The Farmhouse Tap & Grill

TheSevenDuffs

Ontario (Canada)

4.65/5  rDev +6.9%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 4 | selection: 5 | food: 4.5 | $$

A very cool restaurant and a must-stop for anyone visiting Burlington.

The tap list was ridiculously good, likely a little better than usual due it being the weekend of the Vermont brewers festival. There were multiple offerings from Hill Farmstead and Lawsons among others and two casks.

The food was outstanding as well. Had a cheese plate and burgers. Both excellent. All food is sourced locally, just like the beer.

Atmosphere is very laid back. Service was very friendly and informative, although a bit slow.

07-28-2012 13:36:52 | More by TheSevenDuffs

VTMoondog

Vermont

4.28/5  rDev -1.6%
vibe: 3.25 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.75 | $$$

Being from Burlington, I am lucky to have this place right down the street. I don't go there for the food, although it looks great and is of an eclectic sort, the real draw is the beer. These guys have almost cornered the market on Vt produced beers, and usually have many that nobody else has or can get, including Hill Farmstead, Lawsons, Alchemist, Bobcat Café, Fiddlehead and many others. They also have an extensive bottle list from all over the US and world. They regularly will pull out an incredible keg (BCS, Curmudgeons Better Half, Bolt Cutter and the like ) that is not to be missed. If you love craft beer, and are in th BTV area, stop in, you won't be disappointed.

05-16-2013 23:47:29 | More by VTMoondog

NEhophead

Massachusetts

4.32/5  rDev -0.7%
vibe: 4.25 | quality: 4.25 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.25 | $$

Stopped in for a few drinks at the bar on a Saturday afternoon. Conveniently located less than a block off from Church St on Bank St. The vibe is slightly more upscale than your typical craft beer pub; very impressive while still capturing that relaxed VT attitude. A decent size patio borders the Bank St. entrance. The 10-12 seat bar is directly to the left as you enter the establishment with booths and tables filling a moderately-sized dining area. On tap were approximately 20-25 offerings and 1 cask. The selection included offerings from Fiddlehead, Dieu du Ciel, Hill Farmstead, Founders, Long Trail, Smuttynose, etc. The bottle menu also boasted some pretty interesting rarities including a Pennichuck Pozharnik 2008, Stone IRS '08-'09, Stone Old Guardian '08, De Struise Pannepot Reserva '09, etc. Professional and courteous service made for a very enjoyable time.

04-30-2013 18:50:43 | More by NEhophead

Jimmys

Pennsylvania

4.2/5  rDev -3.4%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$$

Visited while in burlington last weekend. Made a point to check it out before i left town. Glad i did.

Very cool space. I was told it used to be a mcdonalds restaurant and you can tell after being in there. The bar is what used to be the register, so not a ton of seats there. However, great use of the outdoor space and very well decorated. Nice vibe for drinking some beers.

Multiple taps for Hill Farmstead, one for a Lawson's brew, and plenty of Heady Topper cans. That alone should warrant a visit while in Burlington. Other standouts for me was SN Foam and Stillwaters Premium.

A bit pricey for Burlington, but if you want to source some hard to find local brews definitely worth stopping by.

08-04-2012 15:26:12 | More by Jimmys

morebeergood

Massachusetts

4.33/5  rDev -0.5%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $$$

My wife and I spent this past weekend in Burlington, and we decided to eat dinner here on Sat night. We headed here a bit on the early side, but was still told there was a 90 minute wait. There were a few tables in the beer garden, which would be perfect due to the nice weather and the space for our baby stroller. This restaurant is split into four areas: the main bar/dining room, the outdoor beer garden in the rear, the street-side seating in the front, and the super cool looking beer room in the basement. Sitting outside, we were able to enjoy the beautiful evening weather. There is no waitress service per se. You go to the bar to order beer and food, then a staff member brings it to your table. Beer selection in the garden is limited, but they had all the beers I wanted to try anyway from inside: a couple Hill Farmstead, Lawson's, Trapp, and even Cigar City. Food was great. A nice selection of bar bites, meat and cheese plates, and dessert. Prices for beer were a bit high, but bonus points to them for offering half pours so I could try a bunch of different beers. Great atmosphere, excellent beer selection and delicious food - this place has it all. A great choice in Burlington.

07-23-2012 19:10:39 | More by morebeergood

DoubleSimcoe

New York

4.01/5  rDev -7.8%
vibe: 3 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$

The wife and I spent an evening in Burlington and I we toured most of the beer bars in town. The Farmhouse was our stop after dinner at the nearby and excellent Bluebird Tavern.

