Kickbacks Gastropub

PGHeppJr

New York

4.85/5  rDev +8%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 4 | $$

I will keep this short and simple, if you have the chance to go, go. I know this has been mentioned, but if Steve knows you are there via ratebeer or BA, he'll make sure you have one helluva time. If he ain't, ask for Jake aka jakers, John aka Crush, Alex or my go- to guy Andrew aka one-eye-willie-come-try-kill-me, and tell em the same. This is a great place to get real beer and people watch. Trust me, totally worth hunting for parking. Do yourself a favor, if you have a facebook, keep your eye on their wall to see what is getting tapped that day. One last thing, sit in the high top tables closest the bathrooms, meet chet and hold the hell on!

03-21-2011 20:36:56 | More by PGHeppJr

TheBananaKing

Florida

4.95/5  rDev +10.2%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 4.5 | $$

I am not originally from Jacksonville but from the time I moved up here, all my friends told me that since I love beer I needed to go to Kickbacks. Needless to say, they were right. I have been there 4 times now and cannot wait for my next trip there. The other day I brought a friend passing through town there knowing it would blow his mind and it did. Steve is one of the most hospitable people you will ever meet and really knows his beer. He talked with us the whole time about various beers and breweries and even showed us pics of some of the breweries he's visited. Not to mention, the staff is also very friendly and knowledgeable about beers. The beers they have, both on tap and in their bottle list, are quite impressive. They also have a food menu that could satisfy anyone in the group. Hands down my favorite place to go for good brews and a good time. Thank you Steve!

03-05-2011 01:04:42 | More by TheBananaKing

yankeej13

Florida

4.9/5  rDev +9.1%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 4.5 | $$

I have been to Kickbacks two times, the first time that I visited Kickbacks I was in heaven. I first looked at all the hundreds of beer taps that they have hanging from the ceiling. Second thing that caught my eye was the amazingly large board of all the beers that they have on draft which was one hundred. Once you sit down the service takes over, they have a fantastic foods varietys of all kinds. Plus there's an extra two hundred plus bottles of beer as well. You can take a person in there who does not care for beer and the servers will find something that fits into their taste palette. I am still in heaven when I go into this place and it just gets better everytime I go back.

03-04-2011 00:59:42 | More by yankeej13

PeteThePirate

Florida

4.72/5  rDev +5.1%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 5 | food: 4 | $$

Crap will that math result in an "A" rating? This is truly an "A" rated place. Service was a bit off in the afternoon. The position of the taps make sitting at the bar ordering a "hide and seek" adventure. The beers on tap are truly 84, although i didnt count them. Ive been to the boastful broken barrel in palm bay and heard "we are out of that" 84 times. I dont think Kickbacks was out of anything! Wonderful beer bar! Worth the 5 hour drive. Making mental note ... drive there in the morning and spend lunch there tuesday!

As promised an edit of my review:
The taps are at eye level leaving the beer patron to stare at the chest of the server while ordering. This was explained to me by the sweet Fawna. She had a PHD from the BeerAdvocate School of Brews. Met Steve who actually said: "I have two empty taps right now... what would you like me to open?"

You've got to get to this place guys!

02-28-2011 23:08:52 | More by PeteThePirate

eaglefreak

Mississippi

4.9/5  rDev +9.1%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 4.5 | $$

I had the pleasure of having lunch at Kickbacks on 2/18/11. Being from out of town, I had read the reviews on BA and knew I had to get to Kickbacks, even brought my mom with me, who lives in Jville. We got there for a late lunch. Food menu had plenty of offerings (we had trouble deciding what to order) and our food was great. My mother, who is not a beer drinker, plans to come back just for lunch as she works close by.

IMO, the best beer bar in Jville, by a long way. 84 beers on tap. I had at least three offerings from Cigar City and many other samples. Introduced myself to Steve Flores (owner) as a BA. Super nice guy. He really rolled the red carpet for me and my mom. The waitress we had was super knowledgable, friendly,and attentive. KB is in Riverside part of town, which is a pretty cool area. I cannot wait to come back, which should be this fall for Saints at Jags. Kickbacks is a destination that beer lovers MUST seek out in that area. An owner and pub that has this kind of passion for beer deserves support.

