City Beverage, Durham, North Carolina Restaurant Details

Food:

Very disappointed. My pregnant wife and I took my mother there today for a late lunch at 2:15. Seeing they were still serving brunch (further indicated by the "brunch" menus they gave us) my wife got set on the pancakes. The entire menu looks awesome, great beers on tap, and a good environment - the only problem is we sat there for nearly 15 minutes before we asked for someone to find our waitress or if we even had one as not one person had been by to greet us. The bartender got us waters, told our waitress we were there and said she had been busy closing out checks. She finally came and brought us 'dinner' menus at 2:31 saying they were no longer serving brunch. I explained that was too bad since we had specifically arrived while they were serving brunch to... Get brunch. She shrugged and said it was after 2:30. The entire experience was so bad we just left. You know the saying - first impressions...too bad because it looks great if you could get served.

Food:

I want to really love this place because of the décor and atmosphere, but their food is just lacking!
The beer selection in good, and they do have nice drink specials, but I would eat elsewhere. Apps are OK / good (wings and veggie nachos) but I have had a couple burgers, tuna tacos, club sandwich, steak sandwich and a few other meals all of which have been subpar and usually cold.

And by the way, the garlic fries are WAY TOO garlicky - holy sh*t! If you are going to be speaking to anyone for the rest of the night, avoid them. I had stomach issues that night from those fries!
They also will not allow you to sub onion rings because they "only make enough to top the burgers" - Umm WTF..... so those onion rings are pre fried and probably sitting in a bowl somewhere in back. My burger had onion rings on it once and they were chewy and cold. Really weird practice!

The staff is friendly and I haven't had a problem with service so now we just usually go here for drinks after to sit on the patio or have some wings.... everything else is a little overpriced for what it is - bland bar food trying to be upscale that is just meh.

Food:

City Beverage has some of the best fries in the area. I could go and just snack on those and forget everything else. On a nice day, it's great to sit outside on their patio with a beer or glass of wine after work. Their sandwiches are all pretty good, although the mussels were not the greatest.

Food:

I LOVE City Bev. The food is great, the service is good, the decor is super fun (there's a whole 50s cargo cult theme going on - asteroid clocks, old celeb pictures, leis - very neat), there's a nice outdoor patio for spring and summer, and the drink selection (both beer and cocktail) is broad and good.

It's a great spot for a date because there's lively atmosphere but it's not too loud, it's a great spot for gathering with friends because they are nice about combining tables for larger parties, and it's a good spot even if you just want to grab a quick bite alone at the bar.

A quick note about the food. As stated above, it's excellent. Things to definitely try: the mahi mahi tacos, the tuna appetizer w/ sticky rice, their homemade seasoned potato chips (make sure you get them with a side of their AMAZING gorgonzola sauce), the chili nachos OR the spinach artichoke nachos (both good, but the latter a super unique and delicious take on nachos), and the turkey club. But really, you can't go wrong. I've never had a dish here I haven't liked.

Also, a few months ago they started doing brunch. I've only checked it out once but it was, unsurprisingly, great.

Think if this weren't so far off downtown Durham's beaten path, it would get a lot more accolades than it does, which would be deserved because it's a fantastic spot. Give it a try and you won't be sorry.

Food:

Upbeat, lively atmosphere in this brewery style restaurant. Huge patio out front provides room for lounging on nicer days. Ahi poke and turkey burger were good but not excellent. We would definitely come back again for a casual hangout or dinner.