The place was rather mellow and not busy for a Saturday night in July, which is fine with us. We sat at the small bar, leaving the dining area behind. The atmosphere here is ordinary- makes me wish they had a cooler decor or just something exciting and/or "modern" to liven up the place (although the old-style lamps made out of beer glass are great).

The draft beer selection is written in a chalkboard behind the bar. Bobcat Cafe Brickwall DIPA, Cigar City 110K+OT Batch #5 (a super-bitter DIPA with curacao peel), Hill Farmstead Society & Solitude (kicked and replaced by Enlightenment) and Old Mephisto barleywine from Denmark are among the rare brews on tap during our visit.

Unfortunately, both the Bobcat and Hill Society I ordered were out. Makes me sad when that happens! Oh, and no Lawson's... but then the weekend after my visit was the Vermont Brewer's Festival and they had a ton of Lawson's and rare stuff. So I guess taps change here often and there is always good stuff.

I opted for a cask of Rock Art Midnight Madness while perusing the outrageous bottle list. Think the Monk's "Beer Bible" is good? Just you wait til you come to Burlington...

The prices are higher than the average Vermont pint price (around $6.50 per glass) but not bad at all considering the unique offerings. And I love that they serve half pints!

07-19-2012 19:18:59 | More by DoubleSimcoe

Rifugium

Pennsylvania

4.1/5  rDev -5.7%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 4 | $$$

Very nice place. Atmosphere is a bit sterile and sunny for my liking, but it works, for a casual dining experience. A small bar seats less than 10 people, and there are quite a few tables with ample personal space. Nevertheless, the place fills up fast. I went with my wife close to opening time and it was pretty subdued, but by noon it was jumping and near capacity. Staff was generally friendly and attentive. Beer selection was very nice, with good local draughts (think Lawson's, Hill Farmstead), and a good number of domestic and international crafts in bottles. Beer prices were relatively decent. Food menu wasn't too extensive, but with salads and burgers and cheese plates, there's really nothing to complain about, not to mention most ingredients are locally sourced. A bit pricey, but I'd say you get what you pay for.

American Flatbread is still my favorite bar/restaurant in Burlington, but this is another very good option, and worth checking out. (Maybe for lunch, to make it easier on your wallet.)

04-24-2012 09:06:27 | More by Rifugium

nh2032

New York

4.63/5  rDev +6.4%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 5 | food: 4 | $$$

Made two trips to the Farmhouse on our visit to Burlington - once to the dining area for lunch and once to the downstairs bar for drinks.

Upstairs it's a large open room with a variety of tables and a reasonably sized bar. The taplist consists of about 20 drafts and 6+ pages of bottles including a cellar collection. Our visit was the day after their Maple-fest so the draft options were geared towards that. Unfortunately the Lawson's Maple Imperial Stout and Maple Tripel kicked the night before. There will still multiple Hill Farmstead options, Fiddlehead, Rock Art, Long Trail options available.

The downstairs area has tables, high tops, and a bar that's at least as large as the main area. If you want to mainly drink this is the place for you, but they do offer food as well.

The food was good, but the menu is somewhat limited as it is very localovre centric. I had a burger that featured VT beer, VT cheddar, VT bacon, and a house made roll - absolutely delicious. This is definitely not your typical pub-fare which could leave some people stranded.

Prices were somewhat high, but you won't find a better draft selection anywhere in the state. It also helps that all the beers are offered in half or full pours which makes it easy to taste a lot of different options.

If I lived in Burlington I'd be here at least once a week.

04-15-2012 20:31:09 | More by nh2032

johnnnniee

New Hampshire

4.44/5  rDev +2.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | $$$

We tried to stop in here for dinner last Saturday night but decided that a 1 1/2 hour wait was a bit too much and the bar was much to crowded to wait it out anyhow. We ended up somewhere else and came back around 10 for a few drinks at the bar. One large square room with a bar on half the back wall with maybe 30 tables makes this place intimate but somewhat noisy. Very impressive tap list with a focus on VT and New England. Some nice rarities from Hill and Lawson's impressed me. 28 or so taps and a really nice bottle list makes this a definite beer geek destination. We sat at the bar and service was quite prompt and generous with the samples. Tap prices seemed in line with what I'd seen elsewhere in the city, but some bottles were quite pricey. We didn't try any food so I can;t comment on that. I would definitely go back.

02-27-2012 22:15:11 | More by johnnnniee

slander

New York

4.55/5  rDev +4.6%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 5 | $$$

Yes, Marvin, I’ve heard about the new taproom in Burlington. I mean, really. Stalled at the rainy hotel, holding this off as long as we could thinking (knowing) it would be stupid jammed, and it was. An hour and a half on a table, they say. We’ll wait downstairs in the lounge. Seeing dinner and drinks things in reverse this time around...

