While staying in Ness City KS, we mentioned to our Airbnb host that we’d be visiting the nearby city of Hays and asked for suggestions of things to do there.
His very first suggestion was eating at Gella’s Diner as they had a tasty fried bologna sandwich. Neither of us are bologna people but it sounded intriguing, so we decided to check out Gella’s for lunch to see what they had to offer.
Hays is a smallish city of ~20,000 people, so we were surprised to find that Gella’s Diner was fairly busy for a Wednesday lunchtime. Now that we’ve gone there for food and drinks, I can see why it’s so popular.
Their full name is Gella’s Diner & Lb. Brewing Co. as it’s both a restaurant and microbrewery. It has less of a diner feel though and more of a gastropub/brewpub vibe thanks to its beautiful decor, exposed brick walls, etc.
Drinks
First order of business was deciding what to drink. Gella’s has an extensive selection of beers, wines and spirits to choose from:
Shae felt like having something fairly light, so she went for the Beringer White Zinfandel.
My choice wasn’t as difficult as it could’ve been. Lb. Brewing Co. had a ton of tasty-sounding beers that I wanted to try, so I went for their sampler. It comes with 8 4oz pours for $6.50 which is great value considering that’s 32oz of beer. The sampler is a set selection of 8 beers though, so you don’t get to pick them. That didn’t really matter as most of the beers they included were ones that I would’ve picked anyway.
Going clockwise from top-left, these are the beers provided as part of the sampler:
- 6 – Oatmeal Stout
- 9 – American Hefeweizen
- 26 – Harvest Rye IPA
- 50 – Liberty Stout
- 68 – Ellis Co. Pale Ale
- 62 – Farmhouse Wheat Saison
- 58 – Brownell Brown
- 55 – Fort Fletcher American IPA
And here they are in order with the tastiest listed first:
- Liberty Stout
- Oatmeal Stout
- Brownell Brown
- Ellis Co. Pale Ale
- Harvest Rye IPA
- Fort Fletcher American IPA
- American Hefeweizen
- Farmhouse Wheat Saison
I was a little surprised that I didn’t enjoy the American Hefeweizen more than I did, but it didn’t have much of a banana/clove flavor. It didn’t taste bad – it just wasn’t as great as other hefeweizens I’ve had. The Liberty Stout on the other hand was delicious, while the Ellis Co. Pale Ale was one of the best pale ales I’ve tried.
Food
With our drinks sorted, it was time to decide what to have for lunch. Here’s the Gella’s Diner menu:
Seeing as we were there during lunchtime, we decided to choose from the Express Lunch Menu to save money. For $6.95, you can choose any two options from a half sandwich, cup of soup, side salad and Gella’s chips.
Both of us decided to go for a sandwich and cup of soup, but chose different options. Our Airbnb host had suggested the fried bologna sandwich, but the smoked turkey club sandwich won the day for me. As my second option, I went for a cup of green bean, potato & dumpling soup which came with a small packet of oyster crackers.
The sandwich was great and had a tasty basil mayonnaise that complemented the bacon and turkey nicely. The soup was extremely flavorful too and so was a good choice.
Shae ordered a grilled cheese panini (which comes as a whole – rather than half – sandwich) and a cup of dill pickle soup. Yep, dill pickle soup.
Despite choosing it as her soup option, Shae was a little unsure as to how great the soup would be. I decided to take a photo of her reaction when having her first taste. In case you’re not familiar with the many faces of Shae, the one below is her ‘This is soooo good’ face.
We’d been tempted by their oatmeal stout brownie and ice cream for dessert, but were pretty full by the time we’d finished our sandwiches and soups, so had to decline. I’d been curious about a couple of their other beers though, so I ordered 4oz samples of their Lemon Ale and Winterfest Ale. Both of these were tasty as well, but the Liberty Stout still remained my favorite.
Final Thoughts
Our Airbnb host’s recommendation of visiting Gella’s Diner & Lb. Brewing Co. in Hays, Kansas was a good one. Their beers were great, with the 8 beer sampler being excellent value for only $6.50. At $6.95, their express lunch menu was also great value, with our sandwiches and soups being both flavorful and filling.
A special shout out to our server too. Andrew was fantastic – he was extremely friendly and was that perfect mix of being attentive without hovering over our table constantly.
With excellent service, tasty beers and great food, I’m pretty sure Gella’s Diner would be our local if we lived in Hays.
Our Rating
Food = 4.5 / 5
Price = 4.7 / 5
Atmosphere = 4.5 / 5
Decor = 4.6 / 5
Service = 4.7 / 5
Total = 4.6 / 5
Address
Gella’s Diner & Lb. Brewing Co., 3603, 117 E 11th St, Hays, KS 67601
Leave a Reply