02-24-2011 18:59:26 | More by eaglefreak

steelersrbrun

Florida

5/5  rDev +11.4%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 5 | $$

A++!! Beer geek heaven. Owner Steve Flores laid out the red carpet and it was an amazing experience. Hands down the best selection I have been witness to so far. 84 beers on draft. EIGHTY FOUR! Not to mention a book for the bottle list that is 3/4" thick. The quantity is nothing compared to the quality. The beer is treated with love and even given time to age. If you are lucky enough to see the beer cave and what is aging in there,prepare to be in awe. My Girlfriend took a picture of my reaction and if Jesus was in my kitchen cooking me dinner when I get home tonight, I might be able to recreate that expression.

A - Very laid back and friendly. Even when the place gets packed everyone is chilled and kicking back at Kickbacks. I was there on Friday & Saturday night. I witnessed zero instances of douchebaggery, no pushing, yelling or obnoxious drunkards even with all the high ABV brews. Owner Steve and his staff make you feel like family.

Q - Exceptional. Beers are aged. Lines are cleaned by in-house crew...clean enough to brew with. Always a great pour into a clean and appropriate glass.

S - Great. The staff is motivated, fast and friendly. They take the time to make suggestions, get orders right and get them to you a quick as possible. Even with the place at capacity inside and out we never had to wait too long.

S - Beer selection is "stoopid" good. I listed below what was on draft during my visit so you can get some perspective on it. You need a week to really try everything you want to try and then you can get started on the bottle list

F - Phenomenal -The owner bills this as a restaurant first and beer bar second, Food selection is top notch and delicious. Do not miss the Monte Cristo or the sweet potato fries dusted with powered sugar and served with cinnamon spread.

V - Value is great. Food is fantastic at a great price. A rare import at
Kickback's is priced better than some micros in south FL.

O - Overall Kickbacks Gastropub was well worth the 5 hour drive and best beer bar I have visited in all of Florida. If I could list one negative it would be that my overall drinking experience at home is always going to seem so pale in comparison.

Steve thanks for setting the bar so high and setting me up for years of disappointment. Looking forward to going back.

Weyerbacher Insanity
Bell's Expedition Stout
Hacker Pshorr Weisse
Yuengling Lager
Great Divide Tripel
Miller Lite
2010 Fort Collins Maibock
Great Divide Hercules
Anderson Valley Winter Solstice
Tucher Helles Hefe Weizen
Michelob Ultra
Woodchuck Amber
Bud Light
Babycham
Victory Hop Wallop
Weyerbacher Golf
B.F.M. La Torpille
Sam Adams Revolutionary Rye
Rogue Charlie 1981
Wittekerke
DFH 60
Bold City European Street Café Lamp Post Ale
Tommyknocker Oaked Butt Head Bock
Wychwood Hobgoblin
Stone Double Bastard Ale
2009 Weyerbacher Merry Monks Ale
2007 Smuttynose Brett & I (short batch #2)
Ayinger Celebrator
Peak Organic Espresso Amber
Blue Moon
Old Speckled Hen
Boddingtons Pub Ale
Guiness
Left Hand Milk Stout
Young;s Double Chocolate Stout
North Coast Old Rasputin
Lost Coast Tangerine Wheat
2009 Uerige Doppelsticke
Avery Old Jubliation
Intuition Shotgun Schack Black Rye Ale
Sierra Nevada Brown Saison
Chocarrubica
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
Hitachino Nest Espresso Stout
Sweetwater 420
Sam Adams Boston Lager
Stella Artois
Lindemans Framboise
Rogue Double Chocolate Stout
Ettaler Curator (speacial brew 2009)
Lagunitas A little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale
Pauwel Kwak
Ichtegem's Grand Cru
Warsteiner Premium Verum
Birrificio Le Baladin Al-Iksir
Terrapin Monk's Revenge
J.W. Lees Moonraker Ale
Red Brick #'s Ale
Maredsous 8
DFH Raison D'entre
DFH Midas Touch
Birrificio Del Ducato Verdi Imperial Stout
Southern Tier Crème Brulee
Southern Tier Choklat
Saxo
Ommegang Three Philoophers
Magic Hat Circus Boy
Coronado Mermaid's Red Ale
2009 Smuttynose Wheat Wine Ale
Allagash Confluence
Dogfish Head Sah'tea
Unibroue Ephemere
Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti
Schneider Aventinus
Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence
St Bernardus ABT 12
Affligem Blonde
Cigar City Jai Alai
Cigar City Double Cream Ale
Bell's Two Hearted Ale
Boulder Obovoid
De Glazen Toren Ondineke Oilsjtersen
Terrapin Tomfoolery Black Saison Ale
Souther Tier Krampus

