The food: I split the "hot" hot wings and the Ulysses chicken sandwich. The hot wings were much better than we expected, being hot wing elitists. They had a good spice, didn't taste like Tabasco, and they were a big portion. The Ulysses was a first for me. I've cooked in a ton of places, but I have never thought of putting artichoke dip on a chicken sandwich, it turned out great! The ciabatta roll that the chicken sandwich was served on was delicious as well.
The beer: Another pleasant surprise. We ordered a pint of the Nitro Steamboat Oatmeal Stout, which is excellent. Then we ordered 4oz samplers of everything else on the 8 taps. The Keller Kolsch tasted like Budweiser or MGD. Which is what it is supposed to taste like I guess. I was not a fan. The Rattlesnake Rye PA was just fine as far as RPAs go. I wouldn't have a pint of it, but the tasters a buck so I was super happy with it. The Big Nose ESB was exellent. As good as any ESB I have had at a English Pub. The Summer Hummer Honey Wheat was an average, but still plenty good honey wheat. We mixed it with the Oatmeal Stout for a delicious little four ounce Black and Tan. Lastly we had a sampler of the Pomegranate Blueberry Wheat. It was really good. It didn't have the weird chemical taste that some of the lesser fruit beers sometimes get. We mixed it with a few ounces of the Oatmeal Stout to make a Black and Blue. The Black and Blue was the best beer of the day.
Overall, I found the place pretty good. I would certainly go back, just not if its busy or a good day to ski, then the staff might get a little testy.
One of the worst - ever. Â Not recommended. Â Visited sunday evening, Â 11/25/12. Â
The GOOD: Â 4oz samples for $1. Â Best beer was Oatmeal Creme Stout. Â (all samples were severely under poured though, 2/3s full - definitely not 4oz)
The BAD: Â Â The food. Â Everything we ordered (appetizers, sandwich, chicken) were disgusting. Â No redeeming qualities whatsoever. Â Frozen, microwaved garbage.
The UGLY: Â The service. Â Waited, standing by our table for 15 minutes, trying to leave. Â Approached the bar 2x, tried to get the ticket paid & was ignored. Â Felt totally robbed walking out.
I came in on a Saturday afternoon and experienced good and fast service. As a resident of Laramie-the location of the owner's other bar with the same name I was impressed to see that they were finally able to get brewing operations up and running here as well. The place doesn't have the same "Library-esqe" i college town place the Laramie location but nonetheless still has the same great food, service and beer. Unlike the Laramie location, you can get small 4 oz samples of each beer for a dollar. I Prices are very reasonable as well especially for a ski town. So if you're in WP or just passing through, give the place a try.
Review Source:The library could be great... unfortunately the service sucks and the food is pretty much terrible. Â Nachos use fake / pump cheese and they are pretty much the same as what you get at the 7-11. Â The beer they brew can be pretty good, but unfortunately, they seem to be out of stock of the good stuff....
Owning a cabin only half a mile from the Library gives me some pain to give such a bad review.
On a mid fall afternoon there isn't a lot going on in Winter Park. Not a lot is open and nothing is hopping. We were desperately in need of some sort of food in our bellies so we committed to the first restaurant that was open and not looking too "ski town ghetto". Let's just say I'm glad we found this place!
The atmosphere is your standard grill + pub/brewery - lots of TVs, lots of sports stuff, rather loud, etc. And their food is very respectable bar and grill food - good burgers, decent wraps and amazing sweet potato fries! They have me coming back just for the darn sweet potato fries. And they don't mess around with the "sweet" side of that - the fries are topped with some sweet drizzle of deliciousness! Yum!
Their weekday hours are mostly just PM, so check before you plan a trip up to RMNP with lunch at The Library...
