Whistle Taproom & Venue — Restaurant in Cleveland

Cool bar with an awesome location in the heart of downtown Cleveland. Visited for the first time with my Father on the day of the Cleveland Indians home opener (we all ordered food off truck in the back of the bar, Smokin’ Bones food truck was awesome food, great portions and excellent prices!)

So I thought my girlfriend would love this place so I brought her on the evening of 4/13/2021 to check it out. To be clear, this was my SECOND visit and my GF’s first visit to W&K. Inside of this place is very cool. All the taps and the HUGE beer selection. Very cool!

I called ahead of time to ask about the 50% off growler fills mentioned on their Facebook post but the phone number to the Whistle & Keg Cleveland location, no one answers the phone and it gets sent to a voicemail to a gentleman named Joe. So I tried calling the Youngstown location and got ahold of a super nice girl and I was told we COULD bring our OWN growler (I even told her it was another branded local craft breweries growler) for a 50% off refill so I brought my big, heavy glass growler with us. We get to the bar and the nice bartender takes care of us getting our wrist bands so we can get to pouring! I tell the bar tender I have my growler with me in my book bag and asked her if I could fill it and get the 50% off fill price before we leave? She replied yes. I said ok I will fill it when we are about to leave. We have a couple beers outside and I take some pictures of our drinks and my growler with beautiful downtown Cleveland as the backdrop. The bar tender must have been watching us cause as soon as we come back in, she says you CANT fill that growler to get the 50% off. She said it HAS to be our Whistle & Keg branded growler to get that 50% fill discount. She said I could still fill it, but there would be no discount.

So since the discount equated to more off than the $5.00 the growler cost, I decided to purchase the Whistle and Keg branded growler.

Growlers are historically hard to fill because the beer wants to pour out of the top because of foam. So when the lady filled it, it started slightly pouring beer out the top and down the sides (we paid for that beer by the ounce and it’s not cheap), so after beer started coming out the top, she thankfully turned the tap off. I immediately, very politely said you can just leave the fill where you have it now. ( I didn’t want anymore $0.55 cents an ounce beer being wasted that we paid for.) After the foam settled, we ended up with about 3/4 filled growler. We go to pay her for the couple beers we had at the bar and the growler fill and the bill came to just under $40.00 bucks!! We left a 20% tip for her (we are not cheap, rude people who don’t tip or who don’t tip proper, even if the experience and price, wasn’t what you were expecting) which left our bill at $47.50. $47.50 for 2 beers and a growler fill? In my opinion, that’s WAY too expensive for the approximately 5 beers we had in total with the growler fill. That didn’t include any food, just the beer!!

Even with the 50% off, the 3/4 filled growler cost almost $25 bucks by itself. So without the half off a growler would be almost $50 bucks??? That’s crazy expensive for a growler fill.

Local craft brewery Fat heads bar: fills growlers for us of craft beers for about half of that cost on their half off growler fill day. They have never charged us even close to $25 for a 3/4 filled growler.

It was a fun experience and a beautiful day to have a beer downtown but the price is very high when you can get craft beers for less than half the cost of Whistle and Keg elsewhere. We had to walk to get back to our car and this time I’m carrying 2 heavy glass growlers now with me back to the car which kinda was unfortunate. I brought my big heavy growler for no reason. On the the way back to our car, across the street from the Cleveland Indians stadium sitting at the cemetery a man asked me “if that was moonshine in that growler?” Lol I relied “I wish it was!” Lol and we returned back home. This is...

Needed to kill some time b/w the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and a 7:10 baseball game and picked Whistle because of the non-beer tap offerings. With 5 ciders and 2 hard seltzers on tap, they delivered! And since you pour/pay by the ounce, I was able to try them all :)

It was pretty busy, but we were able to find an open table right away. Most tables are high-tops, but we did find a normal table for my husband, who doesn’t like high-top tables. Atmosphere was great but quite loud — and I don’t normally notice loudness even when all the reviews say someplace is loud.

The self-service is fun and easy, but I had to ask another customer how it worked (and had to teach another group a few minutes later). They didn’t explain it when I opened my tab (got the wristbands), and they didn’t have any posted instructions either. A couple of simple signs would do wonders.

On game days, they use a limited menu, but there were only a few copies floating around, so we used the online menu. We didn’t know they were operating on a limited menu until we went up to the register by the bar to place our order, but they were accommodating and let us order the cheese stuffed pretzels anyway (must be similar to the normal pretzels that were on the menu). It took 35 min for the food to come out, which felt very slow for one appetizer that we had planned to snack on leisurely. Instead we had to eat it immediately so we could get to the game on time.

Also because it was a game day, I think, they only had plastic cups available. The cabinets of pint glasses shown in the Google listing were all closed.

Overall would be excited to go back next time we’re in Cleveland, but there’s some room for improvement to truly...

I've had the pleasure of working with Whistle and Keg Cleveland for over 5 years, and they consistently impress me with their versatility and dedication to making every event a success.

One of the standout experiences has been their fantastic Halloween bar crawls. Year after year, they manage to create a fun and unforgettable atmosphere that adds a unique twist to our events. It's clear that they put a lot of thought and effort into making these occasions special.

What truly sets Whistle and Keg apart is their commitment to ensuring a seamless and enjoyable experience for our bar crawl company. Hanna Kassis, the venue owner, has been incredibly hands-on and accommodating. Her personal involvement and attention to detail make working with Whistle and Keg a breeze.

Their venue itself is a gem, offering a versatile and inviting space that can be tailored to different themes and occasions. The ambiance is always welcoming, making it the perfect place to kick off or conclude our bar crawls.

I appreciate Hanna and the entire Whistle and Keg Cleveland team's dedication to making our collaboration a success, and I look forward to many more years of partnership with them. If you're looking for a venue that can adapt to your needs, offers a warm atmosphere, and is backed by a fantastic owner like Hanna, I wholeheartedly recommend Whistle and Keg Cleveland.

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