Blackthorn - Joplin

This place is everything you want in a hole in the wall music joint, and with awesome craft beer!! I have to say, if I were going to pick the taps at a bar, I would pick every craft beer they have currently. They have an awesome selection, primarily darker beers which is what I would choose every time. The crowd is young but chill, and this was exactly what we needed for a break after a long day of family time. So happy we found this little gem.

Blackthorn came up on my Google search as a beer bar. I was in town and wanted to try a local brewpub. I wanted a pizza and beer. This place serves many beers on tap. I ordered a chocolate porter from Kansas City and a Happy Hippy small veggie pizza $9). I noted how dark it was inside. There are a lot of tables in here and I 'm sure when there is live music, this place rocks. It was after 8pm on a Sunday night. I took a seat at the bar. There were two other customers and the place was not busy. The bartender was friendly and competent, but he was busy cleaning the place. The beer was ok a bit flat) and the pizza crust too hard. While it was topped with a lot of toppings, the tasteless crust really ruined the flavor. This isn 't a bad place at all, and I 'm sure people who are into the dark bar scene would like this place, but this isn 't a place I 'd come back to.

What kind of bar makes you pay 20 bucks to use a crummy broken pool table and then on top of it doesn't have any cream to make White Russians etc. or a bunch of alcohol to make average drinks. many of the drinks we ordered the guy quickly denied for the simple reason they didn't have something. He couldn't make us my ties, White Russians, Colorado bulldogs, cucumber sunrise, or any other drink that we ordered. the pizza was terrible. For some reason at 8pm on a Friday a family with two little kids age 4 and 3 were dining there. Is this a bar or is it a chunky cheese? 80$ are u kidding me. I ordered 2 recommended drinks for me and a friend and a pizza. I'm out. Thanks but no thanks.

I can only assume Blackthorn's 3.5 star average is due to the grungy, punk rock bar vibe of the location itself, because it certainly isn't an accurate representation of the food. Only having visited once, I can't speak for the whole menu, but the iconica I shared with my group was an absolute marvel of delicately balanced flavors that transcended our expectations effortlessly. Yes, service was a bit slow (it is a bar, after all), and it's true that the crowd is a bit rougher around the edges than one might prefer. And although I didn't partake of any adult beverages on this trip, I did listen to several of my friends lament the rather paltry selection of available liquors. These limitations are, to my mind, the only things holding the establishment back from five star status. Otherwise, if you enjoy good food and are prepared to embrace a divey ambiance, there's no reason you won't enjoy Blackthorn.

Stopped in thinking it was the same Blackthorn as the one in St Louis, nope. But, that was OK with me. Staff was interactive and friendly. Beer was cold and the pizza was worth coming back for. Love these resurgent downtown sort of places. I will be there when traveling to Joplin again.