Stopped in for a few beers this afternoon; first visit.
The beer list is more focused than next door, and not just due to the (slightly) lesser number of taps. There was only one brewery I hadn't heard of/ seen around extensively, with multiple offerings from Rogue and North Coast. Of the former, I never see handles on outside their pub in North Beach, and the Olde Depot featured their good double IPA as well as a few others. Of the latter, they had Old Stock on (again, seldom seen outside Ft. Bragg) and a one-off Class of '88 barleywine. Both the Rogue IPA and North Coast barleywine poured very well. Staff has the same level of beer knowledge I've come to expect from BeerRev. They have a welcomed happy hour differentiating themselves from BeerRev; near as I could tell it was $1 off per pour.
Seating is more comfortable than next door (there's a footrail at the bar), and it's a much lighter space. They could have been more inventive given the space than carrying over the bottlecaps pressed into foam motif of the bartop. Similar outside setup to BeerRev. Dueling tunes (Doors in the kitchen, the usual punk intermittently audible from a boombox placed way up high up front) were a bit jarring in a sparsely populated space with lots of hard surfaces. Dual clean restrooms make me wonder whether it's frowned upon to come from next door for the facilities.
The menu has changed quite a bit from the opening days' offerings I heard about- sausages are out, and multiple, frightening faux meats in sandwich combinations are in. The most egregious would be the Philly Cheeze steak- phony beef and cheese for a faux twofer. Rotating European potato salad was simply replaced by "potato salad" on the menu. No pierogies to be found. All I saw come out were fries and a pretzel; I don't see myself eating here. Guacamole and chips is probably the most realistic option if I absolutely had to have a bite there.
By the time we left, 5:30 on a sunny Friday afternoon, BeerRev was uncomfortably crowded inside and out and so was Olde Depot, judging by the folks outside.
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