Saturday 21st of August 2010 11:12:29 PM

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Meh.

Mainstream styles, adequately crafted. Not bad at all, but not memorably good or full of character.

I didn't get the sense that the ingredients were selected for fresh taste, or that the yeast cultures are tracked for changes in flavor between generations.

Nice location, though, around the corner from what seems to be an active part of downtown Cleveland. We walked from a downtown hotel, and sat outside on a street that had little vehicle traffic.

Sunday 6th of June 2010 10:21:32 AM

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As for the beer, the place makes lousy brew. Some of the worst ever sold. My first batch of homebrew ever tasted better than most (not all) of the stuff sold here...and I've tried just about everything they make at one point or another, hoping I could find something I'd want to drink since happy hour prices are very good.

Food is actually quite good - so I'll give them that, though. But for Beermapping to currently rate this place 84.4 is a big oversell in my opinion. Tremont, W25th, and Lakewood have much better options.

Saturday 27th of September 2008 09:27:28 AM

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Cleveland Chophouse is part of the Rock Bottom chained but it is more high end on the food front. I haven't visited this place in a while and decided to give it a full test. I came away somewhat surprised, the overall beer quality was much better than expected. This place is definitely more expensive than a normal brewpub as it is considered a chophouse first and it is also located in a somewhat trendy area of downtown Cleveland called the warehouse district.

Review of the beer
Light Lager - it is what it says it is, if you can drink light beer, be my guest.

Bohemian Pilsner - this is a past winner of the GLBC and I can see why. I was skeptical at first, but it definitely has a little bit stronger hop element than a normal pils.

America Wheat - another pleasant surprise as this is normally not one of my favorite style. This one was a very drinkable unfiltered wheat, nice hop element and a citrus taste.

American Pale Ale - Out of their regular lineup, I'd say this was the best one, extremely smooth with a decent citrus flavor.

Irish Red - pretty normal red in taste but didn't have the aftertaste that red sometimes have which was a nice touch.

Porter (substitute stout) - This was a very nice, extremely smoky version, definitely had coffee notes. Not sure I could have had more than the sampler of this one though.

Scottish Ale (seasonal) - Tasted pretty normal in terms of this style, not particularly memorable.

Oktoberfest (seasonal) - very nice version of this style, I was tempted to bring home a growler of this as it was quite tasty.

I got a strip steak in a pepper/cognac sauce which was excellent. Not a bad choice, but Great Lakes is about a 2 minute cab ride from here if you are visiting downtown Cleveland.

Service was friendly and reasonably knowledgable.

Friday 4th of April 2008 04:57:48 PM

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The rarest of the Rock Bottom franchises, it's a steakhouse first and a brewery second. I wandered in during their happy hour and had a pint and a couple of samples.
The atmosphere is more upscale, but not to the point of being a high-end steakhouse, but rather somewhere in between that and a pub. Lots of wood paneling which made walking in the place unnecessarily noisy. And the few people in the place that early had cocktails instead of beer.
I tried the pale, red and stout, and ended up with the stout. None of them were excessively good, but I don't expect too much at a Rock Bottom franchise, as that just leads to disappointment.
The bartender was extremely nice though (although everyone in Cleveland was) and gave me my free tastes and answered my questions about Cleveland. The food looked fairly good too, and the happy hour, looking back, was a very good deal.
The fact is, although I've never been to the pub, Great Lakes would be a much better place to visit only because of the quality of the beer. I finally had it later on and now wish that they could get it here in Arizona. But, if you're Downtown without a car, or already in the Warehouse District, this place isn't half bad.

Thursday 11th of October 2007 01:10:57 PM

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I was in Cleveland for work and decided to stop by the Chop House for dinner.

This seems to be an upscale place with a large dining area. The bar is off to the left as you enter. There is also a small patio in front. This is a great old building that they have nicely restored.

I sat at the ornate black marble topped bar. I had a great view of the brewery kettles on display behind the bar. The bar area also has good table seating for groups.

Note that the bar top has in-set cold plates for folks to put their beer on. It is about 6 “ wide and maybe ½ inch deep.

The bartender was very friendly and seemed to have good beer knowledge. I liked the way he worked the crowd.

Food was fairly expensive but it was good. I liked the brown beer onion soup. The pizzas are decent with an interesting very thin crust. Happy hour is a relative bargain with $3 beers and ½ price appetizers.

They offer 6 house beers on-tap. I tried three different ones and was not over or under whelmed by any of them. They are solid offerings that seem to be true to style.