Half Barrel delivers full-on good times

I've been a frequenter of Half Barrel for years, and every time I go I enjoy it a little bit more.

When a college friend of mine came back into town after living a year abroad, I wanted to dive into the Knoxville nightlife experience head first, which requires hitting the Strip. After finding disappointing turnouts at neighboring bars, we popped in to Half Barrel on a Wednesday night.

Within the past few years the venue expanded, adding a porch and a new bar in the back half of the building. Prior to this addition, the bar occasionally felt cramped. It's never been small - with plenty of seating in the front half, but when the crowds poured in the service slowed, the lines grew, and navigating the crowd with a beer in hand became arduous.

I've noticed recently that the place consistently draws a crowd. Even on the most arbitrary nights there's a lively buzz.

Weeks ago after an early home football game, the Strip scene partied itself out. Sunspot was vacant and Bar Knoxville appeared dead from the outside, yet Half Barrel's crowd was audible from Cumberland.

And our night followed with this pattern. We grabbed a table on the porch, several feet from the bar in the back room. We caught up on old times over a few Fat Tires (a beer unavailable in Tennessee during our college days), unexpectedly running into old friends there for a mid-week release.

A crowd of orange and white packed out the venue, heightening the vibe, but fortunately it didn't infringe upon our socializing. While I've consistently found the Half Barrel crowd polite and friendly, I encountered a rather hostile man in an orange polo shirt near the back bar who was offended by my asking to get by him to go back to my table. It was off-putting but didn't escalate, so I got over it.

Given that the Strip's crowd is mostly in their early 20s and attends UT, any bar is likely to have a volatile crowd. It's a tricky balance and can yield an overwhelming evening.

Half Barrel gets the balance right. The younger portion of the crowd might be downing more drinks but they're rarely out of hand. The bar also brings in a crowd in their late 20s and early 30s, ranging up through their 50s. A common denominator: beer drinking.

Half Barrel has the second largest number of taps in town (behind Barley's). Taps line the entire wooden-paneled wall to the right. They have all the staple beers and feature numerous specialties, like Purple Haze, Carolina Blonde, New Belgium varieties, Rogue, Highland, and too many more to list. They also switch out according to season, so seeing an Octoberfest or pumpkin beer is likely this time of year.

Fortunately, Half Barrel caters to those of us who love good beer but have thin wallets, with their occasional $2.50 draft nights and $2 beer specials.

Half Barrel brings me back to the days of living near the Strip, going out more times than could ever be healthy or reasonable, and living the typical college-student lifestyle. But it does so without having to go through all the negatives of that again. It captures the energy of the campus area without teetering into insanity. It made a great place to catch up on old times while gaining a new appreciation for a familiar venue.

With college basketball season approaching, Half Barrel is a great place to grab a few drinks before (or after) the game, but there doesn't even need to be a special occasion to head down.

© 2010, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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