Our Tasting Room has been an iconic part of Williamsburg since we first opened the big red doors back in 1996. Thousands of visitors pack the bar every weekend. More come during the week for Small Batch Tours, events, and parties. People from all over the world have visited us, made memories, met friends and future spouses, and made our Tasting Room into an institution.
We’ve partied alongside everyone, but we’ve also been listening to you. The time has come for some serious and exciting changes, but we’ll give you the most exciting one up front: NO MORE BEER TOKENS!
While the beer tokens were once a key part of our Tasting Room, we’re excited to cut out the token line and offer a simpler experience at the bar. And for those of you who have a stash of old tokens, fear not. We’ll still accept them, but everything else at the bar will be cash or card. You know, like almost every other bar around.
This is part of a much larger renovation of our beloved Tasting Room space, including a brand new bar, new windows onto N 11th Street, extended hours seven days a week, more seating, more tours and tour options, an expanded Company Store, and much, much more. We’re talking about a full-blown overhaul of our space to make it more welcoming, more comfortable, and able to serve our community to a higher standard than ever before.
Of course, work of this magnitude means we’re going to have to close for a little while. We will be shuttering our Tasting Room from Monday, April 30 until at least May 17: no public hours, no Small Batch Tours, and no events, just the sweet, merry sounds of construction. Feel free to press an ear to the door while we rebuild– we probably won’t whistle while we work, but we might throw on some old-school metal while we weld.
Once we have everything tidy and the paint dries, we’ll announce some opening festivities. We’re already offering Small Batch Tour reservations for our new format, running at 5, 5:30, 6, and 6:30 PM every Monday-Friday starting May 23. Our free weekend tours will run every Saturday and Sunday on the half hour from 1-6 PM. Aside from those tours, our new hours will run:
Monday- Thursday 5-11 PM
Friday 5 PM-12 AM
Saturday 12 PM-12 AM
Sunday 12-8 PM
We’re sure you’ll have plenty of questions, and we promise we’ll release more details– and yes, opening party dates– as we get closer to our renovation dates. For now, schedule your visits and get ready for your first glimpse of our new Tasting Room. The plans look incredible, and we can’t wait to share more with our fellow beer drinkers.