Day Block Brewing Company

1105 S Washington Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55415, USA

Address:	1105 S Washington Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55415, USA
Phone:	+1 612-617-7793
Site:	dayblockbrewing.com
Rating:	4.3
Working:	11AM–11PM 11AM–11PM 11AM–11PM 11AM–12AM 11AM–1AM 11AM–1AM 10AM–1AM

Location

Photos 100

Reviews 4

Kevin Cotter

The parking lot only had room for 11 cars, minus a reserved spot and another for the guy who parked like an ass and took up two spots. AFTER we got in, we learned we could have parked at the Valspar lot for free, we paid for street parking. Upon entering, there was nobody there to greet us, just a “seat yourself” sign. We wandered around, and finally chose a seat near the main bar area. My wife like the bartender’s mustache. The restaurant was open and clean looking. I enjoyed the music being played. It was a touch loud, but I think I’m just getting old. First contact from our server was prompt. I ordered “The Federales Mild”, I couldn’t finish it. It had a medicinal finish and tasted way too hoppy for the style. I looked through the menu, confused, as I didn’t know what to order. It looked as if they couldn’t decide what nationality they wanted to be, so they had items listed as being from Carolina, Greek, Korea, Vietnam, Mexico, to go with pizza. I ordered the Korean Beef. It was listed as coming on house-made white bread, it came on some fancy ciabatta bread - I hate ciabatta bread. My wife ordered a “Build Your Own Pizza”. We were underwhelmed, it was dull, flat, lacking any pop of flavor. My chickens, however, loved the leftover pizza and gobbled it up as fast as they could. We spent much of the evening watching as people entered the restaurant and looked around to be acknowledged until they realized it was seat yourself. Several groups of “hipsters” walked in, then right out. We did have interesting characters at the bar with multi-colored hair. There was a wedding party upstairs, and I believe they came in through a different door. I waited for a while to use the restroom, the culprit for the wait was a couple from the wedding was spending an inordinate amount of time in a restroom together - get a hotel room folks, getting head in a bar restroom is tactless! My wife was upset with the unisex facilities as the toilet was peed on, and she said there were paper towels all over the floor. I told the waitress it didn’t like my beer and she could take it back. I ordered a samplers of their beer - asking her to just skip the mild, since I already knew it wasn’t any good. A sampler was not shown on the menu, and I only knew of it after seeing another server deliver one. It was delivered missing the mild and the Nugget IPA, she said she’d bring it after they changed the keg. *The Wit - light coriander with mild floral notes. Underwhelming. Citra Pale Ale - Cloudy, should be clear. Mild on the hops, with a medicinal aftertaste - an infection. *Berliner Weiss - Very cloudy - fine for the style. Dull, sharp sour character should be dominant . Was the first beer to not have their medicinal finish. *Extra Special Bitter - Clean with a toffee-like flavor. The best beer of the night. The waitress came by with our check and mentioned they might be putting the Porter on next, but we’d have to wait. I never did get the “other” beer, though I did get to pay for it, and the mild I didn’t want. 4 samples for the price of 6 samples, yipee! The beers were not very approachable for common beer drinker. Nothing was very high in alcohol, but nothing was what I would consider a session beer. There appeared to be a medicinal house flavor I detected in all but the ESB. A house flavor leads me to think either they have an infection somewhere and/or they use all the same yeast. The medicinal house flavor could also come from cleaning material left behind, but I’d guess there’s contamination in the same yeast being used for everything from a wit to a mild. With so many countries listed in the menu, it looks like they could not make up their mind on what to focus on. The pizza we had was bland, and my Korean Beef has cilantro as the only flavor spark.

Mark Kelleher

The PERFECT Place For Your Corporate Event Trust us, folks. You do not need to be a beer lover for Day Block to be the perfect host for your corporate event. We were there on March 11th for a team out for about 20 people, and it could not have gone any better. The space was great, the service was impeccable and the food was amazing. Oh, and did we mention that they have some really good beers? If you get a chance to try the Belgian Dark Strong, don’t pass it up. In truth, there wasn’t a loser in the bunch. …and for the people in your party who aren’t beer drinkers, they have a full bar to accommodate any taste. Stephenie was a great help putting together a menu and arranging a wonderful tour of the facility presented by owner Jeff Hahn and head brewer Paul Johnston. Both were very gracious with their time and were happy to tell the story of the company’s history as well as how “beer Fridays” at their previous business grew into Day Block Brewing Company as it exists today. And don’t let us forget Henry, our attentive and exceedingly patient barkeep. From the novices who just wanted to find out if a particular beer was a fit for their preferences, to wannabe geeks who wanted to try to throw around fancy beer terms like “gravity” which they clearly knew nothing about, Henry generously indulged us with his knowledge of the beer and clear love of the craft. We suggest that that you run, not walk, to your nearest phone or internet-connected device and contact Day Block immediately to schedule your next event. You will be a hero in your office.

David Gunn

Ive visited several hundred breweries throughout the country and this was the only one I ever encountered selling normal pints for more than $5. If the beer had been exceptional, I may have overlooked that, but it was mediocre and unoriginal at best. They had already lost my vote at that point. The worst part, however, was the sound guy. On this particular night, I had come for the music. Being a musician for more than 20 years, Ive seen probably more than 10,000 bands perform live. The first band was surprisingly good, and the sound was ok, so I knew they were capable of decent sound. It went sharply downhill from there. At that point I experienced, by far, the worst sound Ive ever encountered. Several people in the crowd and also the band itself proceeded to complain to the sound guy throughout the set, and all of them were glared at and promptly ignored. It was the 1st show in my lifetime I ever had to walk out on so my ears wouldnt bleed.

Michael Tangen

In-all, decent beer with a modest selection — Id love to see more beers on tap, but still a decent selection. The food is really good though, an adventurous array of different pizzas for those bored of pedestrian-level za. The service is pretty good, and getting a table can be a roll of the dice — you never know. Some evenings Ive been there the wait was long, and other evenings a few open tables. Parking is a mixed bag. Sometimes you can park in the parking lot behind the restaurant, but most times you end up on the street. Pro tip: save yourself some coin and park one block southish of the restaurant and use the Minneapolis Parking mobile app to pay for your parking. On a weekday evening, I spent less than a dollar for three hours of parking, when a friend of mine spent three or four times that by parking on the north side of Washington Avenue.