Hopskeller Brewing Company — Restaurant in Waterloo

🍕🦇 Post-Cavern Cravings: Hopskeller Brewing Review 🏛️🍺

After spelunking through Illinois Caverns like amateur Indiana Joneses (minus the snakes, thank goodness), we rolled into Hopskeller Brewing Company absolutely famished and slightly dusty. The building? Straight-up cool. Brick, character, and that “you’re about to eat something awesome” vibe. The sign on the wall gave us the rundown: “Order your drink, order your food, find a seat.” Simple. Direct. Like a tavern quest with no side missions.

🎯 Mission accepted.

We hit the bar first—cold beer in hand within minutes. Their brew lineup is legit: house-crafted beauties, fan-favorite domestics, and a full liquor spread for the cocktail crowd. Basically, if you can’t find a drink here, you might be a camel.

Then came the pizza. Oh, the pizza. I went full flavor-commando with the Cut Across Shorty: honey bourbon BBQ sauce, smoked brisket, red onion, banana pepper, mozzarella AND goat cheese, finished with a drizzle of that sweet BBQ nectar. It was brick oven perfection—crispy edges, fresh toppings, and that slight bend at the tip of the slice that says, “I’m not floppy, I’m flexible.” 🍕💪

We posted up upstairs—TVs in every direction like a sports bar kaleidoscope. The wait for food was about an hour, but they warned us, and honestly? We were too busy sipping cold brews and watching games to care. It was like tailgating indoors with better lighting and zero windburn.

Hopskeller nailed the vibe: casual, tasty, and just quirky enough to feel like a local legend in the making. If you’re coming off a cave crawl or just craving a brisket-laced slice of heaven, this spot delivers.

📸 Cinematic pizza shot below

#HopskellerHero #PostCavePizza #CutAcrossShortyCravings #BeerMeBBQ #BrickOvenBliss #FoodieFuel #SaturdaySliceSessions...

We LOVED this place. It was our last stop of the night. After attempting to eat somewhere else in town (my husband ate elsewhere, I didn't because I didn't like the food) and me still being hungry we decided this was a great stop for a fresh pretzel and a fresh made wood fired pizza. Excellent choice on our part. Not only did we have a great conversation with some locals but we had a fabulous pizza and I drank some incredible brown ale. A special surprise was getting to sit outside and listen to a Bluegrass band. The only reason it doesn't get 5 stars from me - it would have been spectacular to have outside wait staff but more importantly there's a spot on the patio that has stagnant, odor filled muddy water. It caused a lot of people to move from the seating and leave it open because no one wanted to smell it all evening. But the pizza & pretzel were...

Updated review: Reducing from 5 star. Pizza quality has gone down and it’s different. We used to come to this place and loved the pizza, but today it didn’t seem that different from cheaper pizza places. The dough wasn’t cooked right. Was not crispy like it used to. It was chewy. Not sure if that’s due to the dough sitting out in the open and possibly had dried out. Definitely not worth $20. I am sorry for this updated review but wanted to be honest. It’s important to have consistent quality. Something has changed. We will give it another try in the future since it’s a local place and we want to support local. Other food items such as shrimp skewers are great! Beer is always great!

——- A year ago:

Great quality and variety of beer, outdoor seating and great staff! Need to promote and sell in STL and grocery stores if not doing it already. Huge...