Your driver will call you the day or two before your tour to walk you through the day of your tour and to find out where your group wants to go. If you are doing your tour Sunday-Tuesday be sure to take a look at the bars hours on google to make sure they are open or have reduced hours. Rochester Beer Park is only open on Friday and Saturday during October, it closes after and reopens in May
You get to pick where you want to visit, if you are unsure your group wants to go then your driver will be happy to make a suggestion off your groups age, type of tour and if your tour is trying to get after it.
All the routes are fun, what differentiates them is that some routes have more options to pick between and the amount of pedaling involved. You get around 35 minutes in 2 bars. In the past groups had visited 3 bars but it was very rushed and with bars having fewer employees it is a better experience for your group and the bar staff to have the group have more time. It also means more time on the bike which is the funnest part of the tour
The shortest route is the East End Route which takes guests from the East and Alexander bars where you can pick one among Swan Dive, Daily Refresher, Fattey Beer Company, Bitoa, Old Toad, Locals Only, Murphys Law, Filgers, Recreo, Wall Street or Twisted Tap. You have a lot of choices to pick between! The 2nd area of the East End is where you have Temple and Salingers.
The Hybrid route takes you to Meigs and Park where you pick between Pourin Joy and Dead Red Pecker Pub and then head towards East and Alexander where you have Swan Dive, Daily Refresher, Bitoa,Twisted Tap , Murphys Law, RecReo, Filgers and Fattey Beer Company which allows you to bring in your own food. If your group is strong peddlers you can also go to Rochester Beer Park in the south wedge.
The downtown route is awesome because if you want your driver can give you some of the history tour information as you go bar hopping and you go do your group photos in front of some amazing murals. The bars on this route are a little more upscale. You have Bar Bantam on the groundfloor of the Chase Metropolitan building. You also have Tappas 177, St Paul Proper, Native Eatery and Sidebar to pick between. In the Strong Museum of Play neighborhood Fattey Beer Company just opened up and they let you bring in your own food. They are known for carrying many hard to find beers.
The South Wedge route features our most popular stop Rochester Beer Park (closes after Halloween and reopens after Memorial Day) and then you pick among Old Stone Tavern, Lux, Firehouse, Angelinas, Martine, Dickys and Playhouse as your second stop. Lux allows you to bring in your own food.
Hatties is a requested stop but because of weddings and limited capacity it is important to call ahead to find out if they will be open on the day of your tour and then to call again right before we pedal over to make sure they have room. If they have room the options for a 2nd stop include Pourin Joy or Dead Red Pecker Put or any of the East and Alexander Bars.
The Park Ave route is our longest route and also has some new bars to mention Pourin Joy and Dead Red Pecker Pub on Park Ave by Meigs, further down you have Half Pint and the furthest we go on Park is to Blu Wolf and Magpie.
The brewery route does not mean you have to go to 2 breweries, you can visit one brewery and a bar. It is your choice! The breweries that your group can visit during the tour are Genesse Brewhouse (make a reservation ahead of time) 3 Heads (which allows you to bring your own food inside) Iron Tug Brewing or 9 Spot Brewing which has moved into Geva Theatre. You can visit any combination of these two except from 3 Heads to Genny. Right next to where our tours begin and end is Strangebird Brewing and Nine Spot Brewing are which gives you 2 great breweries to visit before or after your tour. Fattey Beer Company in the new Strong Museum of Play neighborhood is not a brewery but a bottle shop with a huge selection of hard to find beers.
We DO NOT go up Monroe Avenue south past Alexander to those bars (Scotch House, O’Calls, Turcotts) due to traffic. Patronize them after your tour if you want to go there.
Our goal is to ensure you have a good time and want to do it again. That is why we try to get as much input from you about what your group so we can help you pick the route that is what your group is looking for. It’s not that any of our routes are too much pedaling (its not the Tour De France) but not all peddlers are created equal so we want to make sure we find a tour that appeals to you and your group. Sometimes we have groups ask us if they can do one bar instead of another which is fine as long as it keeps the route integrity in order. What that means is that all of our routes are giant circles which maximizes your time in the bars and also prevents a massive pedal back which would happen if you went to 2 bars which are progressively further from the start/end point. During the pre tour phone call that is the time to ask this and we will let you know if it works/doesn’t work and why.