Public Beer Market - Calgary, Alberta

Not sure what happened at this place, seems to have had a name change and was extremely dead when I went, as in our party of 5 were the only people in the entire place... somewhat uncanny. But Food was solid and beer selection was excellent and tasted great! The games area ... was also sweet, arcade style basketball, pingpong, and shuffleboard. Had a really great time! Aesthetic of the place isn’t quite as nice as some of the photos look but is still solid and makes for a good atmosphere. Read more

A good selection of beer but not food. Maybe the cook was having a bad day since there are raving reviews but the consensus at our table was that the food wasn't good. I ordered steak and didn't finish because it was like chewing rubber. Even though the menu said ... that my dish came with fries, it didn't and the waitress' response was 'I know the menu says that but the dish doesn't come with fries'....well then, why don't you change the menu? The soup was good but they didn't have any soup containers for me to take out. Someone at our table ordered a chicken burger, the bread was crusty and not fresh and the chicken was over fried. I don't plan to come here again! Read more

Best place not just NE but for miles around. Excellent variety of beer on tap. Always changing. Quality of food and things to choose from is fantastic. Never been disappointed here. Love that they source local.

Great selection of local and western craft beers and ales. Friendly and very knowledgeable staff. (They actually know their beers) Will offer nice samples of almost everything on tap and they have at least 50 on tap. Decor is upscale warehouse with some great tables for small groups. Not overly ... noisy so you can carry on a conversation. I've eaten the chicken wings that are REALLY good and tried the Fish and Chips when it was on special but would not recommend that. Nice secret place and I wasn't sure I wanted to share this gem but I do want them to stay in business! Read more

Visited Public Beer Market during their recent Grand Opening with a crew from work totalling 8. They're located in a strip mall just off 32 Ave next to the Costco on 32 St. We went over during the lunch hour and were surprised to find the restaurant near empty on ... their Grand Opening. Hopefully not a sign of things to come, but I could see the demographic in the area not being ideal for a Beer Market, especially with little else in the area as an anchor to draw from. The exterior of the restaurant is pretty basic and unfortunately does not offer a patio. Getting into the restaurant things really open up, it has a bright and modern industrious feel, there is a lot of seating including your more conventional tables and booths, high tables, benches and of course seating at the bar. It's quite comparable to Craft Beer Market in this respect and definitely has an edge over National for seating. There is also an upstairs area that I imagine is generally for private functions. The roof is left exposed showing the girders and trusses which adds to the industrial look, and what's cool is their beer room is behind a pane of see-through glass so you can see everything hooked up and trace the lines from the kegs all the way to the bar. This complements the rest of the restaurant and also provides a degree of transparency in what they're serving. On the right side of they borrow from National and offer a shuffle board table and two ping pong tables in an enclosed room. I couldn't help but think how they kind of combined the games aspect of national with the better seating options of Craft, sort of a best of both worlds? They have a good sized food menu that is primarily your usual pub offerings along with some salads and breakfast. Some items have some ingredients that push them a bit closer to what I'd consider a Gastropub, but overall things are pretty conventional. Although it wasn't clear, they do have gluten free options, we had to ask as one of my colleagues has an allergy. The real draw is the beer selection with 48 beers currently on tap, very impressive. They have a lot of options local to Alberta and B.C. with some international options as well. Food is priced fair, beer a little more expensive but on par with the other beer markets in Calgary. Our table ordered burgers, salads and there was also a Mac 'N Cheese. Everyone seemed pretty content with the food, but I wouldn't say there were any wows. It was good conventional food at a fair price. I personally had the Public Nuisance burger, good overall but nothing I'll rush back to, fries were good. Where they really fell short was on the service. We had let them know in advance about our larger sized group and despite the notice and emptiness of the restaurant they still seemed unprepared. Some of the plates came out in decent time, but then others were staggered and came out minutes later. There were a number of errors; I ordered the Public Burger and received the Public Nuisance, a colleague ordered the Public Meltdown which came undercooked/pink, another co-worker asked for his dressing on the side and got it on the salad and even when the waitress asked if one of my colleagues wanted a lemon with her water she forgot immediately and brought it absent of the lemon. She also had to confirm with the kitchen about gluten-free options, this should be something well known by all servers in any restaurant with how much this allergy/sensitivity has been rising in recent years. Decent food, good beer, fair prices and room for improvement on the service side. Despite all the hiccups the server and the manager were very apologetic for the "growing pains" in their launch. They did not hesitate to provide a discount for the entire table without having to ask, which was appreciated by everyone. They comped the undercooked meal as well. Public Beer Market has potential to be good, but this visit was average. It'll be interesting to see where they are a few months from now. Read more