Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ (8.0)
Gold Star Beer Counter is the edgy beer nook you should swing by to grab a pint in a fancy glass, or to pick up a growler from their to-go window on your way home from work.
Gold Star has 16 rotating beer taps and dozens of bottles and cans to choose from. Each week, their draft menu includes a carefully curated list of just about any type of beer your heart desires--lagers, ales, IPAs, DIPAs, stouts, porters, and even sours. Luckily, there’s only a couple of each type, so don’t worry about being overwhelmed by choice. (Down with the 3 page beer menus!) You can also swing by their grab-and-go window in the morning to snag a fresh cup of local drip coffee and a pastry.
The Goods
The great thing about Gold Star is that they offer a ton of awesome brands of beer, but also give you the opportunity to try what they believe is worthy of being on their tap list each week. Here are a few of our favorite breweries that they showcase frequently:
Hailing from the greatest American city of Portland, Maine is Oxbow. Oxbow has a variety of styles, but our personal favorites are the farmhouse ales elevated with a fresh, fruitiness akin to summer in a glass. Not to mention, their label aesthetic is just absolutely fire.
Another Portland staple, Bissell Brothers, is best served with a lobster roll and a crisp, ocean breeze. But we’ll settle for their style-defining hoppy ales at Gold Star’s bar any day.
If you asked Rachel where she was every weekend this summer, the answer would be at Trillium’s biergarten in Boston sipping on some hazy, juicy IPAs and wishing she could stay forever. These are the beers you’ll see someone at another table getting, and you’ll point and go WAIT, can I actually have one of those?
A favorite from when we went #abroad in Copenhagen and our lives were forever changed is Mikkeller: a gypsy brewery destined to take over the world with their ingenious flavors (and new U.S. locations in Queens and San Diego)!
If we didn’t discover the Tired Hands brewpub and fermentaria in Ardmore, Pennsylvania when we did, we may have actually gone through with transferring universities. The folks at Tired Hands are pioneers in the industry with their milkshake IPAs brewed with lactose, and consistently deliver with their farmhouse ales and saisons.
Bar Snacks
Many of their bar snacks offer a modern twist on childhood classics like their house-made spiced Corn Nuts or their salty Beer Cheese dip that’s served alongside a full sleeve of buttery Ritz Crackers. We will definitely be back to try one of their customizable cheese plates or perhaps their Frankfurter Sandwich with pickled red onions, pickles, peppers, celery salt, and mustard.
You might be feeling like, Wow, these corn nuts are really hitting the spot, but I could really go for some one-on-one time with the Devil? You’re in luck; Gold Star has their very own Ouija Board free for anyone to use. And we truly can’t think of a better pairing. If you’re feeling a little more earthly, they also have a variety of other vintage board games, from Yahtzee to Sorry to the reliable deck of cards. It’s as if you’ve emerged, wide-eyed and excited, from the ladder up to your grandparents’ attic. But there’s also beer!