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4.90 (10 reviews)
Contact Information OUR ADDRESS
13102 NE 70th Pl
Kirkland, WA 98033

Phone Number
Call (425) 896-8320
Visit our website
http://thirstyhop.com/

Description

The craft beer world over the last few decades has grown large and varied, becoming more and more of a presence in the American psyche. The Pacific Northwest has long been a key region from which small, unique breweries have shone brightly as styles have been played with and appreciation for things other than the mass produced and marketed mega-maltless wonders that so saturate the nation. And Pacific Northwest beer enthusiasts have enjoyed relatively easy access to these world-class beers of wide renown by visiting the local breweries, brew pubs, and tap rooms to sample a flight, enjoy a pint, or fill a growler to go for pleasures in later moments.

With all of the growth and variety bursting out of the craft beer industry, it is impossible to experience it all. Bars and taverns offer a variety of alcoholic beverages, but all too often the selection of quality beers leaves something to be desired for craft beer lovers. Out of this desire to experience much of the craft beer world without the inconvenience of traveling from brewery to brewery, the craft beer bar was born.

The Seattle area boasts many craft beer venues and has become a mecca for craft beer lovers to delight in. However, localities west of Lake Washington have not experienced the same growth. The lack of uniquely specialized craft beer sources east of Lake Washington was recognized quite clearly by Nicole and Rachel and discussed as a business opportunity of love back in 2011. Together they began visiting events and places, comparing and contrasting preferences, building a business plan, accumulating and planning for start-up capital, along with contemplating locations.

In the summer of 2012 Nicole and Rachel encountered Steve and instantly connected over the mutual appreciation and love of craft beer. With a love of beer as a background, and amusement in the idea, Steve expressed interest as a potential investor when the time would arrive for the business to be made real.

In November of 2013 Nicole, Rachel, and Steve began working together in earnest to find a suitable location for their dream to be realized. A loving synergy was built through sharing the dream, tasting and talking about styles of beer, evaluating and planning what to serve, together visiting and engaging local breweries and craft beer events such that even the necessary interactions with lawyers to formalize the creation of Thirsty Hop was an enjoyable, fun period of time. In the next year, March 2014, Thirsty Hop was birthed for real as an LLC!

In May of 2014, the vacant space at 13102 NE 70th Place in the Bridle Trails neighborhood of Kirkland was discovered. Peeking through windows hazed with a light patina of aged dust and back splashed by sun-speckled glare, the exploring partners looked into a space with pleasingly industrial overtones and a lingering remnant of a long gone comfortable and welcoming environment. The location, too, was verging on the surprisingly perfect in an area woefully under-served by craft beer specialists. Nicole, Rachel, and Steve’s dream had become reality and Thirsty Hop opened its doors on December 31st, 2014.

 

Location

Kirkland, Washington
13102 NE 70th Pl

Rating

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Quality
4.90
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Users' reviews

5.00

Love this place!

They have a great selection of beers which they rotate weekly (current 9 taps are on their website). They also have an interesting selection of bottled beers for sale. You can bring your own food or have it delivered. Pagliacci is across the street and there's an amazing sushi place next door.The place used to be a Tully's Coffee and they kept the fireplace and atmosphere. So comfortable! I've been going here about a year now. The bartenders have always been really friendly (like Texas friendly)!

5.00

Mmmm beeeeerrr!!!

Mmmm beeeeerrr. Great beer selection in the fridges, and on tap they actually had a few Bend, OR breweries represented!

5.00

Yeah, Love this place!

Give me a skirt and pom-poms, because I am all about cheering for Thirsty Hop. List of reasons: * It's like going to Starbucks and finding out they only pour beer. Great vibe, upscale, free internet (shockingly, the password is 'beer') and nobody making a bunch of noise. * ~20 taps going, although they do waste a couple on root beer and cider. There are usually 4-5 IPAs on tap and 3-4 dark beers, which is where I tend to stay.