This place was just OK, we would be back if we ever visited Winter Park again, but it is nothing to write home about. We decided to try The Library since my husband wants to try all the Breweries in Colorado. He said his beer was pretty good and the bartender hooked a girl up with the tequila sunrise and margarita. The food was just ok. The wait staff seemed a little lost. Our waitress was fine and was worth 20%, but she seemed to have a lot of tables while others were standing around. I would recommend this place and would be back, but I've had better
Review Source:Have eaten here several times. Â The food has ranged from average to really good. Â The services usually ranges from average to really really bad. Â
Wake up guys!! Â You need to improve some attitudes of wait staff & get them to pay attention & move a little faster! Â I'll probably come back for the food & drinks, but the wait staff really needs to step it up a notch.
Two stars for two mediocre visits...RyePA was very good, but the review with nacho's being velveeta and lettuce was spot on. Â My kids left pizza and didn't want to take it home. Waitress chatted up friends at the bar forgetting our additional drinks. Â Fun local atmosphere, terrible food and service.
Review Source:The Library is a Winter Park hidden gem (I had thought that it was an actual library for a long time). The food, beer, and atmosphere were great! The back patio (faces the road running through WP) is a great place to hang out in the summer. Unfortunately, the service sucked quite a bit. My dad ordered wings and the waitress had told them they were out of them. The next thing we know, a plate of wings is being carried out to a table near us... I don't know exactly what happened here. Another downfall is that the staff that we encountered were unwelcoming and unhelpful. Overall, its a great place to eat and hang out but be aware of the sub-par staff and their service.
Review Source:Was there last week, and I can't even remember what I had. Not a beer drinker so take my review with a grain of salt I guess...
We walked in and couldn't find the check in stand. After milling around the bar for a little while feeling stupid, we just sat down in one of the several empty tables. After sitting there for about 10 minutes we were approached by a waitress who asked if we had been seated by the host and we said no and she pointed out the general direction of where we needed to go and advised us to check in. Still had trouble finding it, it was kinda ridiculous it didn't stand out and there was no one there when we walked up. We were told we had to wait 20 minutes to be seated; so we opted to scrounge some seats at the bar while we waiting. We managed to order two rounds of our drinks from the bar and our food before we were told there was a table available. Seems like a popular place with locals, considering most are ski bums I don't think that's really saying much.
I'm not sure I even know where to start. Â I almost expected the dude from "What would you do" to come trouncing in. Â We came in on a Sunday night...restaurant was probably 1/3 full. Â So let's start with the high point:
The beer:
Not bad, not great, it's not New Belgium, but it's also not something out of a "Make your own" beer kit. Â We ordered two samplers and they were good enough. This could be considered the high point of our experience. Other than the fact that it took them 15 minutes to bring it to us, but we'll get to that point later. Â
The Food: Â
Well after 45 minutes our expectations were kinda high....I had assumed these were to be the best chicken wings, chicken nuggets, buttered noodles, salmon salad and burger of our natural life. Â
Now I confess not to be a food connoisseur, but you've got to be friggin kidding me.  The chicken fingers (one of their "signature items" were so terrible my 8 yr old son didn't even eat half his meal and my kid will eat damn near anything.  My hot wings...which in all fairness I ordered hot.... were so spicy they were reminiscent of  wings that I've had to sign waivers for. The salad was okay, the rest of the food was slightly better than a bad snack stand.
And then there was the service. Â
Now I spent 8 years working as a bartender and waiter and cook, etc - I'm ridiculously forgiving when it comes to service. But this place rivals as some of the worst service I've ever seen. Â
Took 2-3 minutes to get the menu's, not bad. Took another 5 for her to ask for our drinks...not terrible. 5 minutes later she brought the non-alcoholic drinks. Â
I asked her what was good and got the ever helpful response of "I don't know". Took our order. Â 10 minutes later the bartender brought our beer. (15 minutes after ordering for those of you playing at home).
