We stopped in at Four Towns as we were headed back to STL after visiting Johnson's Shut Ins. The…read morerestaurant is located in an old building in the downtown area with free street parking available. We went on an early Saturday evening, and there were plenty of tables open. The interior has an interesting, welcoming vibe. There were regular tables, but a couple couches for comfortable seating. We saw they also had some games in a corner that you could play while eating or drinking. There's also an outdoor patio and it looks like they were setting up to have live music later that evening. We ordered a flight of beers, and thoroughly enjoyed each of the different ones. We also got some pizza, which was really good. Before leaving, we checked out the downstairs speakeasy room, which can be reserved for parties. I am sad that this restaurant is too far from me, because I would love to host a birthday party there. I definitely recommend checking this place out, and if we drive through again, I plan on stopping!

We rate the drinks and venue a 5/5 and the food a 4/5; granted you don't come here for food but it…read moreis always nice to have some choices when you will be drinking. There is on street parking. You seat yourself. Casual attire. Speakeasy downstairs with its own entrance it seems. Bartender did an excellent job with our drinks. You help yourself to the water (end of bar). We had the calzone (which was good) and beef sandwich (which was avg; would have been better if included an au jus because beef was dry). We would come back for drinks.

Great beer and ambiance. Retro furniture to sit back and chill. One of our fav stops when we road…read moretrip around this part of Illinois.

We were definitely a fan. The beers are More abstract than…read moremost. Not traditional beers. We loved the foerder aged beers. Tart/sour and crisp without being heavily fruited. We tried several tasters and the tea inspired flavors were good too. Especially the one with rooibos tea. Cool space too. Worth the stop if you are going thru the So-IL beer trail or back from Kincaid.

Fresh delicious beer, friendly knowledgeable staff, kid and pet friendly…read more Lots of boardgames! PINBALL Food trucks on the weekends and occasional music!! Highly recommend!!

Great spot to go out with friends! A group of our girlfriends met here for our Christmas…read morecelebration and gift exchange. The large tables and at-home-dining-room-style chairs were the perfect spot for our cozy conversations and sharing of snacks. While they do not serve food here, they allow you to bring it in, which was perfect for all of our appetizers and cookies - which paired so well with their Christmasy "Confection" beer. Peanut butter and coconut- wow. Get over here and try it! The bartender was very knowledgeable and willing to pour samples and answer my questions. The main entrance can be a bit difficult to find- look to the left. This was formerly an auto service shop and they made such great use of the space. There is not a ton of parking because of the shape of the building, but the cool vibes and friendly service make up for that. The seating area is the old shop area, while the former lobby is an additional area for games. Sometimes they host food trucks. I could see spending a nice Sunday afternoon on the patio when the weather is nicer!

Stopped in last night with my 2 kiddos, their spouses, and 3 grandchildren, with myself and son and…read morehis wife and kids in from Colorado and California respectively, while visiting my daughter who lives in Chester. Great service and good food. Burgers and fries were especially good and fresh. The kids really liked the cheese sticks. Thank you for being open on a Sunday evening and accommodating all of us!

There are very few restaurants in the Chester area which is how my daughter and I ended up here…read more This is a fairly new bar and very big. Their drinks were good but if you are a beer drinker you are mostly looking at the normal, run of the mill lagers. They did have a couple of IPAs but nothing special craft brewery-ish. My daughter ordered a mule and said it was very good. We both ordered burgers and fries. The burgers were very good and sized well so we walked away satisfied. The service was really very good. The young lady provided just the right amount of attention and was super friendly. This place would be an excellent place to frequent if you were a local. They have a gaming room with electronic gambling machines but there is tournament sized shuffleboard along the back wall and it looked like it was free to play. Also soft tip dart boards if you enjoy that.

A cool, casual brewery in Sullivan! It was nice to have a brewery in this area. My partner is the…read morebeer connoisseur and he said everything was okay, nothing to write home about but nothing necessarily bad either. He said all the beers were pretty light and "crushable." They also had a mead flight which I appreciated since I don't like beer. They were from a meadery in Salem and very yummy. The food was pretty basic but enjoyable and staff was nice, service was quick. There are high tops, low tops and bar seats. Also some board and card games for folks to play.

