Jackie O's Pub & Brewery

beveritt

Ohio

5/5  rDev +13.9%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 5 | $$

After several visits over many years, I am finally getting around to reviewing this place, if only to tell everyone on BA to make it a priority to visit. This may be a small brewpub, in an out of the way town, but holy hell do they make great beer.

I spent a few hours at Jackie O's today, amazed by the selection, the quality, the friendliness of the people, and the tastiness of the food.

I had a sampling of each of their beers, I think 11 on tap right now, and each and every one was good. Many of them were a little over the top, more experimental than you would expect from a brewpub with a 7 bbl system. Porters aged on vanilla beans and cherries. Porters aged with honey. IPAs aged on grapefruit. Brown ales with some cherry and lactobacillus thrown in. Not that they don't have a solid line up of classic session beers. The Pale Ales and Porters are here too, and just as good as everything else.

The service is exceptional. I can imagine that myself and my beer geek friends can come off as a little too into it, but everyone here was friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful. I really felt like I was hanging out with a few buddies over some beer.

The food is also over the top delicious. You sometimes get a brewpub with good beer and mediocre food or vice versa, but the fare here is exceptional. They serve typcial pub fare and pizza made with spent grains. I have had the pizza before and had fish and chips today. The fish and chips was freshly battered white fish with a homemade tartar sauce. The fries were steak style, skin on with just the right balance of crisp and give.

I don't know what else to say about this place. I wish it were a lot closer. I have lived all over the world because of my job and this is by far one the nicest and friendliest brewpubs I have ever lived near.

This place is fucking awesome!

02-01-2009 04:21:41 | More by beveritt

MilwaukeeCrusher

Wisconsin

5/5  rDev +13.9%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | $$$

My first brewery review. I generally don't do these but in this instance felt compelled to do so. Stopped November 5th, and saw that the place appeared to be closed until 4 in the afternoon. Considering I was headed to Foothills for the ORF release, time was an issue. Just when I was about to leave, a man from next door told me that next door was also attached with the brewpub, and was open. I mentioned I had conversed on BA with someone at the brewery who knew I was coming from Wisconsin. I then met who seemed to be one of the brewers, who opened the place special for me. Tried their Scotch Ale which was good, but considering I was driving stopped there, but also got a couple free samples. I then bought what I could feasibly buy at the beginning of my trip, but now wish I had bought more. The brewery had a neat rustic feel to it, which fit in well the beautiful surroundings of southeastern Ohio. I was treated very well and expect to hear much more from this brewery in the future.

12-16-2010 17:41:58 | More by MilwaukeeCrusher

bluejacket74

Ohio

4.95/5  rDev +12.8%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 4.5 | $$

I finally made it back to Jackie O's yesterday. There have been a lot of changes since my last visit there 4 1/2 years ago, the big one being they have since bought the pub next door so they now have a brewery side and a pub side, with both having different beers on tap. Since I only had an appetizer there I can't say much about the food, but the other people there who were eating around me seemed to enjoy what they had, so I'll assume the food is all pretty good like my appetizer was. The service was great, and it's a cool environment there just to hang out, chill and have some beer. After a couple brews and some samples on the pub side, I went over to the brewery side and talked with Brad for a few minutes (who was nice enough to take a few minutes out of his day to talk about beer with me), and had more samples of different brews, including 6 different versions of their Dark Apparition stout, all of which were excellent. The beer there is just flat out incredible. Everything I tried was great, and I can't think of any other places that have as many barrel aged beers on tap as Jackie O's does. I could have spent all day there, and I might have to make a trip back down there soon just to do that. If you're in the area (or even if you're not), it's definitely worth it to make the trip. I'll have to come back to Jackie O's more often, that's for sure!

12-31-2010 13:47:26 | More by bluejacket74

jale

Michigan

4.95/5  rDev +12.8%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 4.5 | $$

I have visited Jackie-o's a dozen times and every time I wish I could stay longer. The staff here always make you feel like you are important. Two bars are connected via an outdoor deck area in the rear of the place. One has T.V.s and is a bit larger. One has no T.V.s and is more intimate for conversations with friends. I love the spent grain pizza made from the grains used in the brewing process. Other items on the food menu are also very good. Brad makes great beer and he is awlways trying something new in brewing. This is probably my favorite pub I have ever been to. Great food, great beer, great atmosphere, and most of all great people make this a must stop for anyone.

09-02-2011 13:23:43 | More by jale

seeswo

Ohio

4.95/5  rDev +12.8%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 5 | $

Jackie O's is one of the best places I have been for beer tasting and a beer release. The food is great, the beer is amazing, the staff is incredibly friendly and attentive, and the whole place is extremely cheap. It is basically exactly what you would want your local brew pub to be. In addition, they really know how to run a release, which just makes everything even better.

Brad Clark is the brewer who is both really talented and humble. He also has this uncanny knack of remembering your name, which is impressive. Give him a heads up if you are coming through and spend a few minutes with him - if he's got a little time, you won't be disappointed.

I have been to a ton of places (I don't review most) and this is easily the best place to go for a release weekend.

12-04-2011 22:09:49 | More by seeswo

AleWatcher

Illinois

4.95/5  rDev +12.8%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 4.5 | $$

I wasn't sure what to expect when we rolled into JO's, but any slight inclination towards any expectations was more than exceeded.

