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Great house brews and great atmosphere. The food was once high class pug grub with soft pretzels served with stone ground mustard... so good... now it…
RoyalsJayhawk
Free State Brewing Co
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Brewery Burger with Cheddar and Fries. Delicious!Black Bean Burger with Avocado and a side of roasted Cauliflower. Delicious!Shrimp Fettuccine with sh…
Kris Ehling
Free State Brewing Co
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World class locally brewed beer paired with amazing food from locally sourced ingredients. You can't go wrong with anything on the menu here.…
Ben Heusted
Free State Brewing Co
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Free State Brewing Co is open for Microbrewery. Free State Brewing Co serves American dishes. Incorrect or missing information? Make a report, or claim the restaurant if you own it!Details
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9 Reviews on “Free State Brewing Co”
World class locally brewed beer paired with amazing food from locally sourced ingredients. You can’t go wrong with anything on the menu here.
A Lawrence, KS. must stop…. One of the best places in Kansas to stop for lunch or dinner and award winning beers. Buy a growler of your favorite or seasonal masterpiece and bring it back every time you stop by or in town.
This place is cool. But I wish they had more gluten free options. Seriously I only had four things to choose from on the menu and three were salads. But I got a bourbon steak with veggies that was pretty good.
Fantastic beers, I’ve tried them all! Great menu items as well, they always have seasonal food and beers. Nothing beats Free State in the area. Make sure you call ahead or you’ll wait in line a while.
Pretty Good. I ate at Free State today, and left happily surprised. I find that most brew pubs get such good reviews because people love their local breweries. Now, I don’t want to minimize this effect, surely this is going on here, too, but I thought their food today was pretty good. Let’s start with the better of my two dishes: my potato gnocchi entree. This was actually quite good. The pillowy gnocchi were a good texture and lightly potato-y in flavor, the creamy sauce was rich and tasty, and the combination of microgreens, slices of sauteed red onions, and black mission figs (these were great) really worked well together. It came served with some focaccia bread, but it didn’t really need it. I also tried their chicken tender appetizer, which was a little bit more creative than good. Grilled chicken strips were covered with a large mound of fried onion strips and some sort of corn, tomato, and onion relish/salsa. It seemed like the fried onions were the star of the dish with as much as they put on the plate, but it wasn’t a huge deal. The relish was kind of meh and the grilled chicken strips were grilled chicken strips, not amazing but no one would expect them to be.All that said, I’d give Free State another try if I came back through town. It’s hard to trust places like this with the huge amount of hype, and surely some people could get burned when they don’t meet the inflated expectations all the hype produces. In any case, I’m glad it wasn’t me this time. Good luck and I hope a non beer-driven review will be of help.
Nothing Is Free at Free State Brew Pub Where a Terrible $6 Burger Costs $9!. Free State Brew Pub636 Massachusetts StreetLawrence, Kansas 66044(785) 843-4555http://www.freestatebrewing.com/brewpub/Mon-Sat: 11am-MidnightSun: Noon-11pmFree State Brewery … Free State Brewery … that is all I have heard since moving to Lawrence in August … Free State Brewery. I have tasted some of their micro brews and they are excellent, but every time we wanted to try the food, the place was jam-packed. Now I know why while at the same time wondering … WHY?The reason WHY people are always outside the door on Mass (Massachusetts Street Downtown Lawrence, Kansas), I now know, is because there is so little room inside. The massive aluminum brewing barrels occupy a large percentage of the interior space, leaving room for a small bar and maybe 10-15 tables. There appear to be more tables upstairs, but the rather large space is dominated by the massive beer making equipment, leaving much less room for patrons.The reason WHY I wonder what makes this establishment attractive to their many customers is because our recent dining experience was UNDERwhelming!We were walking down Mass last Saturday night looking at the Christmas lights and considering stopping for a bite to eat. As we made our way north to the 700 block, I noticed that there was an absence of humans outside of Free State Brew Pub, so we went in. We were quickly seated at a small table next to the bar and a four-top occupied by two attractive young lovebirds. Let me digress for a moment …What I am about to say is a generalization, but