Laurel Miltner
Laura NovakLast Monday, I started the week right — with great friends, great beer, pub food and games. Our friend Logan suggested that a few of us head to one of our new favorite spots, The Pub in Rocky River, to take advantage of their Monday night specials — half price fish & chips, and trivia. How could I object?
Pub logo
James (the boyfriend) and I headed out around 6:00 to be sure that we could partake in the happy hour specials as well, which run weekdays from 4-7 and offers (almost) any pint of beer for $4. Good deal, considering that The Pub has an incredible beer selection, obviously focused on some of the better lagers and ales from across the pond. The gem, however, is from our neighbors to the south. Brewed in Lexington, Kentucky by Kentucky Ale, The Pub is the only place I have found that serves Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale — a tasty, amber-colored, bourbon-infused gift from the gods. Regularly served at The Pub in a 10-ounce snifter for $3.75, there really is no beating it. That is, until they mix it with Guinness for the mind-blowingly tasty concoction known as the Black Barrel. I forget the regular price (but it’s probably around $6.50), but during happy hour this brew will only set you back $4.75. Literally, almost every sip makes me think “this is so good.”
Back to Monday night… over the next hour or so, our friends began tricking in, and we ordered dinner. Most of us took advantage of the half price fish & chips, which are regularly like $13 but at half price only $6.50 on Mondays, and served with a house-made tartar sauce. The fish is definitely the star of the dish — perfectly crispy, well-seasoned and flaky. The tartar sauce is excellent. The chips are average, but let’s be honest, even average fries taste damn good when doused with malt vinegar and served alongside fried fish and beer.
Monday nights at The Pub, the real fun begins at 7:30, when they kick off the trivia game. I am a total geek for trivia, and have been dying to play bar trivia for months now, but really the best thing I’d found so far had been that addictive trivia game at Dave & Busters where you can win massive amounts of tickets. Until now. If anyone reading this likes trivia, I will tell you right now: Monday night trivia at The Pub in Rocky River freaking rocks. A DJ runs around with paper and pencils, you choose a team and play together to answer the questions he throws at the crowd over the course of about 2 hours, spanning everything from geography to pop culture. Everyone gets free raffle tickets, and they give away Pub prizes every so often by calling out numbers. There’s also a fast-paced lighting round about halfway through, where each team crowds around their tables and races to the DJ podium if they fill in all the blanks. To be perfectly honest, I have no idea what you win at the end, but I don’t really know that anyone cares. It is just so, so much fun.
After trivia, the guys ran outside to play cornhole while the ladies stayed at the table and chatted. We headed home around 10:30. Not bad for a Monday night.
Moral of the story? For any Clevelander who’s got a case of the Mondays, I prescribe a night at The Pub in Rocky River. Cheers!
Filed under: Cleveland Bars | Tagged: bar specials, happy hour, trivia
That fish be bangin’
Wanted to tell you that last night, I suggested to my group of friends that we try The Pub based solely on this blog post. We weren’t disappointed, and in fact, you hit every point right on the head. That Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale? Magical. Half-price fish and chips? Tasty. Trivia? Well, we finished in third place, but it was fun.
We all had a good time, so thanks for blogging about this. Good work!
Mike,
I can’t tell you how happy your comment makes me! Thanks so much for your feedback, and I hope that we continue to do good work on here.
Glad you had a good time at the Pub’s trivia night – maybe I’ll run into you there one week. And seriously… third place is totally respectable! Maybe with a little more practice you’ll come in on top.
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Great post as always, thanks for posting so much informative stuff on a regular basis.