Brew House No. 16

Reviews 3

VI

Victoria Ballestero

While the first time I visited I experienced slow service, I chalked the visit up to a new restaurant still working to develop its systems and team. Subsequent visits prior to last night were much better. My boyfriend and I arrived at BH16 at 5:30 to have drinks and dinner with friends. Though my boyfriends beer came out in a timely fashion, my Firetini cocktail took 20 minutes to be served. The cocktail was awful- barely palatable. I incorrectly thought the Firetini would be served with Titos or Tanqueray. If the Firetini cocktail is supposed to taste like pure tequila with chunks of ice and an unappealing sludge of Old Bay settled at the bottom: spot on. If, as I suspect, the cocktail is supposed to be a spicy and salty savory drink, the bartenders need to be refreshed on how to make the menu cocktails. We placed our food orders and our friends placed drink orders- beer and wine- which took about fifteen minutes to be served. 45-minutes after ordering our food, we began to wonder where our appetizers were. Our server, whose name I dont know because she didnt introduce herself notified us that the kitchen was starting on our appetizers. She also asked if I had ordered the sausage sandwich or the pork tacos as an entree. After 45 minutes why was our appetizer order only just being fired? Why, after 45 minutes, was my dinner order only just being verified? We ordered more drinks which were served awkwardly one at a time over the course of 15 minutes. I ordered a CCMW Elderberry Mead, but was served the Pumpkin Mead. After more than 75 minutes of waiting, our server notified us that our next round of drinks would be covered by the house for the excessive wait times. We accepted the offer, but declined a third round of drinks- in part because we didnt wish to wait an additional 15 minutes for drinks and in part because we didnt want more to drink. Minutes later the Manager stopped at our table to inform us that she would compensate our next drink if it was a house drink. Shortly thereafter our appetizers arrived. The acorn squash was a delectable highlight of the entire evening and the pretzels were okay, but the flash-fried calamari had more onion strings, fried pickles, and bits of fried batter in the bowl than calamari. Though fried pickles and onion strings are part of the dish, the 5 pieces of calamari in the bowl were overshadowed. In addition, I was served the braised greens which I ordered as part of my entree. The 0.25-cup portion was unseasoned and tepid. Our entrees were served- a full 90 minutes after ordering them. The Baklava was a disappointing 3"x3" piece of veggie lasagna for which the price was outrageous. This was the only vegetarian entree. The crab cake entrees, were also skimpily portioned- maybe 3-oz. each- and tasteless. The crab cakes and accompanying root veggies were lukewarm. The pork tacos I ordered were very flavorful, but were at best, room temperature. I can only wonder if our food had been served to us when it was hot, would we have gotten it a half hour earlier? Again, our server approached us to offer a free round of drinks or if wed prefer, free dessert. Still not wanting to drink more and fearful of waiting an inordinate amount of time for dessert we passed. Perhaps the most damning part of the entire experience: As we were finally digging into our dinners, I pointed out a drunkard stumbling to the door; she missed the door handle a couple of times before finally letting herself into the restaurant. The hostess seemed not to notice or seemed not to care. Either way, the drunk woman proceeded to harass the table adjacent to us and the police came shortly thereafter. This embarrassing situation could have been avoided had the hostess been more attentive and proactive. The experience was an uncomfortable disaster and monumentally awful.

AG

AG Sherman

This is my first negative review of anything, ever. I went with some out-of-town guests for drinks on Friday. I had one of three available in-house beers. It was ok. I noticed that the menu described some beers as "coming soon," which is a bit of a red flag for a brew pub, and the servers were unprofessional, but they were very friendly and the building was beautiful, so who cares. We decided, on a servers urging, to return for Sunday brunch. At which, I ordered a bloody Mary but was given a mimosa. We also ordered three coffees and got two. Then we waited almost an hour after ordering to receive four very simple brunch dishes (2 bacon and eggs, 1 hash, 1 scotch eggs - all straight off the menu, no substitutions.) This would have all been understandable if they were busy, but the dining room was *nearly empty.* The servers had checked on us for the first 20 minutes, but then started to look nervous and desperately avoided eye contact. The two people whos meals included toast were not offered butter, jelly, etc. No one was offered salt or pepper for their eggs, and when it was requested, it was treated like an ordeal. The two bacon orders seemed way too small and stingy, especially for the price. I had the hash, which was inedibly salty and riddled with dried out, hard, leathery duck meat. If youve ever cooked duck you know that drying it out is nearly impossible. There were two eggs Benedict on top, which had not been included in the menu description. That was a nice surprise except that the hollandaise was greasy, thin, and flavorless. I assume they realized the duck was a problem, so they thought the Benedicts might mask it. Nope. A server told my partner that he was served the "last Scotch eggs in the building." This is not egregious on its own, but in the context of an otherwise disappointing meal, it cast the Scotch eggs in a bad light. Check came, we were all very surprised that nothing was comped, because everyone working there clearly could tell our table had gotten bad service. We discussed the tip and decided to still tip well on the basis that this type of thing usually isnt the servers fault. As we were leaving, the server came out and thanked us for the tip, and specifically said "if you had a bad time, dont leave a review. If you had a good time, please do." That was the last straw. If he hadnt said that, I wouldnt be writing this, but the arrogance, unprofessionalism, and bossiness spurred me to action.

SH

Shawn Soviak

My fiancé, her best friend, and I were looking for a few late night (after 10PM) drinks and snacks at this bar. The food, beer,, and décor were solid, but there were a few possibly unforgivable issues. First, we arrived making it quite clear that we wanted to have a few snacks with our drinks. Although we were able to enjoy one order of pretzels with cheddar dip, our server never made it clear to us when the kitchen would close. We didnt find out that the kitchen was closed until we attempted to ask our server for another order of fries. In fact, I had to hunt down our server, who appeared to be on a hunt herself. For Pokémon. Second, despite having operating hours posted stating that the bar was open until 1AM, our server brought us our check very shortly after 11PM. Our server did not even ask us if we wanted a second drink. It seemed pretty clear that the staff wanted to go home, and did not intend to provide further service. Its a shame too. This place has all of the potential to be one of Baltimores best bars; but if the place would rather shuffle customers out than be hospitable, I dont see it lasting long. This seems like more of a management issue than anything else. If your serving folks are ready to flee the bar two full hours before your official posted last call, that tells me that they may be somewhat overscheduled. That, or not enough is being done to draw business on a weekend night. That seems pretty unlikely to me, though: This former firehouse is cool enough on its own. As for me, Im not sure I can hold out hope that the current business will improve. Rather, Im hoping that the next owner plays things a bit better. This is a cool place, and I dont want to see it go to waste.