it is an observation that has become more and more frequent of late. This lovely couple was sitting next to each other, he with his legs propped up on the chair across from him as if he were lounging in his apartment, not a restaurant full of people. When they did not have their tongues in each others ears, they were both simultaneously buried in their cell phones, eagerly texting away, probably to each other! I call it social dystrophy, the inability of many people, particularly the younger generation, but not exclusively, to communicate effectively with fellow human beings. If interested, you can read more in my article Social Dystrophy: Are Technology or Values to Blame.Back to Free State Brew Pub. The place was full, but not packed, yet the noise-level was high. After 20 years in the Air Force working around very loud jet engines, my hearing is not great and I had a hard time hearing my wife from across the small table. Wood and glass dominate the large open room, the lighting not too bright and not dim, making the setting comfortable except for the decibel-level.Our server, a nice young man who never mentioned his name, arrived promptly to take our drink order. I decided to go with one of two stouts ($4 for an American pint) on the menu, I tried the other later, a flavorful thick, rich chocolaty concoction that was complex, yet smooth. The second, an oatmeal stout, was also very tasty and smooth with less complexity than the first, but it was delicious.I ordered the Brewery Burger medium-well with cheddar cheese, figuring a brew pub would have a top-notch burger, especially at $8.25 without cheese. The menu states that it is a 1/3-pound patty of Kansas pride, Creekstone Farms seasoned premium charbroiled ground beef on an onion bun, slice of onion, leaf of lettuce and a pickle spear. Hot fries stand ready to complete the feast. Adding Provolone, Blue, Swiss, Jack or Cheddar cheese is an extra 55, bringing the price to nearly $9. When our order arrived, I was shocked by the size of the hamburger and not in a good way. The plate was dominated by overcooked French fries that sat upon a single flaccid piece of wilted lettuce, NO ONION, and a small dill pickle spear hidden under the fries, leaving the small onion roll containing the meat and cheese. That was it, a beef patty the size of a McDonalds 14-pounder and cheese, no mayo, no catsup, no tomato, NO TASTE! First of all, the beef patty was medium or medium-rare, pink throughout and NOT medium-well as I had ordered. I added some catsup out of the bottle and rather than ask for some tomato or onion, deciding to eat it as is and thinking that maybe they knew something I did not … that it should be eaten this way, it should not!Based on value, this was one of the worst hamburgers I have ever eaten … and people wait outside in the rain and cold for this? Five Guys burgers, at less than $6, are eons better than this sad excuse for a hamburger and even (dare I say it?) Burger Kings Whopper is tastier, cheaper, and COMES WITH ONION AND TOMATO!My wife had the Gorgonzola and Mushroom Gnocchi – $9.95 consisting of Shiitake and button mushrooms sauted with julienne red onions, then simmered in a creamy Gorgonzola white wine sauce with fresh made potato gnocchi and finished with sliced black mission figs, local micro greens and toasted rosemary focaccia. Her dish was attractive and flavorful enough, except for the fact that the red onions had not only been caramelized, they had been burnt. The burnt onion flavor overwhelmed the otherwise tasty, creamy Gorgonzola and white wine sauce which had just the right amount of the strong cheese which can be overpowering if not done correctly. The gnocchi were cooked perfectly, not too soft and not too firm, making the dish a decent value except for the fact that the burnt onions ruined it. For $10, a side salad would be nice considering the fact that sandwiches come with a choice of potato or salad, but that is not the case.I honestly have no idea why this place is so popular other than the fact that it may have become the place to be seen by the local college crowd, the same folks that give Chipotle 4 out of 5 stars on Yelp. The beer was very good, the food extremely disappointing. Based on our experience and the few available options on the menu, I doubt if we will be back except to have a beer, but based on the size of the bar and the usual crowds, I also doubt if it will be worth the wait.CombatCritic Gives Free State Brew Pub 5 Out of 10 Bombs … BOMBS ARE GOOD! combatcritic.com
Great beer and good atmosphere!. I had the Chopped Salad Verde and it was very tasty. But nothing beat the summer shandy they served. It was truly delicious combination of a pale ale and blood orange soda, but I can’t remember the name and can’t find it on their website. If I go back to Lawrence (to relive my only enjoyable experience in the state of Kansas) I will definitely be back. Great beer!