The Rail Station Bar and Grill (Minneapolis, MN)

6/6/12

Along Hiawatha Ave is a billboard for a new-to-me multitap called The Rail Station, so decided to check it out when I had some time before One Voice's performance at the Harmony in the Park concert at Minnehaha Park.

Lucette's Slow Hand Stout

Hitting The Rail Station reminded me a lot of my recent stop at the Hopkins Tavern, including the meat raffle but minus obvious signs of gambling.  Looking around the bar, there were all ages--toddlers to grandparents and everyone seemed to know each other.  Very much a local bar that happens to serve craft beer.

I found several brews to add to the database, but only had time for two.  Started with Lucette's Slow Hand, an American Stout.  Super smooth with a light roast, it was nice on a hot afternoon.  For the second pint, I tried Brau Brothers Sheep Head from Lucan, MN.  According to the Brau website, Sheep Head is a style splitting malty IPA, which was good enough that I have to try it again some time.

For dinner, I ordered the quesadilla from the appetizer menu.  Not many veggie options plus the servings of dishes going by seemed large.  The service was fantastic, friendly and very fast.  Since I was in a hurry to make the concert, attentive service was appreciated today.  Dinner was basic but fresh and good.


The Rail Station has a nice tap list of 40 beers (according to the billboard) with a representation of macro beers to light craft with Surly Furious being the far end of the spectrum.  Not a bar to make the beer geek drool, but boundary pushing for the clientele. Looking around the TV laden bar, many of the customers in the happy hour/after work crowd were drinking mixed drinks or macro specials in a bottle.

But a significant portion of us were drinking craft.  Beers were well served, clearly very fresh and the beer clean glasses that left a lace.  There's always the fear that an out of the way multi-tap isn't serving enough to maintain freshness, but, from my short experience, there's nothing to complain about here.
Plus, I really like the concentration on Minnesota craft brews.

Great local bar that I enjoyed and made me want to live in the neighborhood.  While it's not a destination bar for the beer geek from out of town, I would encourage anyone to try The Rail Station if you find yourself in the Longfellow neighborhood.