Hi, I am going to visit my in-laws in Oakton in a week or so. Which breweries are open for take out and what are the rules? Pre-order only? Case minimums? Anyone selling singles? Etc…
Port City Brewing has contactless pick up (they also deliver but I think only within 5 miles) No singles but you can get a mixed 4 pack of their flagships.
I know this is 2 weeks old, but I know most breweries have been open for at the very least contactless pickup. Some are doing delivery. Looking at their Social media or websites can help. Some have online ordering forms that are very straightforward.
I can’t vouch for contactless pickup, but prior to moving to this phase of opening, Settle Down Easy and Audacious were allowing 1/2 customers in at a time to pickup in-store. I think Caboose was doing contactless. As @OnTheTrail said, Port City was doing contactless pickup. I did contactless pickup at Beltway for their PPE beer about a week ago.
I “re-discovered” buying beer at the grocery store and have been buying local/regional variety packs and 4-packs at my local Harris Teeter.
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Hey, I ended up opting for Ocelot and Aslin. Worked out well so far.
Thanks!
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My wife insists she is lower risk so she has monopolized grocery store trips, and I haven’t done a separate TW run. Might go to Dept of Beer and Wine though. Small store, rarely crowded, and their practice of only having beer in code and well curated ones at that, should mean less browsing time per beer.
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What’s a half customer? 
So I’ve been out trying to find places where I can have a drink, either outside or even inside, which in theory is allowed with phase two in NoVa. DC is still outside. So far I’ve had beers on the patios of Right Proper and Bluejacket. The latter also offers pints to go in plastic cups - can take them to the park nearby. I was there yesterday. Only about 8 beers available on tap though right now, no flights etc.
Right proper ditto on no half pours. Over this weekend also phoned Rustico and Aslin, which weren’t open for dine in.
Ok just got back from Aslin. They are open, usually by res though I walked in and was ok on a saturday around 6pm. They aren’t doing draft though, only cans in house. Had a few today. Their take out menu is larger than what you can drink in house, apparently due to some weird licensing rule the bartender told me. Also, Rustico Ballston is now open on patio basis apparently.
Went to Fire Works Pizza in Arlington the other day and they are basically back to normal, with outdoor seeing and some indoors. Even had some 4oz pours inside, a flight. Been a while since I got deez tickz.
Anything open in Falls Church yet @GenDV138 @radagast83 ?
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I’ve been horribly busy so I literally just logged in and saw this most recent message from you @solidfunk.
Audacious and Settle Down easy are open. I saw photos of flight s at Audacious. I don’t know if Settle Down is doing it. I’ve been getting to-go beer from both locations the last few weeks.
Dominion and Meridian Pint are open, takeout beer and food at both locations. Dine-in at one of the few inside tables at Meridian, or outside in their makeshift parking lot seating when the weather is nice. Beer list maintained by Dominion on their website, and Meridian has it up to date on Untappd. Meridian is really hurting right now, they may not last through the next few months. They had just started to pick up traction in their new location, but then all this hit.
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Ya I noticed it was empty the only time I visited the new location a month or so before COVID. Too bad. I still miss the old location in Columbia Heights. Hopefully at least Smoke and Barrel and Brookland Pint will survive.
Is Dominion doing sit down yet, or just the beer store still? Galaxy Hut decided to remain closed except for food. Also, Heritage in Arlington was opened the other day with some indoors and full patio seating, if anyone actually cares.
Don’t know if anyone saw, but Meridian/Brookland & Smoke&Barrel just fired their beer director Jace. Jace had probably been with them for the better part of 10 years. He was very well connected within the industry and had his finger on the pulse. Probably a harbinger of things to come, both for their beer program and for their company.
Hmmm. Hadn’t seen that. Not sure if that bodes well for those places - I’m sure the selection could get slightly better, but not a lot better. More likely that it will get worse.
Meridian posted a few days ago that they’re on the verge of going under in the next few months/weeks. They’re down something like 60% in sales/revenue, which just isn’t sustainable, going on 5 months. There’s been an uptick in people eating at Meridian and getting to-go alcohol, but who knows if that’s enough. If things remain the same for another 2 months, I think a lot of operations and restaurant groups like Meridian are going to go under by the start of October.
it sucks so much because the new Meridian Pint were just starting to get their footing in my neighborhood when all this hit and they shut down. Then one of their staff (who hadn’t even been in the building for something like 10 days) got COVID and they shut down for two weeks entirely. That probably didn’t help at all either.
This sucks but I guess it may make sense to dump a position like a Beer Director given the environment we’re in. Taps surely aren’t moving very fast. There’s no beer events at these places, so not tap takeovers. The draw just isn’t there.
However, there’s clearly a still a strong subset of the community that has a ton of disposable money, though I’m sure it’s pretty small compared to how it was prior to the shutdown. I’m part of various Facebook groups that have people still doing hundreds of dollars of “hauls”, people are still ‘lining up’ (physically and metaphorically) at places like Veil or Aslin for (IMO) unnecessarily expensive beer releases, so who knows.
I think it’s just to-go right now.
I forgot about Spacebar. I think that’s to-go as well, food and beer. I haven’t been to either since before everything shut down.
Right now I’m mostly going to Settle Down Easy or Audacious (the two closest breweries to me) and Meridian Pint, which I mentioned is having major issues and may close. I presume that Dominion is doing well because they’re consistently posting about new draft list items on Instagram.
Ya I also assume that Churchkey is doing so good in their beer store sales scheme that they don’t feel like reopening. Strange as a bunch of places on 14th are open. Seems like they could at least do Birch and Barley fairly easily with sidewalk seating etc.
When you’re place is that big, and presumably your kitchen just as big, is it worth it financially to open up just a few seats on the sidewalk? I don’t know honestly.
But the Churchkey beer store online has been a revelation. I get that and my meat delivered to my front door for a $7 surcharge. It’s a very nice service.
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Ya I don’t know either. Some people on 14th are extending sidewalk tables into street parking area. Might make sense if it’s the only bar you own. But NRG has a lot of options. I wonder if CK and especially the sovereign are going to survive this whole thing. Sovereign has rarely been full even back pre apocalypse
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I am going to be in NoVa for a week starting Tuesday. Depending on how depressed I will be on Wednesday, I will presumably want to drink some beers. Given the impending colder weather and COVID, which places would you all recommend where my wife, our stroller and I could enjoy some beers/ticks? Also would be potentially down for sharing a beer or two if anyone would want. Thanks!
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I think most folks have abandoned samples at this point, so get ready for FULL POURS!
Bluejacket has patio seating that’s good. Bardo is open with tons of space, but then you have to drink Bardo beer. Atlas is also open with outdoor seating as well. I’ve been to Hellbender during COVID and they have outside seating too.
Further afield, I had lunch at Dominion Wine last week and their process was solid.
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Just saw this @mansquito - you still in town? I’m always up for a beer. Was just at Crafthouse yesterday and they have outdoor seating, ditto the new World of Beer location and Rustico, all within three blocks. Crafthouse has some really good stuff on tap right now.
Right proper is doing half pours as they always did. A lot of the farther afield breweries are still doing flights and such. They also have outdoor seating. The new Valor place did a flight when I was there as well.
