The Reunion Brewery in the ped mall in Iowa City is a newer addition to the downtown scene. It’s the second location of the Reunion Brewery, with the first location (which has been reviewed on this blog here) in Coralville. The local brewpub has been growing and slowly expanding their operations over the course of the past decade. The new location was built as a part of the massive renovation of the southwest corner of the ped mall that occurred over 14 months from Spring 2021 to the summer of 2022. Reunion took the place where the old Union bar used to be, an old staple of Iowa City. Instead of being a carbon copy of the original location, however, the owners wanted to have their downtown installation to have its own distinct atmosphere. They gave the new bar its own independent menu to the Coralville location, as well as having beers that would only be brewed and tapped in Iowa City. They made it a three-story brewpub with a patio, having a unique vibe planned for each level of the building, trying to give every type of customer their own space. The upstairs was designed for a college crowd, with quick food service and dance floor, the main floor was a more traditional restaurant layout with a large central bar with every in house beer on tap, and the lower floor was designed as a speakeasy. Since its opening, it has gained a reputation as a pure college bar – bouncers, cover charge, and all – that can get especially busy on weekends. I haven’t experienced the upper and lower floors, but the main floor maintains its intended vibe when it’s not at peak hours, and they brought in chefs that have continued the reputation that Reunion has for excellent food as well as great beer that they established at the original location in Coralville.  Another way that they keep company with their parent location is that they have a great whiskey selection as well, but as with the food and ambiance, the selection is unique to this location, as you’ll see described below.

WHISKEY SELECTION

Variety: Bourbon, Rye, Scotch, Irish, Canadian

Range: Above average. They have 24 bottles total, although not all are displayed behind the bar. There is quite the impressive selection of higher end bottles, even if not they are not fully “top shelf.” Blantons, in particular, stands out, as it is expensive and hard to come by in Iowa City. Additionally, they don’t scrape at the bottom of the barrel for their lower end bottles. Old Overholt is a quality option to have as your “low end” Rye, for example. This is also the second place I have been to in the city (the first being Shorts) that has a full line of Four Roses bottles to choose from. Reunion elevates this offering, however, by dropping the base Four Roses Bourbon and instead having a Small Batch Select in its place. They focus much more on Bourbon and Rye than their Coralville counterpart, but still have multiple selections for each type of whiskey besides Irish, where they simply stick to Jameson.

Price Point: There’s a wide range of prices on the bottles at Reunion. The cheaper pours will run you $7 and higher end bottles get into the upper teens, with bottles like Blantons and Macallan coming in at $19 a pour. Still a great price for those bottles in comparison to what you might find at other places, though, so definitely take advantage and have a nicer pour if you can stomach the extra ten dollars.

Wells: They currently have 5 Star for their well whiskey, but they will rotate brands depending on availability and price. A standard well shot is $5.

Best Bottle: While not truly breaking into anything I’d call top shelf, they have a fantastic selection of quality whiskey, particularly Bourbon and Rye, that you won’t find many places. These bottles include Angel’s Envy, Angel’s Envy Finished Rye, Four Roses Single Barrel, Four Roses Small Batch Select, Cedar Ridge Bourbon, Blantons, High West Double Rye, Buffalo Trace, Basil Hayden Dark Rye, and Macallan 12.

Grade: A-

Overall Thoughts: If it wasn’t for the price of the food, I would be walking over to Reunion after work for lunch quite often. The food is delicious and the atmosphere is open and bright. It’s especially chill during happy hour, since most of their traffic happens in the evening and at night. Plus, as I said above, the whiskey prices are great for the bottles that they have. A side note that is interesting to me is that in comparison to the Coralville location, the Iowa City location’s whiskey focus is much more on Bourbon and Rye, whereas the Scotch is more of the focus at the original. It’s a fun dichotomy between the two locations, giving you a choice in which location to go to if you are looking for a good selection of a certain kind of whiskey. The Iowa City Reunion is definitely a place to check out for whiskey if you are in the ped mall area in downtown.