Another night on the road finds me in Dubuque, IA former home of the Dubuque Star Brewery and Bricktown Brewery. Both buildings still stand and are being utilized by other businesses. Dubuque Star Brewery first opened in 1898 by Joesph Rhomberg and through various efforts produced beer until 1999 and is currently houses a restaurant and wine bar. All I have to say "Is what a shame!" Bricktown was a brewpub that lasted at least 6 years from 2002 to 2008. It had problems bad beer, undereducated bar and wait staff, and food that bordered on criminal! Well one passing was a shame and the other a blessing, I believe you can find the difference.
I am not saying that Dubuque is devoid of a good beer scene. I have had an opportunity to go to the Busted Lift before tonight and know of it's reputation as a good beer bar. Also on looking for a good place to eat tonight with a good beer selection I came across L. May Eatery http://www.lmayeatery.com/. It passed both of my tests, the website showed it had a above average beer selection and had a menu that appealed to me. Alas it is closed on Tuesday and Wednesday, so this place must wait for another time through town. Bummer!
From my online research I found a place that seemed to be of interest, Vinny Vanucchi's http://www.vinnysdubuque.com/ a fine Italian restaurant that was located above the Busted Lift. I could kill two birds with one stone, have dinner and then go to a good beer bar all in the same building. As per my usual I sat at the bar. At Vinny's I decided on a Moretti's on tap. It came to me flat and uninspiring, if I was thinking I would of refused the beer. They had 10 or 11 taps and 12 bottle beers. The taps included Millstream Iowa Pale Ale, Boddington's, Stella and a few more imports and craft brews as well as the typical macrobrews. The food was above average. I had a flatbread pepperoni pizza that was nicely crisp and had a nice sauce. The rest of the menu looked as appetizing as the pizza was.
I then went downstairs to the Busted Lift. The ambiance of this bar is all about the basement hole in the wall bar. They have a slight Irish theme to the bar but is more of a cool old building basement bar. The taps selection is varied, but it has become uncomfortably leaning towards the macrobrews. They do have Millstream http://millstreambrewing.com/, Bell's ( three on the chalk board but all taps where gone), Flying Dog and imports from England, Ireland and Belgium. Unfortunately this evening they had 5 out of the about 20 taps dry, but I did find some good beer to drink. Besides the taps they have about 20 bottles as well.
My first beer I acquired was Millstream's Hop Squared. which even isn't listed on Millstream's website. It is a malty leaning, double IPA with a nice amount of hops to complement but not overwhelm the malt. It went down very easy and would be a dangerous beer to sit down and have multiples of for that very reason. My second beer I had was Millstream's Back Road Stout, another very drinkable beer from Millstream! It is a wonderful Oatmeal Stout that hides it's 6.7% ABV in the complexity of flavors in this stout. It has a slight bitterness but is more of a sweet stout with a full bodied mouthfeel from the oats in the grist. Another winner from Millstream! Way to go Chris, Tom and Teresa!
I looked forward to exploring more of the beer scene in Dubuque and would invite anyone to give this town an opportunity to impress you.
Tomorrow night Ottumwa, IA and hopefully a new to me microbrewery, I hope it is still open.
QC Beerguy
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