Last Thursday I and a friend decided to go down to Party Source in Belvue after work to check out a weekly event Party Source has been putting on. Thursday nights are Burgers and Brews. They cook up hamburgers with a special sauce and pare them with a brewer. I had heard from many that Party Source puts on some awesome cooking class, Schlafly was the brewer (friends rave about them) and they do have one of the best selections of beer in the area – so for $15 it was off to have some fun.
- Brown Ale Cask (special delivery for the event)
- Kolsch – 4.8%
- Biere de Garde – 7.0%
- American Pale Ale (APA) – 5.9%
- Export IPA – 8%
The Brown Ale was very interesting, but needed to age another six months. The Kolsch and APA were both good, but nothing special. To be honest, the more of these varieties I try, the more none of them stand out. The Export IPA was also good, but nothing to write home about. The Biere de Garde was very good indeed, but not the best of it’s class.
Now, please don’t take my words as too harsh towards Schlafly – five brews from a very deep line-up is not a good sampling. Not to mention three of the five were entry level beers. I did buy a sampler pack before leaving to give Schlafly’s line-up a deeper interrogation.
Before you begin thinking that a five beers and a burger for $15 is a great deal – the brews were served in plastic solo cups (2-3 oz.) – not in a glass (a big beer no-no).
The burger? We were served one mediumish burger (served with chips) that was slightly overcooked and on the cool side. Not bad, not good. The BBQ sauce they concocted was very interesting. It took an hour from the time the first burger was served (to the group of thirty or so) till we received ours (we were in the back).
How about the location – outside on their patio in great weather! But alas their patio is right next to a major road. The fair aroma of beer was replaced with car, truck and bus exhaust.
Not all was bust, a great two-piece acoustic band played background music at a perfect volume (I hate it when the music is overly loud making talk with your table mates impossible) – at least when not overpowered by the trucks and buses. The Party Source hosts were friendly and the experts from Schlafly were friendly, knowledgeable and talkative. Party Source also provided a 5% discount on anything we purchased that night.
Please don’t completely write off Party Source because of this review, as I said I have heard great things about their cooking classes and the beer selection is great – including many brews you can’t get in Ohio.