THE REASON YOU GO TO AN ALE HOUSE IS FOR THE ALE

Hunter Gatherer Ale House and Pub
900 Main Street
Columbia SC
803-748-0540

Heavy shades block the afternoon sun from the large windows at the Hunter-Gatherer Alehouse

This restaurant is in a building that used to be an electric repair shop. Perhaps that explains the old lighting fixtures that were obviously recycled from a church sanctuary. The building is in need of a paint job on the outside. Much of the signage has been weathered away, so that at first glance one might mistake it for a derelict. The inside is not much better with bare brick walls and floor joists visible in the ceiling. The tables and chairs are a hodge-podge of flea market retreads. Featured prominently are the huge stainless steel kettles where they make the beer, accompanied by a maze of pipes and tubes that would make an oil refinery green with envy.

On the Friday night we were there, the place was packed, perhaps in part due to its recent spotlighting by Michael Feldman on his “Wha’d Ya Know?” show on public radio when he visited the city a few days earlier.

There was a sign that said “please seat yourself” but because of the layout of the place, with tables tucked away in dark and secluded areas, it was difficult to see all the tables, much less identify any empty ones. There were other people standing around drinking beer and I didn’t know if they were waiting as well or just passing time, so when I finally spotted the waitress wiping off a table in the back corner of the balcony I grabbed my wife and made a bee line for the spot, squeezing between the closely spaced tables on the ground floor with a flurry of ‘scuse me’s” and “pardon me’s’ until I made it to the back stairs.
The table was next to the pop off valve of one of the kettles making it difficult to concentrate on the menu, but I had a good view of the stuffed coyote over the door. The menu had more or less standard fare of pizza, sandwiches, some steaks and the perfunctory Penne Pasta. The prices were moderate and met my two for twenty rule, meaning that two people could eat for twenty dollars or less(minus drinks). I had the Penne, my wife indulged her pizza fetish. The penne came with a “marinara sauce”, which reminded me of a can of Hunts tomatoes with Italian seasoning but it had a pile of fresh parmesan on top. My wife’s pizza was smallish and a little soggy, but the Asiago cheese gave it a nice bite.

But the reason you go to an ale house is for the ale. I tried the stout, which I had heard good things about. The beer was smooth and not too hoppy. It had good authority and the nutty flavor was true to the bottom of the glass.

Diner rating 4