Brewery Pet Peeves (2023)

Ah ok, I might have misunderstood him. But you still can’t just stroll up to the brewery and get a beer right? You need to order “tickets” ahead of time? And you can get up to three pours?

I know you need to reserve a time to pick up cans, because I had to do that. At least back in December.

 

See I think having to buy drink tickets ahead of time (at least at Charlton I had to do this) isn’t what beer is all about. You’d never do that at Andechs in Germany for example.

But that isn’t about Tree House. They’re doing damage control. It’s the people that think a small subset of breweries are the be-all end-all of brewing in the US due to Untappd ratings.

 

I’ve never actually had a beer at treehouse. I’ve always just ordered cans to go, picked them up, and bailed. But I hear you, the ticket thing is weird. You got beer, I have money, this doesn’t need to be more complicated.

 

When I've been to Charlton and Tewksbury I've bought my "tickets" "in advance" from my phone just before walking in, so it pretty much felt like strolling in and ordering. YMMV of course. And I was lucky to be able to "reserve" a pickup time about five minutes after I was done drinking. And yeah, there's a limit of three (or maybe 2 on Saturday? I forget)

There's no way you would know I've been drooling over trips to Bavaria, but your praise of Andechs is making my infatuation That Much Worse.

 

......as long as the dogs have kids to eat, I'm good!

 

Regarding the Tree House ticket thing, it’s obviously not the best way to enjoy a beer as a consumer, but they often get 1000+ people a day, and many of them would gladly sit there and drink like six pours of 8% DIPA if they could, and then get back in their car, so from the business side I can see it being a way to head off some potential problems.

 

Infected beer at the taproom has recently become my #1 complaint, only because I’ve encountered it more recently than ever before.

 

This absolutely gets into some larger issues with the US workforce model. Personally I look forward to the day when restaurants and etc pay well enough (and stop hoarding all the $) to pay their employees well that tips become obsolete

 

Posted a 1-star Google review calling out owners poor behavior with reserved seating at the bar, hopefully will lead to some changes.

Cheers for the insight on this issue BA!

 

The bigger question is- when all these servers get replaced by technology are you going to have to tip the robot that brings your order out? I say no.

 

Try hell no!

 

Then who's going to pay for the oil changes?

 

There is a group of restaurants around me, all owned by the same guy. They have whats called the Roovy app. Literally, you can't order food or drinks from a waitress/bartender. You have to download an app, put your credit card in, and figure out how to order. They bring it out once its ready, and automatically add 20% tip. I had heard good things about their seafood restaurant when it first opened, having no idea about the app thing. I sat down, and waited forever before someone finally filled me in on what I had to do. A gave a 15 second, halfhearted attempt at getting the app, then left.

They also have an "upscale Korean BBQ" place just down the road from me. For whatever reason its been on all the "top restaurants in Houston" lists lately. Friends of mine tried to go, but they wouldn't even let them sit at the bar until they showed the hosts they had the app, and it worked, there was no real wait to get a seat, outside of the host having to check everyone's phone to make sure that had it. my friends said it was about a 30 minute wait just for that. So like me at the other place, they just left.

I don't know how you run multiple restaurants like that, but hey at least it makes it easy for me to decide never to go to that groups places again.

 

Add a tip on to my to go order and I walk out while you hold the beer.

Enjoy

 

The robot might have a different opinion.

(After all, he has little electric solenoid switches at home to feed.)

 

It’s already here, and the 10% tip, like other scams such as $40-$50 plus tax daily resort fees at 2-3 star Vegas casino MGM & CET hotels, is mandatory.

Tipsy Robot, Las Vegas Strip (PHo Miracle Mile Shops)

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/J60NYGI-ZLg

 

This is the easiest one to deal with:

Drunk: "Blah blah blah"
You/me: "shut the fuck up!"

 

When tips become obsolete, so will good service, IMO. I think there is a balance between pay for showing up and reward for good job performance, and perhaps that balance is currently out of whack, but if they eliminate tipping they also eliminate incentives for good performance, unless the business owner is actually willing to put in the effort to observe and measure performance and reward the employee accordingly. It will never work if they adopt a model in which all servers are compensated equally. I do feel bad for good performers who get under-tipped, but I would much rather tip at my discretion to properly reward good service than to pay more for a meal just so the owner can pay everyone, including the crummy perfomers, more.