Never have I been treated to such hospitality. Art and Brad were awesome-- very friendly and laid back, with a clear love of the beer world and a strong appreciation of their customers and fans.

Brad especially deserves some serious praise. He is one of the friendliest people I've ever met in the industry. He talked to us for what seemed like hours, gave us special pours of some great beers, answered a ton of my questions, and personally gave us a tour.

I ordered the pizza for lunch-- it was quite good, though the spent-grain dough became rather noticeable as I got to my last couple slices.

Some beers were better than others, but I'll be honest-- even if I felt all the beers were sub-par, I'd still come back here.
We all had an amazing experience at Jackie O's, and I not only highly recommend it, I'm thinking already about a return visit.

01-22-2012 21:22:43 | More by AleWatcher

backfat

Indiana

4.95/5  rDev +12.8%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 4.5 | $$

This was the best brewery experience I have had to date. Jeff(Alewatcher) and I decided to take an Ohio tour on a random weekend in January. We met up with Cam (Urbancaver) and lisa (lisomiso) after an amazing tasting the night before and headed to the icy city of Athens. We met the owner Arthur and the brewmaster Brad for a little impromptu tasting. tried some crianza helena, ice apparition, hogwash, etc. before we had to get out of their hair because they were about to host an 80 person tasting in that little bar. Let me just say that Brad is a cool dude. He is doing absolutely everything I would be doing if I ever opened up a brewpub. Tons of barrels downstairs, an amazing and experimental tap line up, great tasting events and bottle releases. Lots of variety on tap for such a small place with some great experimental (breakfast beer anyone?) We left the tasting room and went next door to the pub to get some food. I had a Reuben that used spent grain bread, and it was delicious. Brad met us later and gave us a full tour. He treated us like royalty even though he didn't know us, and let us try some of THE BEST sours I have had to date. watch out world cuz some fire is a-comin'. I have nothing but the utmost respect for this brewery that I knew nothing about weeks prior. With this kind of attitude towards beer and their customers, they will go a long way in the world of craft beer. I wish them nothing but success.

03-08-2012 15:01:52 | More by backfat

Auslander

Ohio

4.94/5  rDev +12.5%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | $$

I visited Jackie O's on Feb. 4th and 5th for their bottle release. The atosphere was great. The Public House side is roomy which is a good thing since it was packed wall to wall both Friday & Saturday. The smaller Brewery side is very cozy.

The service was FANTASTIC. Every employee I met was friendly, courteous and damn efficient. Both days these folks were serving standing room only crowds. They were working their asses off. They did so with a smile on their face. Each server took pride in their bar & their beers.

The beer selection was out of this world. Their samplers were very reasonably priced. It was nice to get a small pour of 4 or 8 beers to help decide which beer you wanted next.

I did not eat at Jackies. The pizzas and burgers looked & smelled appealing.

I might not be able to wait until the next release to visit Jackie O's again. I see another 3 1/2 hour drive in my future.

02-11-2011 20:26:28 | More by Auslander

AwYeh

California

4.9/5  rDev +11.6%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 4.5 | $$

Drove down to Jackie O's for the Feb. 5th Stout & Big Beer Fest/bottle release; my first time there, and I was in for a treat.

The atmosphere of the place is great (and if you go to a release, made even better by the friendly beer folks crawling all over the place, especially the ones from BA). It's divided up into two sides: the public house and what I believe is called the brewery side. The public house side was fantastic: lots of room to get around/fit people in, easy to talk in, and with an overall good vibe. The brewery side was nice as well, although with everything packed together a bit more.

The quality of everything was absolutely outstanding; I've touched on the building, etc. but the beer and the people were both OUTSTANDING. Considering the much larger than expected turnout for the Fest, every single person I spoke to was great, from the bar staff to Brad the brewmaster. I couldn't have hoped for anything better; by far the best bar experience I've ever had.

The beer selection might not ordinarily have 30+ (34?) beers on tap, but they went all out for the fest- easy 5 here. Such a huge variety of beers, even outside of the realms of stouts or big beers, that I could have drank well without so much as touching a black beer. The guest taps feature better selections than most bars would ever carry, but I had to skip over most of them to accommodate more Jackie O's beers- but really a win/win situation. If the normal tap list was only a quarter of what it was when I was there (which I'm confident it is more than), Jackie O's would still be a 4.5 in my book.

Didn't get a chance to try as much of their food as I would have liked... but what I did have was great. Props to them for using spent grain (and probably more by-products of the brewing process that I didn't hear about) in their bread products.

In short, I can't recommend Jackie O's enough- what a great place.

02-07-2011 06:03:34 | More by AwYeh

genog

Ohio

4.85/5  rDev +10.5%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 4 | $$

Went to Jackie O's 5th anniversary celebration over the weekend. This was the second time I got to go down to Athens for this one of a kind place. The beer selection is crazy good. They make really good food too. The pizza dough is made with spent grain which makes for a full experience of the brewing process.

The staff is very friendly, and knowledable and you can usually meet the brew master as he is around frequently making new stuff. Never a dull beer here. I highly recommend this place!!

12-07-2010 21:05:33 | More by genog