45 minutes later our food comes and I order another beer. Â 10 minutes goes by, no sight of waitress. We flag down a nice blond waitress. Â Ask her for some stuff...she brings an iced tea and some ranch which was nice. (her and bartender were nice)
5-10 minutes later everybody has finished their food but me....who's mouth is on fire and who hasn't gotten his beer he ordered 20 minutes ago. Â The beer finally arrives thanks to the nice waitress. Â
Now I read the other reviews on Yelp before coming here...I took them tongue in cheek. But they nailed it on the head: Â this is a restaurant who has mediocre beer, bad food and service that makes you want to leave copies of the classified ads in the table when you leave. Â
These folks seem to think it's an honor for us to grace them with their presence. These guys clearly spend all winter long snowboarding and all summer being pissed off that out-of-towners are invading their city. They are on a mission to ensure nobody ever wants to return.
I give these people 2 stars as a favor for the same reason I gave the waitress a $5 tip....because I'm not a complete ass.
This was our fourth time here, but only our first time to actually be served. The waitress was friendly and had some suggestions as to what to get. The beer selection was nice, what I had was just so-so for a house crafted beer. The food was sub-par. The artichoke dip was bland and the chicken sandwich had no seasoning (so I guess that goes under the bland category too). The onion rings were undercooked. All in all, I'm thinking that maybe we should have just stayed home.
Review Source:The beers are really good. The food is really good too!
It is expensive as typical of the Town.
The reason it gets only three stars is because the service SUCKED. The people working there are a bunch of stuck up "locals." Listen here you hipster tools......we know you live in a cool ski town. Get over it. If tourists didn't come in there and spend their money, you tools wouldn't have any money to buy your Natural Spirit Cigarettes and ride fixed gear bikes.
Try the Green Monster Pizza.
After a long day in Rocky Mountain National Park, my friend and I stopped in Winter Park to rest up. It was pretty late, so we figured our options would be limited, but our hotel clerk ("Holla!" at Matt, from the Best Western Alpenglo) recommended The Library.
We walked over (a very short walk) and were in for a very pleasant surprise. The Library seems like a fairly new place, but everything was superbly executed. We were promptly seated in the sports-heavy/themed main dining area and really had a great experience. We noticed that a table nearby had a whole bunch of small beer glasses with different samples, so we inquired. Turns out you can order a sample of any of their (8 or 10) beers for $1 per 4 oz. glass. With that, off we went into the wild blue yonder. And by that, I mean, we ordered about 8 samples each (yay!)! Their beers are superb and of particular note were the peanut-flavored wheat beer and their crisp, slightly bitter (bracing) IPA. Having a nice round of samples was a great start, but I even found the food to be amazing (an unexpected surprise).
I ordered their grilled chicken sandwich with spinach-avocado spread on top and I can honestly say it was one of the most memorable sandwiches I've enjoyed. Served on a terrific brioche bun with The Library's great crinkle-cut sweet potato fries (never seen those before!) on the side, it made a hard day's work in RMNP worth it! I am still thinking about how great that sandwich was. Ask for it without provolone though, since I found that to be just a bit heavy.
Overall, I would go back to Winter Park to go back to The Library. An excellent stop if you're in the area for a great selection of beer and an impressively well-considered food menu.
You know that feeling you get when someone clearly doesn't want you around? That's how my friends and I felt when we were at the Library a few weeks ago. I've been going to Winter Park for years and lived there for a time when I was younger. The customer service in this town has never been great. That is to say, service was slow but never rude. Things seem to have taken a turn for the worst.
It started off okay. The drinks were slow to come but at least they came. After about an hour, things got really slow. There was a host of employees (I know this cuz they told us) sitting around the bar and our waitress seemed far more interested in chatting with her friends than her job.
At about 11, they announced last call. We paid our tab and headed to the door. It was clear that all the regular customers were being rushed out while about half the bar--the employee--continued to drink. The employees made exceptionally rude comments to us as we left. Not sure what they were thinking or want prompted their behavior.
I've worked in a place like the Library and in a place like Winter Park (oh yeah, it was Winter Park), so I get wanting to hang out with your friends, but the tourist these so called locals were so quick to get rid of are the ones that really make these towns run.
I almost gave the Library 2 stars instead of one because the food isn't bad and the prices were reasonable, but I really can't get over how terrible the staff treated us. I will be avoiding this place in the future and I suggest others do the same.
