Hamilton’s Tavern (American, Bar/Pub)

Hamilton's gained a following because of their excellent, rotating selection of craft brewed beers. So it would be very easy for me to recommend it based on that reason alone. But recently I placed my first food order and I was pleasantly surprised!

The menu is all fairly simple pub fare. But it is very well prepared. There is a good sized menu with some creative variations of typical meals like grilled cheese sandwiches. They are themed, and named based on their ingredients. So a little bit of fun with your order, as you consider the ninja grilled cheese.

Have fun figuring out your order, and enjoy the selection of beer.. The service is attentive and questions are willingly and accurately answered. Not a hint of the snobbiness that can be typical at other "elite" craft brew houses.

I personally enjoyed the California grilled cheese, with avocado and tomato. And the pub fries, with skins attached, were crisp and lightly seasoned. Very tasty along with my Pliny the Elder IPA from Russian River. Highly recommended for a low key pub menu.

Walk into Hamilton's and look up (I dare you); two defining characteristics should stand right out. the wrapping of Christmas lights around the ceiling beams, and the enormous array of old draft handles, collect from prior beer offerings. It sort of looks like one of those traps from an Indiana Jones film, where a ceiling of spikes slowly descends upon hapless entrappees. Anyway...on to the review.

Other than the ominous ceiling trap, the interior of Hamilton's is dark and divey. The room to the right contains a couple of pool tables and a shuffleboard type game. The beer selection is impressive to say the least. Ordering is a bit strange, they have an order/pickup window in the back corner of the room. The menu is impressive, and we had to try a variety of the offerings.

We got an order of the Baja hot dogs, and chili-cheese tater tots for appetizers (although, it all came out at the same time). The Baja dogs were tasty, but really, it was just supermarket-type hot dogs on supermarket-type buns and topped with a spicy tomato relish. The tater-tots, on the other hand, were pretty special. You almost had to eat them like stew, but it was a great combination of flavors.

For my main meal (oh, and BTW...there's no need to order this much food. the sandwich portions are huge), I went with the "Wimpy's Special" grilled cheese. This was, without a doubt, the best grilled cheese sandwich I've ever tried. It was stuffed with shredded chicken and had just a touch of chipotle sauce. The bread was huge and the quality of the cheddar really stood out, but also married perfectly into the dish. The fries are also quite tasty, and you get a ton of them.

This was the first time I got to eat at Hamilton's because it's always packed; based on the quality of the food, it's easy to figure out why. The food here is a must-try.