Sage Bird — Restaurant in Harrisonburg

I LOVE THIS PLACE. We were looking forward to it opening for months with all the pre-publicity and I was afraid that we would have hyped it up too much in our minds that we would end up disappointed, but no! Zach’s cider is delicious and varied with reliable standards and frequent fresh, unique offerings. The bartenders are all lovely, friendly women. The decor, featuring Amberlee’s beautiful artwork, is incredibly soothing, especially with the recent addition of winter greenery and lights. Their music playlists almost always set the perfect mood. GiddyUp courier delivers a lot of downtown food here, and the bartenders kindly provide us eating utensils when the restaurants forget. And in addition to all these things, Sage Bird has done a great job with distancing and sanitizing and other precautions of the COVID era. In short, this is OUR PLACE. We visit at least every other week, and it is such a wonderful place to hang out as comfortably as if you were in your own living room with all your friends. I cannot recommend it...

Today (3-11-21) was my first visit to Sage Bird. They've made the most of the space they had to build, with outdoor seating behind the building (currently with geodesic tents with tables following Covid-19 protocols) and the main room opens up to the outside via garage doors, perfect for beautiful days, which today happened to be. Not much parking on the premises, but plenty of adjacent street parking. Really enjoyed the ciders here, and there's a wide range to suit most every palette, including non-alcholic ciders. That said, you might find a cidery to be serve a slightly different clientele than some of the local breweries (with some overlap). I had a flight which included the Sauce's Envy, the Sweet Shenandoah, Brandied Cherry (my favorite of the four) and the VA Hewes Crab. Tasting notes can be found on Sage Bird's website. I think the place needs to have time to settle in post-Covid to develop a bit more character, but this is a...

Sage Bird Ciderworks is a tremendous cidery and one that I highly recommend visiting if you are in Harrisonburg. I have been to a few cideries in the region, Big Fish, Angry Orchard, and Old Hill. But Sage Bird has easily become my favorite. For it's diversity in options, affordable drinks, and excellent food offered by Outskirts. Summer, an employee at Outskirts, made excellent recommendations on the food they provide (their loaded fries were awesome), drinks that would accompany the food, as well as helping us figure out the subscription plans offered by Sage Bird. The terrific drinking experience, as well as the exceptional service by employees that made our experience at Sage a great one. I fully intend to come by Sage as often as I visit the Valley.

And I deeply appreciate Sage Brid's efforts to highlight the region as a whole and it's efforts to locally source...