Love me some micro-breweries! They rarely disappoint. The service here was not stellar. The place was packed, and they appeared to be short staffed, so I believe they did the best they could (although some of the staff seemed stoned, or drunk, or both). We sat out on the patio, which was great for a few minutes, but between the people chain smoking, the dogs barking and wrestling, and the children chasing each other around, it got to be a bit overwhelming. We may have been better off in the bar. The beers were tasty (and reasonably priced), and the food was good. Lots of variety, so there was definitely something for everyone. Probably not my first choice if I return to Winter Park, but part of the consideration set. Cheers!
Review Source:This is a great new place in Downtown Winter Park. We went at a really busy time, so everything moved really slow, but our waiter was very apologetic, kind and calm. I had the bratwurst, which was the size of my head. Took half of it home and two days to finish the thing. It was really tasty, though.
They have a great drink menu as well. Very casual and laid back atmosphere...lots of folks hanging out in their ski gear. I'll go back for drinks and a meal for sure.
We spent Christmas break 2011 at our condo in WP and checked out just about every place in the city. The snow was sparce so we had a lot of time to spend around town. We checked out the "Library grill" and I was overall pleased.
One of the owners, Tanya, spent some time telling us about the history of the place and the bartender named Cori poured some really nice drinks. The staff seemed to really care and admitted that they were still trying to get a feel for the area as their other bar is in Laramie, Wyoming at the U of W. Tanya said that they have been getting some bad reviews online but I can honestly say i saw nothing to support that during my visit.
We ordered food and it was delicious, and not overpriced. I had a prime rib sandwich, the wife some soup and a big chef salad. Both came quickly and were fresh. I was happy. There are a lot of big screens with ballgames and there is pool upstairs. The bathrooms were clean and well-kept. The bar has a "college" feel more than an apres-ski feel.
Overall I recommend the Library, although it is still growing into the quirkey town of WP and it's contemporary feel makes it a little out of place next to the dives nearby. It has not earned the character and charm of  WP yet, but I can recommend it for quality food, nice staff and a cold beer after a day on the icy slopes of WP.
A group of us went to the Library for dinner the other night. Â Their German ale beer was okay. Â Ordered the hottest wings they had... the flavor was good, but decidedly very little heat. Â
Everyone's orders came out at different times; there must've been at least a ten minute lag from the first to the last person served. Â So, wanting to be polite, a bunch of us sat there with rapidly cooling plates of food, awaiting the rest of our friends' meals. Â One of our friends ordered the french dip sandwich, and pointed out that the meat was hard (like it'd been sitting for awhile). Â
WTF was up with the pizza? Â We were there with a bunch of generally non-picky kids who refused to eat the pizza. Â
All this and for our family of four the tab (including 5 beers) was over eighty bucks. Â
For MUCH better food in Winter Park, as well as better value, check out Adolf's in Old Town.
I must admit, i was fooled by the "Library" sign when this place opened, wondering why we needed another library in the Fraser Valley. Â But then i learned it's actually a brewery and restaurant ... yay! Â We've gone a couple of times now. Â The crafted beer is pretty good, a nice change from the usual bottled stuff. Â Alas, the food is typical pub fare. Â Lots of burgers (my meat-eating friends say they are very good burgers) and pizza. Â Nothing really awesome or new. Â Oddly, none of the pizzas has red sauce, they are all white pizzas. Â Maybe red sauce conflicts with their beer flavors?!?! Â Dunno, but i like red sauce on my pizza. Â And no matter how many times you ask them to add red sauce, the pizzas come out white, and you might be given a separate bowl of red sauce for dipping. Â Very strange. Â Which leads to another star-deduction ... the wait staff are easily flustered. Â On our last visit, 4 out of 4 orders were done wrong and had to go back to the kitchen. Â On our first visit, 2 of 4 orders were done wrong and had to go back to the kitchen. Â So the averages are going down as they're in business longer. Â I'm not sure whether the problem is the waiters or the kitchen, but we clearly have a communication problem here. Â It's very loud in The Library, so maybe that's the problem??
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