Review originally published on August 20, 2009. 

Downtown Loveland has a new restaurant at 124 E. 4th Street. The former Cipoletti’s restaurant is now the PourhouseBar & Grill.  Pourhouse opened yesterday, and I was there to check it out. 

The first noticeable difference is the outside of the building – it has been painted black. The inside has been altered only slightly.  Walls have been removed to create a more open, airy space.  It appears the owners are going for a modern twist on the English pub look. 

A brightly painted upright piano sits just inside the front door and black panels have been installed on the ceiling. The best part of the space at 124 E. 4th has always been the brightly lit bar area, and thankfully, it is little changed.

There are now four flat screen televisions, two in the bar and two in the restaurant.  However, Pourhouse will not have the Sunday Ticket during NFL season.

Happy hour runs 3 to 6 p.m. and features $3 beer and well drinks and $4 wine.  Normal hour beer prices are $3.75 for a pint and $5.25 for a monster mug.  They have a variety of Colorado beers from Lefthand Brewery (Longmont), Avery (Boulder) and Bristol (Colorado Springs), among others.

The restaurant has some obvious kinks to work out with staffing, but the bartender did his best to keep the patrons happy.  When I was finally assigned a waitress named Jenna, she was very nice and attentive.  It’s hard to be critical of these types of issues on opening night.

The menu is American featuring everything from hamburgers to pizza.  The entrees include steaks, ribs, chicken, and a selection of seafood, including salmon, ahi, and mahi mahi, withchoice of sauce.  Sandwiches and hamburgers range from $7 to $11, pizza and pasta, $8 to $11 and entrees start at $11 for the beer battered cod with fries.  There are quite a few vegetarian options throughout the menu.

One menu item that caught my eye was the Pizza of the Day for $10, which includes a $2 Beer of the Day.  I ordered “The Heartburn” to go. This is a meat-loaded 12″ pizza for $10, and it was a good deal. The pizzas are similar in style to the pizzas made by Cipoletti’s – with a flat crusty crust and fresh ingredients.

I will provide a more comprehensive review of the Pourhouse once I have a chance to eat a full meal in-house.  In the meantime, I think Pourhouse is an exciting addition to downtown Loveland, providing a venue for visiting with friends and listening to live music. So far, it looks like they are on the right track, though I think its going to take them a some time to find perfect pitch.

Post Update (October 1, 2009):

We have eaten at the Pourhouse at least five times since my first visit, so I decided to update the original post. I’m still not ready to give them an official review, because things are still in flux at the restaurant.

This Tuesday we stopped in for dinner. I ordered the falafel wrap ($7) and Ryan ordered the buffalo chili in a bread bowl ($8). Our waiter, who was also the bartender was very attentive and friendly all evening, even when the place got busy.

The chili doesn’t come with sour cream, chopped onions and cheese, but at Ryan’s request they brought all three with no upcharge. When the chili arrived he thought it looked like a small portion, but it really filled him up and he loved it. He will definitely order it again.

My falafel wrap, which I had ordered previously and enjoyed, was a real disappointment. They’ve changed it to a falafel pita (however, the menu still reads “wrap”). Everything about the meal was different, except for the hand-cut sweet potato fries, those were delicious. Instead of the falafel coming wrapped in a tortilla and drizzled with garlic sauce, four tiny overcooked falafel balls were laid out with some lettuce on a dry pita shell. They served it with a side of tzatziki that tasted mostly like mayo. Not impressed!

I informed our waitress of my surprise and disappointment. She said the kitchen had been changing up that particular dish for awhile and I told her to tell them to ”change it back!” 

Obviously things are still a little up in the air at the Pourhouse, but the staff is consistently friendly, and the food is usually very good, otherwise we wouldn’t keep going back.

There are a couple changes to note. They have installed an outside counter where, once they have their permits in place, you can drink your beer in the sunshine. Also, they’ve instituted a $5 happy hour food menu. Eight different appetizers are available for $5 from 3 to 6 p.m. daily (that’s every day folks, not just weekend). Also, on football Sunday, they run happy hour all day long and have ten wings for $5, which almost makes up for not having the NFL Sunday Ticket.