Drinking Horn Mead Hall — Restaurant in Flagstaff

This place caught my eye last weekend when my friend and I were driving through downtown Flagstaff, so when I realized we had about half an hour to kill before we could check into our Airbnb, this was a logical stop. I'd been to one other meadery before about a year ago in the lower Hudson River Valley in NY, and while I liked the place itself, the mead wasn't great - I thought it honestly tasted like honeycomb mixed with rump (they had other options there, thankfully). This was definitely better.

One piece of constructive feedback for Drinking Horn - it feels more like a museum than a gathering place. There's A LOT of empty space in the room and on the walls, and for me just didn't feel very comfortable. I don't claim to be an expert on the Middle Ages or Nordic/Viking shizzle, but I have to think a mead hall from that time period would have been homey and cluttered, kind of like a pub. We were able to easily secure spots by a TV showing a fireplace (another easy fix, depending on the time of year - an actual fireplace instead of a flat screen), and the woman manning the front was very friendly and personable. Definitely no issues there.

The one other meadery I've been to literally just had the one honey-ish flavor, so I was impressed by the sheer amount of options. Admittedly I was swayed by some of the names, so when I ordered my small mead flight (three samples), I went with Unicorn Blood, Mango Reaper and the more normal Strawberry. The Mango Reaper was my favorite by far. As its name implies, it had both a sweet and spicy edge and tasted an awful lot like a cocktail infused with ghost pepper. That's definitely one I'd get again. The Unicorn Blood was pretty tasty as well (on the fruitier side), but surprisingly the weak link was Strawberry, which I figured was the safest bet. For me at least, it tasted too much like cough syrup to be enjoyable. Also a cool touch - each flavor was labeled with a symbol (Norse I'm assuming, but I don't know for sure), and the flight had a cool feature with you could remove and attach the applicable symbol to the appropriate flight. I've had my share of wine flights before, but the optics on this particular one were very unique and innovative.

I don't have a lot of comps for this, but I think the small flight was around $10, possibly even less. Given that we were just hanging out for a while to get a nip, that seemed like a pretty reasonable price point. This was one of my favorite stops in Flagstaff, and certainly an establishment that set itself apart from the multitude of restaurants in the...

We absolutely loved everything about this place. The mead was delicious. The service was awesome and friendly. The decor is unique with a great atmosphere.

We sat next to a live motion hobbit looking screen and thought it was the coolest idea. Definitely made the experience better. Great idea whoever thought of that. There are plenty of decor items to look at while you're drinking their delicious mead.

We have had mead before from a number of different places and brands. This was right up there with taste and quality as the best. There are obviously different tastes for different palates, but they do a good job of describing what the flavors are when comparing the description to the actual taste. Very well done overall.

You can even order a mead horn full of mead and can take home the horn as a souvenir. Prices are reasonable and well worth it. We did flights, which are 6 meads for a full or 3 meads for a half flight. Our server even helped us with getting the best experience and bang for our buck with recommendations. He also gave us some history and explanation of their mead and their process.

We will definitely be returning...

This was my first time having mead and I gotta say the staff was super cool and gave me good descriptions of what they had to offer and how it's made. The atmosphere was inviting and other customers were very nice people as well. I ordered a full flight to try out some different flavors and found one I liked the most called 'Merica! I went ahead and ordered a horn, which held about 8 oz i think, ( they offer several sizes) and you get to keep the horn which is pretty cool. I didn't stay long but I really enjoyed the experience. I definitely recommend stopping by if you are in the area. I will go again for sure next time I come around. They also offer bottles of your favorites to take with you or you can mail order. Bottom line, if you want a cool place to chill and have a good time, the customers and staff are very cool and you will feel welcome. 5 stars! Oh I'd also like to add that while they do not serve food, they have a partner restaurant that will bring the food to you. On the descriptions of each mead, they offer suggestions for foods that pair well...