* Service is awesome. Rachel and Nicole actually understand what table service is and bring water and a napkin out with your drink. Yeah, I get that's small, but that's the kind of stuff that makes this place better than the 10 other competitors. * Happy hour is 10% off. I'm generally only/always in there from 4-6; it's a free discount! * Bottles in the fridge - because some times, it's better just to take beer home with you, too :DFinally, I'm addicted to the bagged truffle popcorn. Love this place and am selfishly upset that they were rated Best of 425.

5.00

Wonderful

Been coming here since they opened. Trivia Wednesdays. Great restraints close by. Wonderful owners. It's a win

5.00

Great service!

I went to Thirsty Hop last night before going bowling across the street. What a great chill place with a nice selection of beers and ciders! They have taps as well as multiple fridges with bottles you can drink there or take to go. Staff were friendly and attentive, recommending certain choices and suggesting I check out their refrigerators as well. I got a bottle of cider, which they poured for me in a glass. When it started to get low, the bartender would come over and fill it up for me with what was left in the bottle. Great service! They have a huge selection of board games you can pick up and play. We sat at the bar, which was nice, but there are also couches and other tables as well for patrons. I could definitely see myself coming back here, especially to catch up with a friend or to watch sports on their nice TVs. All in all a great experience from start to finish!

5.00

Fun place!))

Fun place to get a local microbrew on tap. They only serve packages of snacks, so you either can order delivery or bring food in to eat. There is limited seating, though, so groups of more than 4 should plan ahead. There are a few board games and a nice fireplace that give this place an even more inviting feel.

5.00

Thirsty Hop is fantastic!!

Microsoft Prime: 2015 Hits the spot Ambience: 4 Food: (5) Drinks: 4 Value: 5 Thirsty Hop is fantastic!! With that out of the way, let's dig into the details. It is basically the Malt and Vine of Kirkland, with a couple of differences. It is located in a non-descript strip mall in Kirkland (east of the 405) across from TechCity Bowling (just like M&V), however, the inside is lovely. It's got sofas around a fireplace, some nice high seat long tables, and a really elegant and clean bar. It is much much better than the simple and draconian indoor seating of M&V; on the flip side M&V has outdoor seating. Win: Thirsty Hop, most of the year. Outdoor seating is awesome for a couple of months during the year (during which, M&V is great, rest of the year... you want a nice indoor setting). Thirsty Hop serves a large selection of local beers on tap; many of which you can also get a growler fill. There's several coolers of beers with you can buy to take home or to 'open' and drink at the bar. The arrangement is pretty much exact like M&V. (If you really really want it, there's also some wine). The differences are that M&V serves many foreign brews, whereas TH is mostly local. M&V's selection is bigger, but TH isn't shabby by any means. But... none of those things really matter, because, most importantly, TH is on Prime, you get 20% your beer! And there's happy hour daily, which stacks with Prime! (You better get on this fast, cuz they've already realized that it's nuts and will discontinue Prime Card in a couple of months) Win: Thirsty Hop.

While neither place has food, their 'food next door' selections are both pretty awesome and tough to compare. If you love your Korean fried chicken... M&V and Stone are a must try combo. However, Thirsty Hop has one of the BEST east side sushi places for its 'next door'. The food is authentic, delicious, well-portioned, and inexpensive. It blows the likes of BlueC and KiKu out of the water, and is even better than Ginza and I Love Sushi. They will come to the restaurant to deliver your food. Win Win Win What does it for us are the sport and TV: 1) Thirsty Hop (and its owner Rachel, who is very cool) actually bothered to have nice big TVs (the TV at M&V is pathetic) with the entire sports package. You can pick up your Mariners and the NBA playoffs there. Plus if no one objects, (and since Rachel is the owner) she'll put on the sound for you, which is totally awesome. It's quickly become out go-to spot. Thirsty Hop is fantastic, I'm tempted not to write about it so people won't swamp it. But Rachel is great and their awesome establishment deserves great props

5.00

Cool!

