I like beer. It makes me a jolly good fellow! (Rackhouse Pub Review)

Before reading this post, I highly advise you start playing this song. It was on the jukebox Wednesday night at Rackhouse Pub, and should be an excellent addition to your blog reading activity. If the link doesn’t work for you, search Tom T. Hall – I Like Beer.

Wednesday night, after work, I went to Rackhouse Pub. It was a snowy night, which I enjoy. Sadly, the rest of Denver sees snow as a stop sign every thirteen feet, so it took a while to get there. Anyway.

Rackhouse is part of the new Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey building. Stranahan’s used to be downtown, next to Flying Dog and Blake Street Tavern. Now the building is located near the corner of Santa Fe and Alameda (208 S. Kalamath, to be exact).

My first visit to Rackhouse was for the Movember party. It was after a stop at Falling Rock for their Life & Limb release, and before a few other stops, so I didn’t get a good taste of the place.

My second visit to Rackhouse was for dinner after a day of skiing. It made me want to visit again.

My third visit was Wednesday night.

I realize that I generally leave pretty good reviews. I like to go to good places. Sorry for the eternal optimism. This review sticks to that trend.

Twenty or so beers on tap. All Colorado craft. Craft whiskey. Craft vodka. Craft gin. Craft tequila. Amazing food. It’s a good place.

My buddy Taylor and I got there around 6pm, which falls within happy hour. That means $1 off all beers, Stranahan’s whiskey, and probably something else. Not wine. They don’t have wine. We both ordered a 10 oz glass of New Belgium La Folie. During happy hour, that comes to $3 a person. Seriously. La Folie. On Tap. $3. I think it was served a little too cold. But the nice thing about a beer that’s too cold is that it warms up. Too warm, you’re sort of stuck with it.

Taylor decided that a beer wasn’t enough, so he ordered a glass of Stranahan’s Whiskey, which was served with a glass of ice on the side. They know how to serve whiskey.

We ordered some food to tide us over. I had the hot bean dip, and Taylor ordered the white bean chili. Normal offerings. But they truly outdo themselves, even on something as simple as bean dip. Food comes in measuring cups and other things you’d fine in an average home kitchen. It’s pretty cool. At one point, after sweating a little from the chili, Johnny Cash comes on the jukebox. Taylor was overwhelmed:

Wait. Wait. I can drink La Folie. I can drink whiskey. Craft whiskey. I can eat white bean chili. Hot chili. And cornbread. And listen to Johnny Cash. All in the same bar? I’m ok with that.

When we got to the bar, I had sent a picture of the beer list to the Twitter. Three different people all suggested I have the Twisted Pine Oak Whiskey Red. Sadly, they were out of it. So I ordered a Flying Dog Raging Bitch. Sort of a hard beer to find, considering it wasn’t really released in town until the next day. What a great Belgian IPA! Raging Bitch was the only non local beer on tap. And Flying Dog used to be local – next door to the old distillery, in fact – so we’ll let it go.

Taylor ordered an Odell Mountain Standard. Also a great choice. He probably should have ordered it with the chili. I think it would have paired with it wonderfully. But by that point, the chili was all gone. Too tasty!

The bar was pretty empty this night. With the weather, and it being a Wednesday, people just weren’t up for going out. Rackhouse has an interesting location, which might inhibit some visitors. If you don’t live in the heart of Denver, then Rackhouse is in an awesome location. It’s right off I-25, Santa Fe, and Alameda, and super close to Broadway, 6th, the light rail, and other main thoroughfares. However, if you live in Capitol Hill, downtown, or other relatively close neighborhoods, it’s not quite close enough to walk. It’s really not that hard to get to, but it’s a little out of the way if you’re planning on having a few drinks. Parking isn’t a problem. I’d definitely suggest having someone pick you up if you plan to truly enjoy the bar.

On that note… two more friends showed up around this point. Phill, a friend from college, and Bess, of Total Bev. You know, the one who forced a shopping cart on me at the awesome liquor store. Ya, her.

Phil ordered a Left Hand Milk Stout on nitro. Bess had the Dry Dock Apricot. Taylor also had the Milk Stout.

And I had some Stranahan’s Snowflake Whiskey. As the extremely knowledgeable bartender explained to me, Stranahan’s takes some of their aged whiskey, and ages it further in various types of wine barrels. They use anything from port to table wine. The variety I tried was from a cab franc barrel. I don’t know wine at all, but as she described it, there were hints of pepper, and other stuff. I heard pepper and decided it was for me. Definitely a good choice. I like whiskey, and I love Stranahan’s whiskey. This was definitely a great variety of it.

And they call it Snowflake because no two bottles are the same.

Have you ever had this thing called mac and cheese? It’s remarkable. Bess ordered it. I’ve had something with a similar name out of a blue box. You add milk and stuff and it’s tasty. The kind they make at Rackhouse Pub is absolutely out of this world. What I mean to say is, you should probably try it. She also had the Rogue Hazelnut Rum, which sort of blew my mind.

By this point we had moved from the bar to a table, as our group was growing. The beer menu at the table, while carrying the same time stamp as the one at the bar, had different beers listed. This was confusing at first, but then just added more variety to the options. That being said, I had a Crabtree Oatmeal Stout. Phill had another Milk Stout.

Then the jazz band started. Mind you, there were two occupied tables on this snowy night. But the band must go on. They were pretty decent. The drummer made our night though. I don’t even know how to describe him. He would literally sound out the noises he wanted his drums to make as he played. It looked like he was telling a joke to himself, or yelling at a small child, depending on the song. I honestly couldn’t watch for very long. I was laughing too hard.

With this new music and new menu and whatnot, I decided to be adventurous and try the only Denver brewery I hadn’t yet tried in my time living here: Del Norte. They had the Mañana on tap. The bartender was aware of our beer geekiness by this point, and was honest when I asked her how it was. Her exact words escape me, but it was something to the effect of “you won’t like it.”

She was right.

We had a 3 oz sampler. Three of us tasted it, and couldn’t finish the sampler. I’m sorry, I really like trying new beer, and I really like brewers who try new things. But this beer was genuinely not good. It was like a cheap mexican lager version of Fat Tire.

We finished the night with a Breckenridge Christmas Ale. I’ve said before my feelings on Breckenridge beers. Allowing for that bias, I think the beer was pretty good. Not great, nothing special, but good.

Hot Za - Photo courtesy of Adam P. on Yelp

We didn’t eat much food, obviously, but from what I’ve had before and from what I’ve heard from others’ experiences, the food is top notch. It’s still normal bar food in the end, but it’s far and above the normal greasy bar food you get at most places in town. And the pizza is amazing. They have a pizza of the day every day. Yesterday’s? 12 hour tomato, Artichoke, Goat’s Cheese, Mozz, Tomato Sauce, Herbs. And Avery New World Porter was beer of the day.

Rackhouse Pub also has events, and they plan to have more and more. Thursdays you can find Geeks Who Drink, hosted by none other than Erica, aka RedHeadWriting. Other nights there is live music, parties, etc.

I highly suggest you check the place out. The food, the beer, the liquor, the atmosphere, and the people are all sure to make you a jolly good fellow. (See what I did there? Tying the title back into it? I know, literary awesomeness. It makes more sense if you listened to the song.)

Rackhouse Pub is located at 208 South Kalamath in Denver, Colorado. You can find them online at rackhousepub.com, and follow them on Twitter at @rackhousepub.

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