Good Word Brewing & Public House — Restaurant in Duluth

Well, I've heard great things about this place so I was really excited to try the fried chicken and the banana pudding.

Nope.

I was most excited about the chicken livers!! They were actually good and so was the sauce they came with but they tasted like the grease they were fried in could have been fresher.

I got the Abuela drink. It was a little strange tasting but I pushed through it. My friends ordered bourbon drinks and they also said their drinks tasted weird but they pushed through.

The fried chicken tasted weird 🤢 like it was fried in old grease or something and it wasn't seasoned well. We suspected this might be the case so we ordered extra sauce. We ordered several different sauces to try with the chicken and we didn't care for any of them--they didn't taste good on their own nor did they enhance the flavor of the chicken. The waitress said the chicken comes with some type of drizzle on it but we didn't see (or taste) the drizzle. Whatever the case, the chicken needed help.

The banana pudding is completely unlike any banana pudding I've ever tried and I'll be glad to continue on in life having never tried it again. It had a weird tapioca pudding texture and also had cashews. I like bananas , tapioca pudding, and cashews but... nope. It could have been delicious but it was missing a special kick of some sort to help it out.

The atmosphere was wonderful, they've got live plants (which I love), and the staff was nice and attentive for the most part but my husband pointed out to me that the waitress never even asked to refill our waters while other tables were given a water pitcher for refills. He was also the DD and didn't drink so water was pretty important to him. The waitress didn't rush us out but she did tell us she was leaving to hurriedly collect her tip/payment only to not leave the establishment until we did (about an hour later). The bar was still open.

Overall, the food was not disgusting. It's just nothing I was impressed with, would brag about,...

I recently visited Good Word Brewery and had a mixed experience. The atmosphere was fantastic—warm, welcoming, and perfect for catching up with friends over dinner. The staff was friendly and attentive, making sure we had everything we needed throughout the night. However, when it came to the actual offerings, things fell a bit short.

Beer & Pricing The brewery offers a solid selection of brews, but the pricing and pour sizes left much to be desired. Most beers were served in 12 oz pours at a relatively high price, making the value proposition questionable. When I requested an IPA in a mug, I was surprised to learn they don’t allow beers over 5% ABV to be poured that way—a strange and restrictive policy considering the sheer amount of beer they brew. With that kind of volume, a bit more flexibility would have been expected.

Food Quality The food was good but not great. The chicken bucket had decent flavor, but by the time we got to the bottom, the pieces were sitting in a pool of oil, which dulled the experience. The burger was another letdown—while it wasn’t terrible, it lacked the depth of flavor I’d expect from a brewery. Instead, it felt more fast-food style than craft burger quality, missing the mark in the most important aspects.

Bourbon & Additional Offerings Beyond beer, they also offer bourbon pours, but again, the pricing seemed excessively high. For instance, a pour of Barrel Seagrass was listed at $28, a hefty price for a bottle that isn’t particularly rare or difficult to find.

Final Thoughts While I truly enjoyed the great atmosphere and excellent service, the pricing and quality of the food and drinks didn’t quite justify a return visit anytime soon. Good Word Brewery has potential, but for now, it seems more like a place to visit once rather than a...

A good downtown brewery with a not insubstantial selection of beers, though they could use a but more variety when it comes to darker beers (a la stouts) or non-beer alcoholic drinks. For drinks alone, it's a great choice if you can find parking in the area.

The food menu is limited, but has decent options that lean on the edge of overpriced. Appetizer portions are small, but were quite delicious -- especially the chicken livers. For entres, I'd lean towards the sandwiches/burgers if I came again but the rest of my party did enjoy the trout & fillet (though I'd argue the prices didn't match the portion sizes since they lack sides).

I had the crispy pork belly, which was perfectly cooked, but that alone was it's strong point. The blueberry mole was bland and added nothing to the dish. The cashews maybe totaled two crumbled across the plate. The shishito peppers looked well grilled, but had zero seasoning and ultimately tasted sightly blanched - definitely not something I could recommend unless you loved their natural pepper taste. I certainly regret getting this over the gnocchi, as that sounded quite better.

Hopefully the banana pudding ends the night on a high note.

Edit: Banana Pudding is definitely the MVP of the evening. A full mason jar and the whole thing was utterly decedent. A minor (but still delicious) oddity was the cream cheese... Lumps(?) Chunks(?) randomly throughout. Best guess it's the pudding is blended with creamed cheese to create it's fantastic consistency and this one wasn't completely incorporated. Didn't detract from it at all, but was just enough of a surprise/oddity that it stuck out.

If I lived in the area, this would be my go to...