Lake Monster Brewing Company — Restaurant in Saint Paul

My girlfriend and I spent an afternoon here trying to escape the blistering sun. We are huge fans of craft beer and have had Lake Monster cans in the past in our home town.

First impressions: we loved how open the space feels. It's housed in a section of old warehouse so they have increbly high ceilings and wide open expanses. There are almost no physical barrier except to separate the brewing area from the serving/sitting area. The space is filled with wood and steel industrial furniture, with a mix of vintage pieces from Goodwill. Tons of seating as well as an outdoor patio. Some really cool artwork/murals adorn the walls. As well as a handful of TV's.

They have a handful of board games as well as cornhole boards for entertainment.

The beer was fantastic. We tried a few off their menu and were pleased with the selection as well as the incredibly friendly servers. They offer varrying styles of beer, including one on nitro.

There is no food servered, however, they update their website/Facebook with a rotating schedule of food trucks that park at the property. This is a really unique approach to food service! Downside, what you want may not be available that day, and cash is king ( I rarely carry cash, and most trucks DO accept cards).

The only other issue I had was bathroom location. You have to exit through an internal door, find you way to the bathroom, then try to remember which door you came through. At one point, the door to Lakemonster got locked by mistake, locking my gf out of the building for several minutes. I would love to see dedicated facilities in the future.

Overall, highly recommend! This is more like a 4.5 star review, as there caveats are minor, but doesn't quite hit...

My wife and I have always enjoyed Lake Monster’s beer, and we love visiting the taproom whenever we get the chance. Recently, we decided to host our wedding rehearsal dinner at Lake Monster since it’s right down the hall from our wedding venue (PAIKKA) in the Vandalia Tower building. We ended up in the area back by the brewing tanks, which was the perfect semi-private space for our group size (~30 people), plus we were able to conveniently set out our catered food on the perimeter bar. The folks at Lake Monster are often very busy, but are some of the nicest people you’ll meet – especially Matt, who handled scheduling our event. On the day of the rehearsal, we were able to have one of our relatives set up the food ahead of time at the brewery without any issues. When we arrived from the rehearsal, the bar staff gave us a roll of drink tickets for our guests to use at the bar. This was a great system because we could easily control the number of comped drinks we handed out and then pay for everything on one card at the end of the night. If you’re having your wedding at PAIKKA like we did, you won’t regret having your rehearsal dinner at...

I used to really love this place, and patronized it rather frequently. It’s a great space and they have decent beer. However, the last two times we’ve come here, my wife and I were completely unable to get service while sitting at the bar. Both times we waited quietly and patiently while the bartenders helped the people in the order line, and then watched them serve others at the bar who arrived after us, then subsequently went to wash glassware because no one was in line. On both occasions, it was not very busy and we waited 15 minutes before just getting up and leaving. The bartenders seemed to be actively looking through us (same two bartenders on both occasions). We instead went to Dual Citizen nearby and had great service and solid beer - later,...