Having been to Hooker's Bloomfield location a dozen times, I was looking forward to my first visit to their newish downtown Hartford location in the shadow of the Colt Building's distinctive blue onion dome. https://www.yelp.com/user_local_photos?select=1lvz5nF4jsm-HBoZzQGZyg&userid=cVrM2BvOvPV0Vi_rC8kepQ
The modern looking tap room has quite a bit of window glass on three sides, so there was a lot of natural light pouring inside. https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/thomas-hooker-brewery-hartford?select=JcXf3bxtkGiQs8IUVQsIcQ There are many tables and chairs and high tops and perimeter counters with chairs. There are board games and plenty of TV's on the walls (they had the Yankee game and golf on the screens yesterday). If you take a stroll to the restrooms, you'll also see the big brewing tanks in their lab and "Test Kitchen".
There were nine beers and one cider on tap yesterday. A stout, IPA's, a red, two fruit beers, and an ale. Full pours were $6 -$8 and a flight of four 5-oz samples was $8.
We went for a full pour of the Watermelon Ale and the Pineapple Pale Ale. https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/thomas-hooker-brewery-hartford?select=kJ-iGrqATKMYXR5y5Gehyg
I liked them both, and in a tough call, I'd say I preferred the Watermelon because of its hint of sweetness.
Hooker Hartford has a food menu -seven choices priced from $9-14 (soft pretzel or meatloaf bites, tacos, a flatbread, sliders, grilled cheese, tacos, and skins.
We went with a $10 order of Soft Pretzel Bites https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/thomas-hooker-brewery-hartford?select=t-8euFAXjyygs0bhekQ__g served with mustard and ale cheese dips, and a $14 order of a Grilled Cheese Flight. https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/thomas-hooker-brewery-hartford?select=f8x0A7Q1LHDqpQkK6sontA
A Grilled Cheese Flight is a pretty unique dish - of three long toasted bread crisp sandwiches with 1) Chorizo and Manchego, 2) Pear Grape and Gorgonzola, and 3) Pesto, mozzarella, tomato, and chicken.
All three of them tasted great, with the unique cheese flavors clearly recognizable, but if I had a quibble, I'd say they didn't have enough cheese in there. When I think of Grilled Cheese, I think of a thick ooey gooey layer of cheese, and that wasn't the case here. But make no mistake about it, the taste was excellent.
Bottom line? We had a very enjoyable lunch here.