September 21, 2009
Visited the place with beastiefan2k, as it is his hangout. Very quite when we were there. 2 other dudes around the bar, and maybe one group at a table. A simple, large sport bar looking brewpub in a college town. Plenty of blonde college girls for the waitstaff. They seemed to be friendly enough. Knowledgeable of the brewer’s tedious schedule. All of the beers here were all very well made. As good as the beer at Free State (of which receives all of the credit in town). Pub chips were tasty and addicting. I would definitely go back to this place. 12sept09

August 9, 2009
The beers are decent, but not great. Don’t go here for the food though, it’s not the best. Overall, the only reason to make a trip here, in my opinion, is if you can’t get into Free State.

March 15, 2009
Decent bar set up with lots of seat and decent selection. Good service, but staff wasn’t particularly knowledgeable.

September 23, 2008
Visited here on a Monday night and the place was absolutely packed. The lone bartender ran around like crazy the entire time I was there. The beers I tried were mostly subpar with a couple of pleasant exceptions. I thought the prices were high, especially for Kansas. This is compared to the Blind Tiger in Topeka. A decent enough place that might be worth a visit if Free State isn’t open.

August 3, 2008
Has a bit of a chain feel to it. Had some interesting styles which surprised me, I was expecting to have your typical brewpub beers, but this place was experimenting with some advanced styles. So I was intrigued and had to try them all. They are trying hard is all I can say, but right now there beers are kind of mediocre with some pretty decent seasonals. The service outside of the bar is a trainwreck with an understaffed and unknowledgeable staff when it comes to beer. This was a few years ago though, as I am reading some of the more recent ratings it looks as thought they are under new management and makes me wish I had made the time to stop through their on this most recent trip through Kansas.

February 25, 2008 [ Updated December 24, 2008 ]
Visited on Jan 25, 2008 with beastiefan2k, Gregis and csbosox. My first visit to 23rd was right as they were attempting to close down a few hours early on a Friday night. Chris sweet talked the bartender into staying open for us. Only had one of their beers, and the kitchen was closed - certainly will look to re-rate this and give it a full proper rating. They had 8-10 beers on, nice variety of styles. Very interesting and large brewpub. The entire restaurant is U shaped, surrounding a large bar that has the brewery basically in the middle of the U, mostly on the 2nd level. Really a strange set up, but visually, makes it pretty cool to look at. As noted by Eugene, many of the older ratings are for the previous owners.

January 29, 2008
All the rating for this place are old and probably don’t really apply anymore. As I understand this used to part of a different (lesser quality) brew chain but has now gone solo. Also the brewer used to work for Free State. The interior is nice, a tall dome over the center, very high ceilings everywhere and lots of room. The first time I have seen TVs at some booths. Shiny fermentors on the 2nd floor balcony. On a busy night with a very large party we got good service but it was only ok the next night when it was quite. Food was slightly above average brewpub fair with lots of different salads and pizza type foods as well. Beer, now I only had two but I was very impressed. The seasonal Dunkel was superb and the Barleywine was above average. Most interesting they had a lot of taps with 4-5 seasonals and 4-5 regular brews. Prices are awesome (from a NYers POV) $3/pint.

July 3, 2006
July 2006: I was the first guy in the door at 1100 on a Monday. The bartender was friendly enough. I had a calzone that was pretty good, but not great. They had the full lineup of 6 flagship beers, plus two decent seasonals on tap. I could see how this place takes on the character of an average suburban restaurant when it gets busy. Noticed they had a mug club (bring your own mug, though). Free State is definitely higher on my list, but this was worth the visit. There’s a decent little liquor store in the same shopping center, too. Found some Unibroue and Great Divide bombers to bring home.

May 9, 2005 [ Updated July 1, 2006 ]
Beer is the only thing to bring you in .. and its not that great. The food is bad ... almost always out of at least a beer. Service is hit or miss. The atmosphere is standard chain brewpub and would be alright except you leave smelling like you’ve worked the fryer all night (believe I know, I’ve had that job). I’d stay away from the one in Lawrence, although have heard good/decent things about KC locations. I will say if you eat outside on a nice evening/afternoon its definitly worth visiting. I lived less than half a mile away and went no more than a half dozen times, it was that unspectacular and unimpressive. ReRate (after going back a few more times): Not as bad as it was. The food is better than I thought it was (wings way too ground peppery, but salads good, and sandwiches are above average). The beer still isn’t outstanding (though not bad), if in town go to Free State .. if you’ve already been there then give this place a shot. The atmosphere still is below average, but I’m giving it more than the 6 overall I previous had as it seems to be improving its quality.

January 2, 2005
My waitress said that of the seven beers they had on tap that day, two of them (including one of their five regular beers, the Brown Ale) had run out and they wouldn’t be replacing them on tap until the next day (this was dinner at 7 p.m. on Dec. 30th). Uh, o.k. Atmosphere: generic TGIF-meets-roadhouse, high ceilings, loud music kind of brewpub. Food: my wife’s London fish & chips was pretty good. My black bean burger must have been from a box, and the avocado topping was a really small dollop, until I asked for more and it was brought out. My kids shared a kids’ meal (they’re very young). The menu used the same word--chicken strips--as the adult version of the menu, but my kids didn’t get a high quality chicken strip; instead they got very poor quality chicken pressed into animal shapes, and over-cooked to a crisp as well. For $4.99 the only saving grace was the nice bowl of ice cream, and they gave one to each of my kids even though they shared a single meal. The brownie-ice cream-fudge dessert was decent. Overall, we stop in Lawrence two to four times per year and we tried something new. But we’ll never go back here. For food, atmosphere, and certainly beer, Free State wins out overwhelmingly.