6 seat “L” bar with seating on the stretch only. Barback is a wood unit split in half with a dozen taps in a row on panel backing. Wines on the counter between the taps on center and a few random display bottles, and that’s about all. Lamps imbedded over the taps and glassware shelved below. Wood box overhang above the bar, with pressed tin inlayed and buttercup lamps dangling. A single banquet table seating a dozen adjacent to the bar, and a ½ dozen tables on the far wall sharing bench play. Down on the end, a church pew on shorty tables, seating to both sides of the fireplace, and light bar counter space on the opposite wall below a 4 x 8 mirror. A real comfy room, our table called too soon.

Now back upstairs again, seated up front this big open room along the large windows there. Garage doors to both sides roll up to penned streetish side seating in warmer weather, which is now not. Beige walls papered & painted over plank lowers, and some drop copper lighting giving good ceiling swirly pattern fun. Roughly 30 tables riddled about. Just shy of a dozen 2-seat tables sharing a wall of bench, hightops on the other end, and low recs and a few banquet tables in between. In the rear left corner, a slab straight marble bar seating less than a dozen, with a pair of handpumps about midway along. Barback holds a pair of row towers fronting a pieced horizontal mirror on center. Wine and glassware boxed vertically to both sides and shelved glassware below. A trio of angled horizontal blackboards listing tap selections sits above. Upright bottle cooler on the end. Cheese off the other side of the bar, with peek a boo views of kitchen window above and a board listing cheese selections atop. And a ‘Thank you farm’ board on the far wall, nicely done.

24 taps, ¾ of which are American craft beer offerings from Vermont (Hill Farmstead Edward Pale Ale, Abner Impy IPA, Rakau & Amarillo Single Hop Pales, Trapp Family Lodge Vienna Lager, Long Trail Goodnight Irene, Rock Art Pumpkin Imperial Spruce Stout), and coasts East (Allagash White, DogFishHead Festina Peche, Victory Helios, Flying Dog Tire Bite, Blue Point Rastafa Rye, Hoptical Illusion, and No Apologies Imperial IPA, Southern Tier Backburner Barleywine), and west (North Coast Pranqster, Old Rasputin RIS, and Scrimshaw Pilsner). The remaining ¼ is a mix of imports (Ayinger Brau Weisse and Oktober Fest-Marzen, Weihenstephaner Festbier), a cider (Original Sin), a root beer (Rockies Root Beer), and a wine (Shelbourne Vineyards Cayuga White). And lest we not forget the single cask offering (Berkshire Brewing Lost Sailor IPA).

And 100+ bottles; nearly 3 dozen American craft (including local hero Heady Topper, a pair from Hill Farmstead, and goods from Lawsons). Upwards of 2 dozen Belgians, including some Trappist play (Orval for $11). Roughly a dozen vintage/rarities (2007 Orval for $15, plus Belgian and Stone offerings), and another 3 dozen beers of the world, with a prominent amount of Canadian & German offerings. And Ciders, Gluten frees, N/A’s, and 50+ wines, a few of them by the glass. We split a bottle of the Hill Farmstead Vera Mae (Saison with honey & dandelions), which we missed earlier today at the brewery but happily caught now. It did not suck. And then I had a Trapp Family Lodge Vienna Lager, ‘cause did I mention it’s pretty goddamn good?

They started with the delicata squash salad (mixed greens frisee, Cabot clothbound cheddar, cider vinaigrette, croutons of good) and the steak tartare (local grass fed beef on house made potato chips). I took in a pair of cheeses; Champlain Valley Triple Crème (cow), and the Blue Ledge Farm Lake’s Edge (goat). I dug on the goat, more so. Came with the things you’d want with the kind cheeses. Ben, the basic burger (kimchee and an egg, sunny side up), and Bethy, the lamb burger (feta, apple, parsley, and delicious). I burgered as well, with the Jericho Settlers’ Farm grass fed beef (Landaff Creamery cheddar, VSC bacon, charred onions, locally sourced awesome). Burgers were money (sooo money), ‘and they know it’, added Ben. We all opted out on the salad for fries, they were no joke. And pickles even Randy would approve of. Bethy wound down with the ice Vermont cider. Now add a spice cupcake with cream cheese frosting and candied bacon, and goodnight.

Apparently, there is beer garden space out back, with a limited food menu (snacks and a smoker of things meat), and a handful of taps. It’s just a bit too autumny for me to hunt out at this time. Great house; upscale, but accessible. Amazing damn food, and a real nice beer selection. Excellent joint, Burlington.

02-25-2012 02:05:24 | More by slander