02-21-2011 18:22:09 | More by steelersrbrun

Aiptasia

Florida

4.85/5  rDev +8%
vibe: 4 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 4.5 | $$$

I had the pleasure of visiting Kickbacks on King St. for lunch today. On entering, the gastropub is a combination of brewpub and sports bar, with a small belly-up style bar and several low tables for seating of parties of two or more. The ceiling is covered with the inverted pull taps of brews past, and the walls are decorated with the requisite beer-vertising and several flat screen televisions running the gamut of TNT trivia to sports center to local programming.

The crowd at this time of day (lunch hour) was light. There are a few professionals, couples, swarthy-types and die-hards hanging out at one of the best craft beer joints in Jax, but I couldn't help feeing that the crowd would be much thicker and more interesting after dark. There were plenty of tables to pick and choose from at noon.

The bar itself is small and absolutely crammed full of pull taps. So crowded, it does indeed make it difficult to converse with the bartender (or anyone else) over the bar. There might be eight or nine bar stools total. Since this isn't your typical bar, roll with the punches and just strike up a conversation with the nearest staff member, find a seat wherever and you won't be disappointed.

At the back wall of the bar near the front windows, you will find the ON-TAP menu, with over 85 selections of craft beer to choose from. I sampled the current #73: Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout. This was paired with a blue cheese stuffed cheeseburger with crinkle cut sweet potato fries. My Wife, being seven month's pregnant and being a complete saint as our designated driver (I love her so much), enjoyed an unsweet tea with a french dip sandwich.

My second selection was a favorite i've fallen for over superbowl weekend, Delirium Noel. Olga found it in the store-room in a 22 oz bottle. It's a much sweeter, more dessert appropreate beer and went well after our meal.

I didn't get the chance to meet Steve. If the hours of Kickbacks go from 7:00 a.m through 3:00 a.m., i'm quite sure that he puts in his hours during the evening shifts. That's completely cool, because i'll definitely be back.

02-10-2011 01:02:40 | More by Aiptasia

Fieldzy27

Florida

5/5  rDev +11.4%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 5 | $$

Ok I took a trip from Tallahassee to Jacksonville for a weekend just to go to this place. For the most part I have to say it surpasses its already stellar reputation.

A-First thing you notice walking in is the couple hundred tap handles hanging from the ceiling and the really cool beer related decor. A bunch of beer signs and hundreds of bottles decorate the wall. I went here four nights and saw a stellar variety of different people. College kid types to families to football fans. Very user friendly environment.

Q-All my beers were served in the correct glassware as well as being poured correctly every time. They were all very fresh (unless I purchased a vintage ;-)) and the taps were rotating from day to day.

S- I had 4 different servers over the few days that I was there and all of them were really up to snuff. They were knowledgeable about the beers and the menu and all their recommendations were dead on.

Sel- A huge board on the wall was the tap list of 84. Everything from local stuff from Intuition and Bold City and then pretty much stuff from every brewery available in Florida. CCB was on tap as well as many Sweetwater and terrapin brews plus stuff from Southern Tier and a bunch of belgians....I mean I can do this all day. The bottle selection BINDER was about 60 pages and was arranged by style. At the back there was a specific vintage selection that I ordered a few things off of. I also had a few beers that were extremely rare and had never heard of or seen before. I enjoyed and 08 Insanity that was STELLAR!

F- I wish that I had more time to eat there but I had just about every appetizer they had on the menu and I also had a grilled chicken ceaser salad the last night I was there. All the food was amazing and the menu was really extensive for the size of the place. The food prices were really low for the quality of food and portion size.

V- My beers were all very well priced and the bottles were priced very low for a normal establishment. Only maybe a 1 or 2 dollar markup on large format bottles. Pints were priced lower than most beer places in Florida. Not the lowest I have seen but I will gladly pay an extra 50 cents or so on a pint in exchange for the amazing atmosphere service and selection.

All together if you're going to be within a 100 mile radius of this place seek it out. I drove almost 200 miles to come here and hated every single second of that drive back. Ill be returning for one of their future beer dinners for sure. I did chat with the owner Steve for a while and he really is a great person. Its obvious that he has an unrivaled passion for his business and the craft beer industry and it translates amazingly into his business.

