The Freakin' Frog  

We went to Las Vegas for Martin Luther King weekend. No good photos really, but we visited a great beer bar in town. **Updated** Here's a camera phone picture I forgot about.

Here was my Beer Advocate review:

Not exactly The Strip experience. The Freakin’ Frog, across the street from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas is, however, a rather terrific beer bar. Housed in an ugly, window-free space in a run-down strip mall, the interior is dingy and extremely dark, lit mostly by big screen TVs and a large projector screen. The seating areas and stage are likewise sparse. There is really only one good reason to go to the Frog, and that’s for their extensive list of beers: twelve taps by my count, and an extensive list of imported and craft beers housed in a three-ring binder.

The taps ranged from Pabst Blue Ribbon to Chimay White, while the bottled list can take you from Mickey’s Malt Liquor up through several Belgians that will put you back $30 or more. Editorially, it is frustrating to find a beer that you would really enjoy trying but find that it’s price is listed as RESERVE. Others have insinuated that the pricing for reserve beers is arbitrary; while I could see that being true for Westvleteran, I asked about Rochefort 10 and my bartender looked it up on his register.

The prices reflect a significant mark-up over a beer store, understandable given that maintaining that selection is difficult, time-consuming, and under-appreciated by most of their college crowd. On that note, the bar was mostly empty, with a few congregated around the bar and two booths filled. We had no food.

I enjoyed a Delirium Tremens, followed by Chimay White from the tap, switched to a bottled Tripel Karmeliet, and back to the keg for a Sierra Nevada Anniversary. All were served in appropriate glassware (Delirium and Chimay in brewery glass) at a proper temperature by a knowledgeable and friendly tender, who also put up with my requests to check on this or that RESERVE beer.

The Freakin' Frog can be perused online at www.freakinfrog.com/