Herkimer Pub & Brewery

kbaker91

Minnesota

3.48/5  rDev -4.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 3 | food: 4 | $$

I have been to the Herkimer several times in the past, most recently this last weekend. It is located in trendy Uptown, so expect to be surrounded by a diverse crowd. Everyone from hipsters to older neighborhood residents and families can be found there during the afternoon.

Herkimer is a lager-intensive German brewpub, so it helps knowing beforehand that you are not going to get a DIPA hop-bomb when visiting the place. They do not offer guest beers either. The beers are good, but not great. My favorite is the Alt, but also have enjoyed the Marzen and the Kolsch as well. Bonus points for the 2-for-1 happy hour 7 days a week from 3-6PM; very nice on the budget. Decent service; not entirely that knowledgable about the beers, but pleasant and timely.

The food is mostly standard bar fare. Incredible homemade soft pretzels are worth a trip to this place by themselves.

Overall, a decent place to grab some beers. Not a lot bad to say about the place, but nothing that blows you away, either.

04-08-2009 18:36:14 | More by kbaker91

bluto25

Minnesota

3.75/5  rDev +2.7%
vibe: 3 | quality: 3.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $$

Had the opportunity to visit Herkimer's last week after purchasing a $20 coupon for $10 through Google Offers. Herkimer's is, as they say on their website, a German-inspired brewpub located at Lyndale and Lake Street in the uptown area in Minneapolis. It makes a long list of German-type lagers including Kolsch, Dortmunder, Maibock, Dunkel Weiss, Alt Bier, Oktoberfest, Bock and Doppelbock. For food 17 serves breakfast, lunch and dinner and has a happy hour menu. Its menus contain standard fare items along with a fair share of unique recipes including Peurco pulled pork, Fish and Chips, Sausage and Mash
Herkimer's decor is a modern 50's style with numerous posters on the walls. It is a casual seat yourself brewpub. The atmosphere was warm, casual and relaxed.
In our group we enjoyed the variety of beers and selected for drinking the Kolsch, Dunkel and Alt Bier. We had soft pretzels as an appetitizer. For our dinner he chose the Peurco pulled pork and the fish and chips.
Our overall experience with Herkimer's was very good. The variety of beers and food make for very enjoyable experience. We recommend you try this out.

06-06-2012 17:44:22 | More by bluto25

jsprain1

Minnesota

3.6/5  rDev -1.4%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 3.5 | food: 2.5 | $$

A- A fairly nice bar. A couple tvs. Extra benefit because they have shuffleboard. Fairly small.
Q- Everything is fresh. Clean. All around enjoyable.
Ser- Service wasn't the friendliest but they were quick.
Sel- They only have about 7 beers on tap, but they're all decent to good and very fresh.
F- The food is subpar. Sandwiches are decent. French fries are disappointing. Bars like this that are about sports and shuffleboard should have good french fries.
It's worth going for a beer if you're in the area, but not necessarily that good from a food point of view.

11-20-2011 01:49:28 | More by jsprain1

KC8LTL

Michigan

3.03/5  rDev -17%
vibe: 3 | quality: 3.5 | service: 2 | selection: 3.5 | $$

I was in the Twin Cities area for October and visited on a Monday evening, during Monday Night Football. There were certainly people there, but hardly busy. Decor was basic - it seemed to be going for a bit of a simple classic vibe to me, but I wasn't there for the vibe, but rather to enjoy a few beers, so I took a seat at the bar.

When I got someone's attention, they showed me a beer list. The good news is that the beers are different from the standard american microbrews. They were generally German styles and mostly Lagers, although Alt is an ale. The printed descriptions were a bit helpful. Unfortunately the help didn't seem that interested in beer.

The beers themselves were decent. Not spectacular, but good. They also were not styles I have that much. Because they are a change of pace, I rate them a bit above average for selection.

I'm glad I went, but never felt like going back.

11-14-2011 02:18:29 | More by KC8LTL

jera1350

Minnesota

3.25/5  rDev -11%
vibe: 3 | quality: 3.5 | service: 3 | selection: 3 | food: 4 | $$

This place will not be remembered for its atmosphere by me. The inside is basically a large bar with very little decor. It's really a no frills place. The outside patio is fine, but their really isn't much to look at in terms of plants or surroundings. They do have two beanbag courts which give people something to do. They had five available beers. All german styles, but the darkest beer available was an alt. Would have been nice to have one bigger beer option. Service was average. A bit slow really, but not terrible. The beers I did try seemed to be on par for the styles. Some of the styles are pretty unique and were first for me. Tried some sweet potato fries which were phenomenal. Not a bad place, but it just wasn't a fit for me and I can't see myself going back.