01-29-2011 22:02:31 | More by Fieldzy27

WynnO

Florida

5/5  rDev +11.4%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 5 | $$

On a Saturday whim (30 October), I drove two hours to reach this place, and I did so solely on the confidence I have in beer advocate reviewers.

Man oh man, was it ever worth the drive. I spent 5 hours there, and I will go back!

I love this place. 84 taps of goodness (minus 5 for domestic swill--this helps pay the bills I hope) and 600 bottles. Due to the mass quantities of beers never tried, probably 50 of the 84, a surprise I did not expect, I decided to do their 4-beer samplers. After five samplers & excellent food, I walked out totally satisfied.

The only unfortunate thing about the day was that 8 taps had various Hebrew varieties that they would not sell. These were reserved for the following night's EIGHT-COURSE Hebrew beer/food pairing dinner, with a guest chef from the Ritz Carlton. Oh well, you can't have everything.

This is not a bar per se, so do not expect to park yourself on a stool and sit for two hours. Yes, you CAN do that (I did for a few minutes), but you will find it difficult to obtain one of the seven or eight barstools. You will also find yourself facing two sets of big old brass bar tap systems. Talking to a server requires bending down and conversing under those taps. This awesome tap system was, I suppose, still too small for the owner. Around the corner you will find two more circular tap systems (also brass) to pull their tap quantity up to 84.

[By the way, regarding the tap arrangement on the bar. Other reviewers found this to be a bit negative. You might indeed feel this way---I did not. Odd as it was at first, once I realized that what I was looking at was part of the "vision" of the place, that is, "Beer and ambiance shall trump the convenience of conversing with a pretty server", the subject was closed with me. As always, YMMV]

So then, my advice is to find a table, booth, or one of the seats outside. Relax, then ENJOY.

The place is fabulously adorned with, I am estimating, 500+ tap handles dangling from the ceiling. Beautiful. Along the back wall are some empty kegs and a few ceramic tap systems from the prior vision (I am guessing---check out their blog---they ramped up their beer selection big time in the last two years). There are a few TV's on the walls for the sporting set.

They also have a neat presentation of consumed bottles. They are hung vertically on several rods along their brick walls. What I could not determine was whether these were the 600 currently on the menu or there for decoration. Heck, I didn't even have time to look at their bottle menu anyway much less think of buying one! That will happen on trip 2, 3, or 4, I hope.

The servers are young, busy, yet quite good. The poor dude who served us and had to endure my 3-person party sitting at his table for four solid hours for a measly $65 bill was tipped $30 by this reviewer. That was probably too little actually, but I enjoyed my stay there that much. We only ate appetizers, and they were excellent. I can only assume their entrees to be awesome too given their name and given their doing 3 or 4 beer dinners per year. Another thing regarding service: I happened to pick Florida/Georgia football game day to go---Rats! You can imagine how busy and loud the place became, yet our guy kept on coming by every few minutes to check on us. Super.

God bless whoever is in charge here, because they do a fabulous job.

I would rank this as one of the top 3 beer establishments I have been visited. I am not a major league pub crawler by any means, but I have been to the best places in the Orlando, Tampa region, and a couple in Boston & Philly. I have also been to Ebenezer's in Maine. Consequently I have faith in my A+ rating.

11-14-2010 03:11:32 | More by WynnO

digita7693

Oregon

4.9/5  rDev +9.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 5 | $$

A: great beer bar, with opportunity to chat or watch some sports.Make sure you take a look at the ceiling which is covered in taps.
Love the menu on the wall, tap list and bottles.
It is easy to watch some sports or chill and talk with friends.

Q: 85 quality taps. Steve, the owner, has gone out of the way to make this place top notch. The servers, the quality beer and the food are all excellent.

S: very knowledgeable and friendly. I visited 4 times on my recent stay in Jax and every server was great and knew their beer.

S: top notch, again Steve has gone out of his way to have some special things in the bar and some kegs year round that you will not find anywhere else

F: Who would have thought that a "beer bar" would have such amazing food! They bake their own bread daily, a must try, along with the sweet potato fries!
another great thing is the fact that the serve food until 3am! So try a waffle at 2:30:) or for a proper breakfast when they open back up at 6or 7am, I forget when.

This is a place not to miss in Jax, if you are a local and havent been there yet, shame on you. If you are passing through/visiting it is a place you must visit.

10-19-2010 09:00:28 | More by digita7693