In my quest for craft beer excitement, I went to Basquery which is Untappd verified and looked like it might have some interesting options. The online reviews were mostly favourable, but were a little mixed and I think there was a slight theme that the venue was slightly formulaic. This is not necessarily fatal. I am also quite formulaic, especially when overheated and in need of a beer.
They have a little bakery area just inside the entrance. It gives the whole place a comforting sense of purpose, even if I am mainly there to inspect the beer arrangements.
And a nice on-trend looking bar and it looked like it was arranged by someone who has strong opinions about exposed surfaces
The beer fridge with some interesting options.
The service was friendly and the team member found me a menu as I thought that some form of food might be a sensible idea. This was unusually mature of me, and I would like that noted.
The beer is the Peach Jam from Drunken Bros who are a brewery located on the outskirts of Bilbao and I’ll visit their taproom when I’m next in the city. The beer was peachy, thick and lightly sour. The burger was OK, nothing overly exciting, the meat was a little tasteless and the chips lacked seasoning as well, but it was sensible to have something filling. Not every meal has to be a transformative culinary moment I guess.
Overall, Basquery is a rather lovely venue and there has clearly been some money spent on the decor. The beer selection was interesting, the service was friendly and the whole arrangement felt comfortable and well run. It may be a little polished and perhaps slightly formulaic, but there are much worse problems for a craft beer venue to have. Hopefully more places like this will open in Bilbao over the next few years, preferably with good beer, friendly staff and chips that have been introduced to salt.