Ok so it's not often I post any sort of follow up review but l just saw "Cellar H's" review from April 3, 2015. I was the "regular" sitting next to him that he mentions. I agree his first beer was a bad choice. It smelled like bandaids. But to be clear it was a bottle he picked from their extensive collection and not something from the tap. And yes, I did comment to him that that was the first time I've ever seen someone shut down at a bar. It did seem like they were on a pub crawl and the Thirsty Hop was clearly not their first stop. I'm a huge fan of this place. Rachel and the other two owners have brought a much needed community building spot into our neighborhood. I felt they handled the situation with grace and were super cool. That is never fun for a bartender. Brian if you ever decide to come back I'll buy the first round because your stories and knowledge of beer were great for conversation. Just a reminder too that it's easy to use yelp to snipe at someone but pretty lame too. You gave me your card and I could post all that info but I won't because I'm pretty sure you are cool and would love to sit by you again. Just next time start don't end your pub crawl here.

5.00

Definitely coming back here again.

I have been waiting since the summer until they opened because I got a coupon for a free growler fill with the purchase of a pint, and it was coming up on the expiration date. I actually came here twice in one day, yelp said they open at 11 on Tuesdays, and as I arrived at 11am on a Tuesday, I was quickly made aware of that they weren't, as they were closed and their door stated they opened at 1pm. So I went to work out, and then came back around that time. I was the only one there for a good 20 minutes, and then more people started rolling in. It was a cute place, I don't think it's as small as some people claim it is. However, I'm not sure how the parking would end up on a busy night, doesn't seem like there is much. There is a wall full of refrigerated bottled beers, didn't bother to look at them. The bartender was just opening up, so the tap list wasn't entirely up yet. There weren't that many brews available for growlers today, mainly because many of them were seasonal and for valentine's day. She was really helpful and nice, and I tried a selection of beers before I decided on my pint of Naked City- Charlies' Golden Ticket, which tasted just like a chocolate bar.And I ended up getting the Snipes Mountain- Dos Borrachos Lager, which was delicious when I sampled it. The beers they had on tap today were all from the west coast, so I don't know if that's their thing, or just a coincidence. You can order food from nearby restaurants that will deliver here, and they have menus to order from, just in case. They also have some small bar snacks for purchase...popcorn, chips..etc. Definitely coming back here again. They seem to rotate their beers often, so looking forward to trying some new beers

4.00

If you're a beer nerd you probably need to stop here))

It's a bottle shop and a pub, but mostly a pub. There are about twenty tap handles but only four doors worth of refrigerated bottle storage. They also have Rogue Root Beer as a non-alcoholic beverage on tap. Any of the bottles can be purchased for 'take-out' but you can also buy them for 'dining in'. Maybe I haven't stayed up-to-date on corkage fees for beer, but I was sort of surprised to see theirs. If you're buying a six-dollar beer the fee is $1. For a nine dollar beer you'll pay $2. A twelve dollar beer will set you back $3 in corkage. Seeing that, I thought "Good they're not selling wine. Not sure I could afford the corkage on a $50 wine." On the plus side, the service was exceeding good, and friendly. And all I had to do was ask a question about one of the beers on tap and a sample magically appeared. You can also order meals from the sandwich shop next door and have them delivered to you at the bar. (Shades of Duck Island/Beth's!) You can also order from the pizza place across the street, or anyone else who will deliver to Thirsty Hop. This frees them up from the need to have a kitchen, and frees you up to order from wherever. They do have some of the standard bar snacks. If you're a beer nerd you probably need to stop here. These folks appreciate beer and do their best to have worthy tap handles for you. Despite having a largeish sign, I drove past the place the first time when I was coming from the west. They're on the northwest corner of 132nd Avenue NE & NE/70th/Old Redmond Road, almost directly across from TechCity Bowl.