Historic Brewing Barrel House - Williams — Restaurant in Williams

Wifey and I went to this place this past Monday evening, after doing a day long hike on the Grand View Trail in Grand Canyon National Park.

FYI there are two other Historic Brewing Locations in Flagstaff where customers can also enjoy their craft. They have a tasting room in downtown Flagstaff, which the service there can be spotty sometimes. This is probably because many of their workers are most likely mainly college students who work there a few months then leave. The other location is their brewing location, which is on the east side of Flagstaff, in an industrial/business area near the mall and Country Club I-40 Over Pass (but on the other side of the train tracks, so don’t head directly to the mall). While the seating is limited here, the customer service here is usually above and beyond the avg of Flagstaff. Also, when the outdoor seating is open, there is a nice view of Mt. Elden.

So this location (the Historic Brewery in Williams) is in my opinion, the nicest out of all three and where we have had the best customer service out of all three. On this day we visited, we had to go up to the counter to order our food and beer, due to COVID-19 precautions (we actually liked ordering our food and beer at the front though as we didn’t have to wait for a waiter or waitress, but then again the place was not very packed this past Monday). We ordered some pasta dishes, I got the Alfredo Pasta and my wife got the Lasagna dish, which both are made in the Bistro place next door. Our dishes were exactly what we needed after a hard hike in the Grand Canyon, very filling and tasty, although the Lasagna seemed to be lightly seasoned. And the level of customer service we got from the lady who was bartending on this day was the best we’ve ever had at any Historic Brewing place (and we’ve probably visited the other two locations about 50 times total).

The decor and atmosphere here is very rustic and historic, just like their namesake. The beers are also very delicious, especially their Bear Arms Stout. They use to make some great sour beers, which we thought was one of their strong points (especially the dark sours) but we haven’t seen many sour beers here lately. My wife loves their Ocean Front Property and Salt River beers right now for the summer. Some other good selections is their Vanilla Porter and Opposable IPA.

During our time here, the bartender lady checked up on us regularly, asked us how our food was, and overall, was just very polite and cordial. Like I said, the best service we’ve gotten from any Historic Location.

The pros here is the atmosphere and decor, beer list, food, wine choices, location, outdoor seating, and the customer service.

The only suggestions for this place I have would be to have some more cushioned seats that recline a little more and to have some more dark sour beer selections. I know the benches here are cushioned but the back seats to them are very upright and stiff, which makes it difficult for people with back pain to be comfortable.

If we lived in Williams, my wife and I would definitely be frequenting this spot once or twice a week. But since we live in Flagstaff, we usually go to their Brewing and Canning location on the east side.

Thank you Historic Brewing in Williams for the great customer service and time my wife and I got to recharge here. And thank you to the bartender lady who made our visit here very special and one to...

Williams is known as the last town on Rte 66 to be bypassed, and so my family dropped by along our road trip. After riding the zip line, visiting the "Poozeum" and browsing for souvenirs, we sought a place to eat and drink and found Historic Brewing. Does it deserve its name as much as the town does?

As you enter, you take a menu, wait on line and order both food and drinks at the bar. The bar guy will take your order and give you a number for your table. If you want to keep your tab open and order more drinks later, you can bypass the line and go straight to the bar guy.

The atmosphere at Historic is rustic cool. Lots of seating within and picnic tables with umbrellas outside. Kill some time waiting for your food by playing a couple of old-timey arcade games, skeeball for $1 and and a wild west shooting game with an infrared rifle and targets for $2.

I gave my family the choice of what kind of wood-fired pizza to order. They ordered the BBQ Pork Pizza (BBQ sauce, mozzarella, pulled pork, onions, pineapple, cilantro). It definitely wasn't my first choice because I'm not crazy about the idea of pineapple on pizza, but parenthood is about sacrifice, right? I would have preferred The Hog (tomato sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, Italian sausage, salami).

However, when I tried it, the sweet and savory ingredients worked REALLY well together. In fact, I think it was the touch of cilantro that pulled it all together. I can't believe I'm writing this, but I recommend it! The crust was amazing: thinnish, slightly chewy and just the right amount of crisp char. I later find out from the bar guy that they import their flour for the dough from ITALY and is 99% gluten free. We did find ourselves waiting for about 25 minutes for our pizza, but I kind of don't blame them as they were pretty busy that afternoon.

As for drinks, I had a pour of the Prickly Pear Cider (6.3%) and the Mango Waves of Grain (wheat beer, ?%). The sangria-tinted cider was delicious, fruity and easy to drink -very dangerous! The Mango was great too: slightly hoppy in the beginning, then BAM, the mango hits you at the end. My wife who doesn't usually drink beer took a sip and liked it very much. I highly recommend both refreshing libations. I believe the Blue & Gold (IPA, 7%) is their signature drink as the Blue & Gold logo is on much of their merch. I didn't get to taste it so hopefully I'll get to next time.

Speaking of merch, I did buy a cool T-shirt that I saw a server wearing. See my pics for the shirt. As a homebrewer, I appreciated it.

Sit outside long enough on a sunny evening and part of 2nd Street will be blocked off for some cowboy comedy theater. Plug your little kids' ears because their six-shooters sound real! Have your kids drop a dollar in their strong box at the end.

I don't have anything bad to say about Historic Brewing. The food is delicious as are its drinks. Staff were friendly and chatty, the atmosphere was nice with copious amounts of comfortable seating and tables for you and family. High marks all around - don't hesitate to visit Historic Brewing when tooling around...

I’m giving this a three for the courtesy of the employees mostly. We had looked up the menu beforehand while driving there and had discussed getting the burger and pretzels and maybe pizza. Upon arrival, they were serving “a limited menu for the Labor Day holiday weekend” and just didn’t even have these items in the location to be made and served. We ended up ordering a supreme pizza and the southwest nachos. Our entire table got their four entrees and our two were not brought out. I had to go to the expeditor to ask about our food and they said the printer wasn’t working and didn’t print the full ticket but that they’d make out stuff right away. No big deal. That’s fine. However, when our food arrived, the nachos were literally just pork rinds with hardly any of the “toppings” and it was $13 so we took it back and asked for a refund because it was just not up to any sort of standards. Hardly any cheese, beans, pico, queso. Not worth $13 for pork rinds. The kind person Brian took it off and comped our drinks which is why they’re getting a three because that’s excellent customer service. I don’t see why so many reviews are complaining about the service. We did keep the pizza and ate it because we were hungry but it wasn’t anything to write home about. Also, it’s called “historic” but the sign in the bathroom for Oktoberfest said they’re celebrating nine years so I don’t quite see how historic that is but whatever. It was a nice place for after a long hike and our party enjoyed their beers and the pulled pork sandwiches and fries. Brian was great. The blonde expeditor lady was great. And the employee with the long hair and four chihuahuas was also great. I didn’t catch their names but they were attentive and available so they...