Because every restaurant is more than just what’s on the plate.

Brewery | $$ | 610 Main Street, Rapid City

Settling In

Firehouse Brewing Co. has been sitting at 610 Main Street since 1991, but the building itself goes back a lot further than that. It started life in 1915 as Rapid City’s first fire hall, and you can feel that history the second you walk in. Old brick everywhere, fire trucks and photos and patches covering just about every wall you look at.

There are three floors now. The bar sits on the first floor, more seating fills out the second, and the third floor belongs to The Skybox, a sports bar tucked up top where the firefighters used to sleep between calls.

Firehouse Brewing Co. opened in 1991, and it’s now the oldest operating brewery in South Dakota. This building wasn’t built to serve beer. It was built to house fire trucks and the men who drove them.

You could’ve walked in here twenty years ago, or twenty five, and from what we could tell, it’d feel about the same as it does today. That’s not a knock and it’s not really a compliment either. It’s just true, for better or worse.

The Little Stuff

Service was steady the whole way through. Everyone was friendly, nothing came out slow, and the pace never dragged even with a full table of apps and a soup in front of us. Nothing rushed, nothing sloppy, service just handled itself while we worked through the spread.

The Reason You’re There

We ordered all four items the menu flags as local favorites. Seemed like the fair way to test the place: Cheesy Artichoke Dip, Fire Caps, the Reuben, and a cup of Gorgonzola Ale soup. If a menu’s going to put a star next to something, we figured we should find out if it’s earned.

Start with the dip. It’s a blend of cheeses and artichoke hearts in a mornay sauce, basically a cheese sauce built from butter, flour and milk, served with their garlic beer bread for scooping. You could order this by itself with a beer and walk away happy. It earns the favorite tag without any argument.

The Fire Caps are mushroom caps stuffed with crab meat and cream cheese, baked under a flame-cooked cheese crust. They carry some heat, but it never gets out of hand.

The Gorgonzola Ale soup is their beer cheese soup, made with their own brewed ale and Gorgonzola, a strong blue cheese from Italy. It’s rich, the ale comes through strong, and dipping bread into it is the best part of the whole bowl. It’d make a fine starter, or you could turn it into the whole meal on a cold day.

Then there’s the Reuben, thinly sliced corned beef, sauerkraut and Swiss on grilled marble rye. Their menu calls it Rapid City’s Best, and the sauce that normally goes right on top comes on the side instead, whether to dip the sandwich in or spread it on yourself. Left plain, the sandwich runs a little dry. Spread the sauce across the whole thing and it comes together the way a Reuben should. It did feel a little light on the corned beef too. Most Reubens stack pretty high, and this one didn’t quite get there.

What Sticks With You

Firehouse Brewing Co. has been open for thirty five years now, and it’s easy to see why it’s lasted as both a tourist stop and a spot where locals keep coming back. Tourists get a piece of Rapid City history with their lunch. Locals get something they already know, food that hasn’t changed much and doesn’t need to. There’s real value in a place staying reliable like that, the same way you’d want your fire department to be dependable. You don’t want either one reinventing itself every year.

Victoria’s Taste

“If the only reason you come to the Firehouse is for the artichoke dip with beer bread, that’s a great reason.”

Final Bite

We walked in expecting old brick and fire truck memorabilia, and that’s exactly what we got. The food backed it up too, especially that artichoke dip. Some places change with the times. Firehouse Brewing Co. found its spot thirty five years ago and never really left it. We walked out full, and we’ll be back, mostly for that dip and beer bread, but we wouldn’t turn down another round of the soup either.

Taste the Room pays for every meal we review. We don’t accept comped food, and restaurants aren’t notified of our visit in advance. It’s how we keep our reviews honest and independent.