Big Top Live — Restaurant in Sarasota

This was a very hard to find brewery in a more industrial area. I had no complaints with the beers and the selection. The beer I had was extremely good, probably one of the best I have ever tasted. In addition, the bartenders were very helpful and friendly.

My overall complaint was with the atmosphere. The interior is a very small, dark room with no windows (not that there is much to see from the windows in this part of town). I sat at the bar but felt extremely uncomfortable as people were continuously crowding around me to get served and credit cards and cash were being handed around me. I took a quick trip to the patio thinking it might be a better situation, but the close proximity to the roaring traffic of I75 and the noisy generator on a catering truck, created a situation that was not very relaxing.

Also, the brewery provided stand-up comedy as entertainment, which I thought to be a nice change of pace. However, when the comedy became a little raunchy and I noticed small children in the place, I became extremely uncomfortable with the onslaught of vagina and penis jokes. I am not against that kind of humor, I just think it was in incredibly bad taste with the kids there. I think it proves, as a business, that you can't be everything to everyone. Needless to say, I drank my fabulous beer rather quickly and left.

My rating is for the beer alone because it really...

Got to try my second brewery in Sarasota - and this one was big...

As the part of the name of this brewery goes - Big Top is big - meaning, it's got a lot of seating area it offers, mostly outside, but with a decent amount in. I arrived here on a non-descript Monday afternoon - it was quite, subdued and not well traveled. I sadly did not have all the time to spend there that I would have liked, but still felt I got a decent sense of the place from a vibe, service, and their beers.

From the place itself - it is big - with the greatest amount of outdoor seating of any brewery I have been too - it was frankly impressive. They had outdoor seating exposed to the elements - which on a clear night would go over well. There's a decent amount under roof, and some more inside for those needing A/C. Their beers are all good, no complaints there. On this day, their lager tasted exceptionally malty - very, very solid. Service was a bit slow as there was one bartender to take care of inside and outside customers - a bit strange - but it was a lazy Monday afternoon, so who am I to say? Anyway, I can only imagine how hopping this place is on a weekday evening or even more so on a weekend. Gotta come back sometime to...

Very unimpressive brewery and probably the most disappointing place I visited on vacation in 2021.

Dark, loud, uninviting taproom. Half of the tables had "reserved" signs on them, forcing my party back to an even darker, less inviting corner. A couple of those parties never appeared. One 6-person table had a single-person at it the entire evening.

You have to order everything at the bar, but there's no designated place to order. Every time anyone wants food or a beer, you're forced to lean over bar patrons.

My tacos (Tuesday night special) were very good - carnitas and all the toppings... but my beers were underwhelming: a good-but-nothing-special Belgian wit and the "Magical Rainbow Unicorn Sour Grapefruit IPA" which did not taste sour, like grapefruit, or like an IPA.

Tuesday night trivia was horrendous - perhaps the worst I have ever played. Everything was gimmicky - forcing you to guess which questions would be tough or easy, wagering different amounts of points on every question, and forcing players to walk across the taproom and hand in a different sheet of paper with every answer, not to mention a "winner take all," "Final Jeopardy"-style question that was basically just luck. ...