Revelry Yards, Ithaca NY

11 July 2023

Revelry Yards is in a vibrant part of downtown dubbed “Restaurant Row,” and there certainly were a lot of places with seating on the sidewalk! It took a couple of tries to figure out exactly which one I was trying to get to, especially as it wasn’t immediately obvious where the entry door was.

I understand there’s also a Beer Garden behind the building but I didn’t get to see that. Some days of the week they serve wood-fired pizza, but not today.

Their beers are brewed upstairs and I started with a flight of four, described left-to-right:

Cayuga White (Pilsner, 5.7%) – I’ve never had a Pilsner that had Cayuga grape juice added, but they do a fine job of getting just the right balance between the Pilsner taste and the sweetness of the Cayuga grape. This was very nearly my favorite of the four.

Heat of the Moment (West Coast IPA, 7%) – According to the description, this is the more fruity of the two WCIPAs I had. I can say that I really liked this one and definitely liked it better than the other.

Layed Back (West Coast IPA, 7%) – The description includes “deep hop flavor” and I’d say that’s accurate – it’s certainly hoppier than the other and while it was tasty, it was my least favorite of the four. (The name does not have a typo in it – that’s how they spell it!)

Lemon Shandy – This had just replaced another tap that kicked and the beer board hadn’t been updated yet, so I don’t know the ABV for this one. I sometimes like this style but often find them too heavy-handed on the lemon; this one was just perfect though! The lemon was very subtle and the beer as a whole was absolutely delightful, a true all-day beer for a summer day.

This is the Avocado Turkey Club minus the avocado (since I can’t taste it and don’t particularly care for the texture). What a fabulous sandwich, though! This had hand-carved slabs of moist turkey breast along with all the other expected club ingredients. The fries were perfectly crisp and not at all greasy, but by the time I finished the sandwich I had to leave half the fries behind.

At this point, the bartender dropped off the check but I surprised her by ordering another flight:

Flying Donkey (Mexican Style Lager, 4.8%) – If served in a pint this comes with a lime slice, but it’s just served plain in the sampler glass. Regardless, it was really refreshing and was my hands-down favorite of these four.

Happy Sour (Blackberry Sour, 4.5%) – I should have done this one before the Flying Donkey, I think – the sourness didn’t work well after the Mexican Lager. Still, the blackberry came through and by the time I got the bottom of the glass I decided I liked it.

Good Moood (Oatmeal Stout, 5.7%) – While it tasted good, it was much thinner than I expect from an oatmeal stout. Since the description began with “Full body,” this seemed particularly odd to me. It struck me as more of a black lager than an oatmeal stout simply because of the mouth feel.

Fasten Up (Double IPA, 8.2%) – Perhaps this flight was just too mixed up, too many different styles, but I didn’t feel this DIPA hit the spot either. I couldn’t really decide why I felt that way, but perhaps I’d expected something a bit juicier rather than simply an extra-alcoholic IPA.

Tomorrow is the last day of this trip. I haven’t decided yet where I’ll be stopping, but wherever it is, I probably won’t make an entry for it until Thursday morning. Cheers!