I loved this pub so much that I went two nights in a row. Kaspars, our tour guide from the Riga free walking tour, recommended Folkklubs Ala Pagrabs since it’s one of the 50 microbreweries of Latvia that’s located in Old Town. When you arrive, you walk down the stairs into the basement, then make your way deep into the building, past the smaller bar to get to the large, main bar.

After the walking tour, Daniel, John, Monsef, Varun and I all walked over to Ala to have a beer before grabbing some food. Varun had the right idea: he asked the bartender about a beer flight, and she said we could get six 0.25L glasses of whatever beers we wanted for €7. What a good deal! He and I both got our own flights while Monsef questioned whether I could drink all of it.

The bartender wrote down the six different beers I picked for my flight and in order from left to right as they were situated on the tray. I also made a note of what the taps looked like for future reference.

And of course I was able to finish all 1.25L of beer! The dudes were a impressed. My favorite was the hemp-ginger beer even though I have no clue what hemp is supposed to taste like.

The next night after I returned from my Sigulda day trip, Nate and Davide met up with me at the main bar for beer and dinner. Viv and Julia joined later, and Kristine, a local Rigan, was able to enjoy a beer with us after coming back from being out of town. Davide and I both ordered six-beer flights. This time, I let our waiter select the beers after telling him which ones I’d already tried the day before. The first was a house-made moonshine with berry juice, the next two were IPAs, the fourth was a light beer from the Latvian countryside, the fifth was a commonly found Latvian dark beer, and the last was yet another IPA. My favorite out of these was the third one, known as the 5-day IPA.

The food was also of excellent quality for not too much more than your standard budget restaurant in Latvia. The dark garlic bread on the bread and snack plate (€4) was fried and extremely dense, and my beer beef shank with mashed celeriac and rainbow salad (€6.90) was lovely. I am going to miss this place.