Bierport Tap Room — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

This place has so much potential: a nice bottle shop with a solid selection and decent draft list attached to a movie theater in the heart of Lawrenceville. Unfortunately, their prices are so beyond outrageous that you could never forgive yourself for buying a bottle. For example, a beer that is $50 a case (so about $2 a can) was being sold for EIGHT DOLLARS. A beer that is $10 a bottle at liberty beer (highly recommend beer store less than a mile away up the hill) is being sold for $15 at bierport. I would feel like an idiot paying for that.

The only upside is $2 off drafts for happy hour which brings them somewhat into the realm of reasonable. However, Caliente (also less than a mile away) which has equally crazy prices has a way better happy hour special and better taplist. Industry (1 block away) has the same happy hour deal, but lower to prices to start with and equally good if not better draft selection.

As you can tell, as much as I want to like this place due to their great bottle selection and location, they are out-competed by at least a handful of nearby bars and beer stores. If you want to find good bottles in the area, check liberty beer first. If it's happy hour, Caliente or industry. Any other time, head over the bridge to Grist House or...

I received fantastic service here! I don't know about craft beer and spent an hour and a half browsing everything, asking questions, and receiving advice. Because of this I enjoyed every beer that I bought. It is overpriced, but the selection is worth it and to me the extra money is worth the learning experience and the selection. I'll deffinitly be returning as often as my wallet will allow for that special occasion drink.

Overall I'd say this place is for those who want to try something new, buy 1 or 2 favorites, or know what they want and have had difficulty finding it in other shops. This isn't the place to go buy 6 of the same beer, or to buy beer to just get drunk, because you'll find yourself way overpaying for beer you could easily find elsewhere without utilizing any of the better features of this shop.

Perk #2 they also have a great curation of craft sodas, and several that Grandpa Joe's in the Strip District...

Stopped here to try and grab a quick 6 pack, and quickly realized it is not the place for that.

Most of the beer-to-go stock is upstairs, but none of it is chilled. Downstairs, there is a small room that apparently has a few taps and a couple of coolers, but the 12oz bottles are priced and sold individually. Also, the 12oz bottles were insanely overpriced. It would have easily been $20+ to build a six pack to go.

I'm not sure about the reviews here raving about the selection. I'm not from the area, but my local grocery store has a much larger selection of single beers to build a 6 pack at nearly half of what it would have cost here.

Maybe this place appeals to the locals (for some reason), but this is not a "stop to grab something to drink for tonight"...