We stayed here overnight as a harvest host member and had a great stay. The ipa was awesome (we got…read moresome cans to go!). The pizza was just ok, hence the 4 instead of 5.

This place is the best. Super accommodating to our 4-year-old (brought us a juice box unprompted,…read moreeven asked if our kid was diabetic and mentioned they had juice with no sugar added). Atmosphere in a unique, older building is relaxing and nicely lit. Bathrooms and tap room are really clean. I'm not a huge beer drinker, but what I sampled was great. And thankfully they had a wonderful selection of bourbon. The cocktails are delicious! You can bring your own food. They also have popcorn and chips for purchase. I'd be a regular here if only we lived closer!

Really nice spot for a beer flight! $12 for 6 pours. They also have a private event speakeasy, a…read morecovered porch, and the inside feels historic but not in any way but good. Staff is friendly and the Stubbornfest beer is a must try! Cans available in the cooler to go. Easy, free street parking.

Unimpressive. I will say, I'm not a beer drinker, but I was excited to finally check this place out…read morebecause I had heard that they have great food! It was a very limited menu. We ordered the fried pickles as an appetizer and that came out with the meal. I had the quesadilla and my husband had the bacon wrapped meatloaf. Nothing was bad, but it wasn't great either. I was disappointed in the drink options as well. If you are looking for beer on tap, this is your place. However, they only have cocktails on tap and a very limited selection at that. 4 wine options. Soda. Water. That's it. Unfortunately this isn't listed anywhere on the website, so we weren't expecting them to not have a bar. We ordered strawberry margaritas and they were ok. Would we go back? Not likely.

My wife and I have made it a modest habit to try out new breweries. I now live in St. Louis, but…read moreregularly make it home to Southern Illinois to visit my family. I'd seen the Route 51 Brewery a couple times when going between Carbondale and DuQuoin. Over Christmas weekend we decided to check it out along with one of my high school friends. The beer selection was excellent. We enjoyed all of the different brews we had in our flights. There is a modest selection of food. We got pretzels and pickle chips. Both were decent. I wouldn't go out of my way for the food, but it was a nice compliment to the quality beer. The facility was new, well maintained, and I dug the scorched wood tables. There is a stage where bands can play, and a reception hall nextdoor. Overall I think it is a nice addition to the brewery and winery industry that has grown over the last decade. Check it out if you are in the area.

For where it is and what it offers, it's great!…read more Really enjoyed the setting, but this was very much about the friends I was with. The food was fine. The pizza was fine, but definitely not cooked either long enough or in a hot enough oven. The beers are quite nice. Their seasonals are always interesting and I've had some really amazing ones here. Their year rounds brews are solid, including a rice-based lager. This is also known as "Villa Antonio Winery", I am definitely not basing this rating on the wine. It's your typical awful Missouri vintages. The labels on the bottles give you an indication of how bad it's going to be. The staff is small and often overwhelmed, but they all try their damndest to serve. Go for the beer!

Worth the trip! I…read morewas first introduced to Sand Valley Brewing at the Best of MO Market last fall in STL. After sampling some of their beers, I added their taproom to my list of my places I must go. We finally made it out that way last weekend - and OMG! I am so glad we did. Their beers are delightful. They have something for everyone's taste. They offer flights to try a variety of their brews - which I love! I dabbled in a flight of the Apricot Fruited Sour, Dunkel with Meadowfoam Honey, Hazy IPA w/ Chardonel Grape Juice, and a Porter with Belizean Cacao Husk + Tanzanian Vanilla Beans. I really appreciate the incorporation of such natural flavors and ingredients in the brewing! The flavors were delightful. My husband opted for the Rice Lager as he is more of your classic Pilsner guy. He enjoyed his beer too! The food was also delicious! We couldn't help but finish off the entire pizza & wings between the two of us. The wings were juicy yet crispy on the outside and the sauce - so flavorful! The pizza was cooked to perfection and so yummy. The bartender who took our orders was also outstanding! He was so personable and really helped make our visit complete. He provided us with great information about the place and each brew. He also was a great resource of the area - he gave us directions to a pretty little close drive as we wanted to go somewhere outdoors to kill some time while we waited for friends. Also to mention, the brewery shares space with Villa Antonio Winery. We, of course, had to share a little wine flight as well for the whole experience! The wine was remarkable and made onsite with local Missouri grapes. Highly recommend a visit!

