Paul S’s Beer Club UYE at The Depot Craft Brewery Distillery

I remember when I first started attending Unilocal events, my dad was worried that I was turning into an alcoholic… oh boy, can’t wait ’til he hears about my Beer Club adventures! LOL!
This is the second time I’ve showed up to the Beer Club without clicking «I’m in» on the event page. I’m glad I decided to show up though because this turned out to be a really cool event. How often do you get to tour a brewery and dine at a state and national historic building? Guessing not a lot. I don’t even remember the last time I was at a registered historic place.
The dinner menu is on the pricey side and silly me has been craving seafood for awhile. Being a SoCal transplant, what I really missed most was the early morning fresh seafood buying at the piers and dining out at the port. The Depot boasts of local and seasonal ingredients so my immediate questions was «where exactly does local seafood comes from?» Our server didn’t know and I’m not going to fault her for it ’cause she did offer to find out for me. I went ahead and got the Cioppino along with a tasting flight of their light brews. Nowhere on the menu does it say that the Cioppino will be on a spicy tomato broth. It had a little too much kick for me and perhaps I was expecting more for a $ 30 dish… then I had to remind myself, well you are not in SoCal anymore!
As for the brews, I ended up sharing it with Paul and Robert since I didn’t really wanna drink all of it. I just really wanted to sample and oddly liked what they didn’t so as the saying goes, «more for me!»
I think the best part was the tour. The building is beautiful and I just love how they tried to maintain it for the most part and added their own touch.
Thanks for organizing Paul! Looking forward to crashing the next one ;)

Though I made it for just an hour or so, it was great to see everyone after a 3 week absence and, of course, sample The Depot’s beer.
Paul did a great job in securing a table in my favorite room, the one with the huge wallpaper showing a map of the area from back in the day.
As for the beer, I had their IPA and sampled their American Ale and Sour Wheat (can’t remember their names). They are clearly playing it safe with their styles, as the flavors seemed pretty standard… Ok, maybe the sour wheat was a bit more adventurous, but it still tasted like a typical sour.
I sampled one of their cocktails, the Negroni one, thanks to Dale. Would definitely order it next time.
Food-​wise, I didn’t have anything to eat, but managed to try some of Ly’s sweet potato fries. The burger looked pretty solid as well as the sliders.
Not a perfect rating just based on their beer selection.
Looking forward to the next one :)

February 10, 2015 Tuesday — 5:30 PM drinks and food
15 Adults and 1 child
Atmosphere — 5 stars
Food — 5 stars
Service — 5 stars
Background — Another UYE Beer Club event at the hottest and newest brewery in Reno!
Atmosphere — Simply amazing! This is a historic building, proven by the fact it is on both the Nevada and National historical building registry. We sat in the old office right behind the hostess station. The room was amazing, and Justin explained how they used the UNR archive to find the map they used on the wall. They cleaned it up and had a Chicago based company create the wallpaper. Justin was our host tonight and provided us a tour after we finished dinner. Since he is one of the owners he has a lot of insight into the place. He was able to show us the little details like the stair case, the right side is the original banister post on the right and the left was recreated by a local craftsman, sorry I am not good with names. We even got the tour of an old office which is now the rest rooms on the first floor. They have the original railroad safe in the men’s room. How often to you tour a bathroom LOL. Then the good stuff, the behind the scenes tour the distillery. Impressive is all I can say.
Food
Drinks — With a little help of Rain & Robert I was able to try all their beers. Excellent
Dinner — My wife and I order three appetizers for dinner to share. Cheese and Kale dip, sweet potato fries and for me the duck sliders. I got one pita bread slice for the dip, it was gone before I knew it. Maybe I was talking too much. That never happens. Or I was stuffing my face with the amazing duck slides, which I was not sharing and she knew it. I want more. But three little sliders for me was a great meal in itself.
Service — I like to thank our waitresses who worked hard for us, Nikki and Madison. Of course a very huge thanks to Justin for being great host and spending time with us and answering all of our questions.
Future — YES yes yes! This is amazing building, amazing food and amazing drinks. It is all about the small details and executing them, and they do it!

Paul defines the UYE! Well organized, great locations, and locally owned.
Tonight was no different. We walk in, talk for a bit, and are ushered into a room with a table set for 20 Unilocalers. The big thing about this room was the HUGE blown up historical blueprint on one of the walls. It showed how The Depot was built in 1910 to serve as the headquarters for the Nevada-​California-​Oregon Railway. Originating in Reno, the railway served many locales along the 238 mile stretch to Lakeview, OR.
The drinks & beer were amazing! I started with a Negroni (dangerously good) and got Erica a Morning Line (she loved it). Then on to the IPA (citrusy with a bit of hop finish). We looked at the menu and decided on the fried chicken special (not a fan — the breading was uninspired/​bland and the chicken was not hot) w/​fries and then a side of the brussel sprouts (not overcooked but needed seasoning).
The conversation flowed and then Justin came in to take us on a tour. Amazing! The history, architecture, attention to detail, safe in the bathroom, brewery, and the list goes on.
The only area that may be a challenge for the are the prices for some of the main courses. ($ 24-​$ 30 for half of the menu). But they may have combated that with the snacks menu. Time will tell.
On the way home, the wife and I agreed that it would be an excellent place to go for a drink and a quick bite before an Aces game. I’m sure we’ll be back and we have Paul to thank for introducing us to another Reno treasure. Thanks Paul! Now where are we off to next?!

I have no other UYE events to compare against Paul’s beer events.
What can I say. I’ve been to three of them and each one I get to meet other Unilocalers, get to enjoy food at places I may not ordinarily go to and ultimately try some awesome beers!
Paul appears to do everything by the book and I’m sure that even Unilocal officials couldn’t find fault with his pre-​planning, organizing and officiating the event.
The general feeling that I’ve experienced is being welcomed and being part of the group. In addition, Paul tries to have a tour of the facilities for the attending Unilocalers!
I tip my hat to a job well done!
Bottom LIne
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Heck ya, I will continue to attend Paul’s events when I can and because of his events, I will attempt to go to other Unilocal events!

Another AWESOME Beer Club UYE. Thanks Paul! This was the first time I had been to the Depot. My beverage of choice tonight was a Fever Tree Ginger Beer. Not really a beer but yummy none the less. It was extremely refreshing with a sharp, crisp ginger flavor. My hubby and I shared a few appetizers: the sweet potato fries and the artichoke and kale cheese dip. The fries were good — normal sweet potato fries, but the BBQ dipping sauce was a very nice treat. The artichoke and kale dip was outstanding! You get a normal appetizer size serving with pita bread toast points and in all honesty I wanted to eat an entire bucket of this dip it was so good. After dinner we were given a tour of the building and the brewery/​distillery areas. This building has been so magnificently remodeled. It was interesting to see the original items that were kept in the building. I am looking forward to returning here again — for some artichoke kale cheese dip! :)

Bwahahahahaha!!! Paul is awesome. These events are awesome!!! My review is NOT awesome. Here is my example of a crappy review.