09-12-2010 01:45:38 | More by jera1350

Seahorse

Michigan

2.99/5  rDev -18.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3 | service: 2 | selection: 3.5 | $$

Abit disappointing, as I really was not sure what I was expecting. But then it was my first excursion into the Uptown area. Okay selection of beers with 6 on tap, all German style lagers. Food looked good, especially the burgers. Service was mediocre, as the servers seemed to be focused on each other and not with service. Redeeming factor was the 2 for 1, which compensated for the lack of service. I'd go back but wouldn't make this a regular hangout. Schwartz beer was my favorite. Crowd was a mix of regular folk and the eclectic. Be interesting to see what the clientle is comprised of later in the evening.

12-17-2009 02:12:30 | More by Seahorse

Mistofminn

Minnesota

3.75/5  rDev +2.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | food: 4 | $

Went for a late lunch during happy hour.

Atmosphere was a nice mix of hipsters, business men and women, college kids and old timers. There was something for everyone here.

Quality was also pretty good. The beer was very high quality, and I enjoyed it much. The environment itself is a reason to visit this place.

Service is the only low point I can think of. Our server seemed to hate life, and didn't smile once. It also took him a good ten minutes to get me the beer I ordered. I left him a good tip in an attempt to cheer him up, however.

The selection of beer isn't the largest, but the quality is nice. I personally have tried the Gose, Oktoberfest and Sky Pilot (at the time of this review) and enjoyed them all, especially the Gose.

Food was good, we ordered three appetizers (less than $4 each!). We got Nachos with Guac, Roasted Red Bell Pepper Hummas with Flatbread, and Pub Pretzels. My only knock is that the Pub Preztels claimed to come with Jalepeno Honey Mustard, however is was quite clearly Horseradish Mustard. I don't know if they actually know the difference, or if they were out of the real stuff.

The price was very reasonable, but then again everything was discounted as it was happy hour.

I will definitely be returning again, and again and again.

10-05-2009 23:13:41 | More by Mistofminn

BLACKOUT0213

Minnesota

2.35/5  rDev -35.6%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 2.5 | service: 1 | selection: 3 | $

this place is good but i cant recommend it to any one who expects service. this along with other hippie/ yuppie bars in uptown have some of the worst servers on the planet. they stick in a corner or on the side of the bar talking amongst staff and other close friends/patrons?. i think you can get better service if you ask more aggressively but i don't like to have to hound a bar tender to do their job. the beer was good once, i had the alt beer and the bock, thought they were excellent. but the most recent trip to Herkimer was more disappointing yet. after troubling the bartender for an alt beer i take my first taste and discover that the lines were filthy or something because it just tasted like sugary syrup and was disgusting. since i don't live by it any more i don't think i will ever go back. p.s. if you do live by it and you can choke down grungy beer from the uptown staff they do have a good happy hour, not sure about food though since it was never offered to me and i didn't want to bother the kitchen staff at the end of the bar.

03-15-2009 07:36:21 | More by BLACKOUT0213

Greggy

Minnesota

4.05/5  rDev +11%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 3.5 | food: 4.5 | $$

We walked into the Herk for lunch and the place wasn't to busy. It's a nice setup with a bar in the middle of the room that seats patrons all around. To the left of the bar (from the door), are big glass windows displaying the brew equipment. Our Bartender, I don't remember her name, was very polite, attentive, and took good care of us. I ordered the Mac and cheese with ham which was very good and also had their Alt and the Kellerbier, both of which were pretty good. It looks as if they have 5 beers on at a time. I would have liked to see something a little different on tap, but this was pretty good, anyway. Lastly, the music at the Herk is pretty enjoyable.

01-11-2009 19:34:49 | More by Greggy

CHSLBrew

Minnesota

3.9/5  rDev +6.8%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 3.5 | $$$

Walking in, this place looks like (surprise!) a brewpub: large glass walls partition off and highlight the fermenters, large rectangular bar in the middle, and seating along the sides. Furnishings were largely modern, with retro-style decorations featuring their beer offerings.

Speaking of beer offerings, what I like about this place is the list of brews consists of all German lagers. Pretty different than your standard ale-centric brewpub. So, I was pleased to take down a couple tasty brews (and share/sample my friends' choices) with dinner. Beers were of an above-average quality. There were 5 brews on tap at the time, with a total beer list as shown on this site.

Everyone's food was good. The menu was pretty typical nice bar food of burgers, salads, sandwiches, and a couple entree selections. I knocked down the food score because I thought there should be more German food on the menu!

The service was helpful, and our waiter had a surface-level knowledge of the beers (that is, color and a few descriptors). At times, service was a bit slow, but we didn't mind.

I look forward to continuing to visit this brewpub more frequently and doing a few ratings of their tasty brews.

01-09-2009 20:51:45 | More by CHSLBrew