This place is definitely worth the drive to it. The beers are creative & delicious, and they are…read morealways rotating with the seasons. Atmosphere is rustic & rural-- it was great sitting outside next to a campfire.

Loved this experience! Took a small detour on our way home from Nashville, it is definitely of the…read morebeaten track, but the drive was beautiful on the side roads! Sign at the end of the gravel road announced our arrival. Pulled into the lot and we were the only ones there beyond the workers late in the afternoon on a Sunday. Cash only but they have an ATM on site. Visited the brewery room and perused the different beers available on draft, in bottles, and growlers. Ordered a pizza, the green tomato and sausage. And chose a flight of beer, four for $13. Sumac Sour, Fig Porter, Dead Leaves, and Basil Saison. I enjoyed every one of them, but the Dead Leaves was my overall favorite. I decided on that one as my take home growler. I really enjoyed the green tomato sausage pizza, I enjoy a green tomato, not many restaurants have them on their menu in a state other than fried, so I had to get it. The flavors were great; the tartness of the green tomato went well with the sausage. The space is incredible, very rustic and woodsy, the perfect backdrop to the foraged beers. Every space was decked out with funky colors and artwork. I really wish it was closer, definitely a road trip to go back but feel it would be worth it in each of the seasons!

For the past 6 months life has been a nightmare - luckily I took notes when I visited many places…read moreso when things died down I would be able to just type this out and pop in the pictures. I really liked this place. This brewery has a great vibe, is HUGE, good service, yummy food, tasty beer and considering it was a cold, icky night when we went - there was more people there than I would have thought. My smash melt was so good. Messy but a good type of messy. It was also a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. The shepherds pie was really runny. A spoon was definitely the utensil of choice but the flavor was spot on. I struggled to get up the stairs because of my knees (both are new) and it appears to be the only stairs so I had to wait for some servers to go up (& vice versa) but when we got up there it was very cool. Honestly, this place is huge. I cannot stress that enough. There was a big party next to us and I watched how they were waited on...because sometimes big parties can be a challenge. It appeared that no one waited a unreasonable time to get their refills. Even a spill was taken care of by staff swiftly. That is a good sign. However, our service was just good. It took a long time to get a beer and we never got out second one we just paid and left All that being said, I will be back.

Hundreds of Hops US Hop Passport Amazing Brewery Race Stop 30 - 1/18 for Missouri…read more We stopped here as our first stop on our Missouri Brewery Race, plotted intentionally for the eats... specifically all you can eat fried chicken day... not that I could eat a whole lot of it, but I love good fried chicken and that KFC at home isn't scratching that itch. Needless to say, I ordered the fried chicken, dark meat. The hubs got a maple syrup (flavored, turns out - definitely NOT maple syrup). The table behind us ordered directly after our order was put in and also ordered all you can eat fried chicken, dark meat. When i heard, "we're sold out of that", with my order not up yet, I thought we were in for potential problems. Now, at 845pm, I'd understand that but 15min after the "special" starts, with a half empty dining room... I'm gonna have some questions. For example: Why is there no chicken available at open on fried chicken day? Anywho, the plates come out & I'd guess the potatoes were from the last special... cold & crusty, topped with the thickest, most concentrated "gravy" I've ever seen. Both were inedible. The broccoli was cooler than it should have been served at but tasted good. The real star was definitely the fried chicken. It absolutely hit the spot - unfortunately, they were indeed sold out of dark meat & i ended up with a wing... sigh - thankfully, I got 1 thigh, my true love & although it was all you can eat (only way they sell it), 1 thigh is about all I can eat. Still, I could have skipped the sides all together for a 2nd thigh... The burger was "ok", nicely cooked, but maple flavor is not at all the same as real maple syrup tho & it definitely could be improved with real maple syrup. The beer was pretty tasty. We had 3 different ones & could have pulled a 4th had the timing worked out. Overall, a so-so experience. I'm not sure why, when I ordered, that I wasn't told that there wasn't enough chicken for a dark meat order. I would have asked if there was a thigh left & likely still ordered it when they said yes, but it would have been my choice then. They did stop selling the chicken special before we cashed out.