In a city filled with bars and restaurants, Pignic Pub & Patio has found a way to stand out.
The setting itself, operating out of a 1916 craftsman-style home in a cozy neighborhood on Flint Street, Pignic is both a neighborhood bar and a destination for locals. The menu is heavy in craft beers, with 28 rotating draft selections, as well as classic and seasonal cocktails.
The owner, Trevor Leppek, is behind a lot of the creativity, turning out new drink menus every few months. Through the end of December, the fall menu is still available, but on January 1, a new winter menu will take over.
What truly makes Pignic different, however, is the community grill yard. Like a community garden with a twist, the grill yard offers a wide array of grills, including charcoal and gas, as well as smokers, where guests can cook their own meals while enjoying beverages from Pignic. One can even complete a meal with fruits and vegetables from the edible garden.
For chilly evenings, there are fire pits and a fireplace on the property. The outdoor grill yard is available year-round, weather permitting.
Inside, the décor hints at the building’s roots. There are couches upstairs and downstairs, plus a pool table. The entire structure still looks like a house, with a main bar taking up the majority of the ground floor.
If you don’t feel like cooking for yourself, dive into the menu. Shareables include a simple charcuterie board, totchos (nachos made with tater tots and loaded with meats, cheeses, sauces and more), a pretzel with sausage, wings, shrimp, salad and more. Entrees include birria-style ramen, burgers, sandwiches and tacos, all served alongside tots or salad.
Leppek cites the birria ramen dish as a favorite since it landed on the menu last December.
There’s a mini brunch menu served Saturdays and Sundays until 3 p.m. Choose from avocado toast, made with thick-cut Truckee Sourdough and stacked with bacon and a fried egg; a breakfast burrito brimming with your choice of meat, scrambled eggs, salsa, cheese, tots and more; a BLT breakfast sandwich, a breakfast bowl made with a base of tots; and a birria grilled cheese special, featuring consommé for dipping, made on Truckee Sourdough bread, and featuring several slices of melty provolone cheese before it’s grilled to perfection.
Happier hours offer some of these bites at a discount, plus discounts on cocktails, draft beer, wine and well liquor.
The drink list is extensive—much longer than the food menu. And seasonal cocktails are a big part of the fun. Pigshack classics, however, include the steppin’ out, a rum negroni milk punch featuring Diplomatico Reserva, Exclusiva Rum, Wray & Nephew Ocerproof Rum, Cappelletti Mazzura, Istine Vermouth di Radda, Liquid Alchemist Passion Fruit, milk and saline. Yes, putting saline in cocktails is a thing.
There’s also a campfire sour that adds a smoky flavor to a classic drink and features a favorite local bourbon—Frey Ranch Bottled in Bond Rye. Plus, lemon and organic maple inside of a rosemary smoked glass. Between the rye and the smoke effect, the cocktail feels like the warmth of a campfire.
The Pignic punch #3 is Pignic’s version of a frozen cocktail that pays homage to the frozen dock cocktails popular in Tahoe, such as the wet woody.
Another locally connected cocktail, the Pignic pepper Mary is the restaurant’s take on a bloody Mary, made with a base of 10 Toor Habanero Jalapeño Vodka, celery bitters, Pignic Bug Juice, tomato juice, a stout beer float and a bacon-salted rim before it’s plumped up with smoked bacon and NV Brining Company pickles.
If you come to party, consider splitting a large format cocktail—a bigger version of a classic made to share with several friends. Party All the Thyme is a play on words for this vodka and Pamplemousses-based cocktail. Finished with lemon, thyme simple syrup, soda water and sparkling rosé, it’s light and earthy, with strong herbaceous flavors, served in a pitcher over ice with sliced lemon and thyme.
The pig pilot is a rum-based drink with flavors of lime, grapefruit, blood orange and spice. This drink is presented in a pig-shaped punch bowl, served over ice with cinnamon. Essentially, it’s a rendition of the more classic jet pilot cocktail, with a twist that honors the Pignic name.
For beer, there are rotating brews, many of which are local, or visit the Revision Reno TapRoom upstairs. Of course, there are mocktails, too.
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235 Flint Street
