Hwy 54 Public House Pies & Pints

Today I took a brief journey over to Hwy 54 Public House Pies & Pints for a couple after lunch beers. I’ve been here many times before for their food, so I was interested to check them out specifically focusing on their beer selection. 

My overall thoughts: If you’re looking for a place with good food, sports on TV (but not overwhelmingly so), and a small selection of good beers, this is your stop. Admittedly, I did not try their pies, so you’ll have to let me know how those are if you go!

The Beers

The beer I had was the Fullsteam Oops!… We HS17701ed Again. This is a pretty good pilsner if you like the flavor of hops. Basically, I’d say this is an IPA without so much bitter. I’ve definitely had IPAs that taste similar to this and pilsners that taste nothing like this. 

They only have a short beer selection of 11 beers and I wasn’t feeling the others. Though it’s a smaller selection, there was variety. Some places really overload one or two types of beer, but these guys had 8 different types. Unfortunately for me, I was really only interested in this one beer on their list. If it were hotter or colder, I could see myself really enjoying one of their ciders or stouts. 

The Atmosphere

I typically don’t enjoy sports bars, so it is nice that this bar’s sports weren’t “in your face”. Yes, they had sports on 6 TVs in a small place, but they were smaller TVs and the volume was low enough I was able to get some work done.

As for seating, you have 4 options: booth, low top 4-seater, bar, and outside. I like that they have mostly booths. It feels more intimate, and the booth I sat at had a wall behind my back for additional separation. 

One thing I’ve noticed at a few bars lately are these baffles hanging from their ceiling. These are a must-have if the bar has the exposed corrugated metal sheet ceiling. Conversation is much easier when the bar has those baffles. Hwy 54 public house has them, so that’s a point in the atmosphere column. Without them, the noise is too much.

The Service

The service was excellent. I really love establishments that can take the time to make sure your glass stays full. Yes, I was the only one here for most of my stay, but prior experience says they really focus on service here. This is their quiet time, but the waitress made it a point to say she’d keep an eye on my beer to make sure my glass is never empty without a fresh one on deck.

The Negatives

My biggest negatives are the beer selection and the bar seating. I wish there were more beers, but still keeping the same level of variety. Because of the smaller selection, they’re actually missing a few key types like sours and brown ales. 

The bar seating is nearly unusable in my opinion. While I was there, it was used exclusively as a workstation for the employees. It’s right up next to the kitchen with no separation, and the bar’s depth is very narrow. I would feel like I’m in their face if I were sitting there.

Even though I’ve been here many times, I actually looked up photos of the interior to see if they had a bar before coming. That’s how inconsequential it is. I wanted to use it as a metric of whether or not I could just come and enjoy a beer and no food. If they have a bar, I felt like that wasn’t rude.