Not every local micro brewpub carries a full bar, but both Reunion locations in the Iowa City area do. Not only that, but the food menu is robust and the food is excellent. If it wasn’t for gigantic brewing vats you can see through windows and the giant bar that almost divides the restaurant space in two, you’d probably mistake Reunion for a higher end restaurant with the quality and presentation of their food, and for good reason. Reunion was originally called Mondo’s, with several different attempted names over the years, including Mondo’s Tomato Pie, Mondo’s Sports Bar, and Mondo’s Draft House, which was its last name before undergoing the transformation into Reunion Brewery in 2016. So, the restaurant has always been there, and the menu maintains its roots in the old restaurant’s food selection as well. All this change happened under the same owner, Jim Mondanaro, who owns several Iowa City establishments and had wanted to open a brewery for some time. Since its opening, Reunion has grown substantially, opening a new off site warehouse brewing location that allows it to more easily mass produce and distribute its beer throughout the state and region as well as a second location in downtown Iowa City (which will be getting its own review soon) that has its own brewing capacity, too. Their beer is great and they do an awesome job of constantly collaborating with other local distilleries to create new experimental brews that can only be found on location. The food has also stayed top notch, with fantastic soups, tacos, and fresh pasta dishes. On top of serving great food and great beer, they also have a solid whiskey selection, which I’ll dig into now.

WHISKEY SELECTION

Variety: Bourbon, Rye, Scotch, Irish, Canadian

Range: Good. 35 Bottles. You can tell that the bar manager who buys their spirits appreciates whiskey, especially Bourbon and Scotch. They have two solid Rye options in Templeton and Rittenhouse. They have base Irish and Canadian whiskies in Jameson and Crown, respectively, but also are one of the few places I’ve seen have Redbreast as well. They have several solid selections for Bourbon, but their best selection is definitely Scotch. I want to especially highlight this selection, because while the bourbon selection is one you might find fairly commonly not only in Iowa City but across the country because of how Bourbon obsessed this country is, the Scotch selection goes above and beyond what most places would offer. For one, they have an entire shelf dedicated to their Scotch bottles, which make up over a third of their whiskey selection. They have multiple blended selections and actually represent all three of the biggest Scotch single malt regions, something you see almost nowhere else in Iowa City. One thing to note is that while most of their bottles are on display above the bars, some bottles are kept behind the bar due to higher use, so make sure to ask if they have the bottle you are looking for, even if you don’t see it displayed.

Price Point: The pricing is organized in a way that you can tell the general price of a pour just from where it sits. There are two shelves above the main bar in Reunion, one at either end. The shelf closest to the kitchen, which has all the Bourbon, Rye, Irish, and Crown, will generally run you $7-$10, while the Scotch shelf on the other side is $10 or above for almost all the bottles. Their most expensive pour was the Oban at $18, but the Oban is sadly no longer there and I’m not sure which whiskey has taken up the title of most expensive. However, I believe it would be under the $18 a pour that Oban sold for. 

Wells: They use 5 Star for bourbon and Dewars for Scotch. Both come in at $5 a shot.

Best Bottle: Their best bottle is probably the Redbreast 12, but they have several other bottles of note. For bourbon, they have both the local Cedar Ridge and High West Bourbon. On the Scotch side, they currently* have Highland Park 12, Balvenie Doublewood, Aberlour 12, Ardbeg 10, and Macallan 12.

Grade: A

Overall Thoughts: I might be slightly biased towards Reunion Brewery in general, as I am decent friends with some former bartenders and current brewers and go disc golfing occasionally with them. It doesn’t affect my rating of their whiskey selection, though, of which I was very impressed. I had never really bothered to look at their whiskey before since I was always looking at their newest beers, but it opened my eyes to an additional level of quality about the place. I love going there as the food is always exceptional, the bartenders are all friendly, and sometimes I get some insight into the new beers being brewed if the brewers happen to be around. It’s a spot that I wouldn’t just recommend for their whiskey.

Postscript: *I say “currently” because I learned that there has been a recent change in direction for the Scotch shelf, where I was told that the bar manager has several bottles that they don’t plan on replacing due to slow movement, so some of the more unique bottles won’t be there forever. I don’t know which bottles will stay and which will go, but it is definitely something to be aware of when using this particular blog to gauge their whiskey selection in the future.

As a further postscript thought, this is the first restaurant or bar that I’ve reviewed that isn’t located in Iowa City. Originally, I was going to include it on my list of best spots in Iowa City because it exists close enough to Iowa City that it is actually closer to downtown than some places I will be reviewing in the future. However, after thinking it over, I won’t be adding it to the list to make sure that the list is true to just Iowa City proper and isn’t confusing to future readers and people who had no knowledge of my original intention to include certain Coralville establishments that were close to Iowa City in my ultimate ranking for Iowa City. I have edited the Best Spots list post to clarify this point.