Fat Pants Brewing Co. — Attraction in Eden Prairie

@fatpantsbrewing

Happy Sunday! Er Monday now I guess. After working a very stressful week, I needed something🍻. So I knew I could bring two other yahoos along with me. I started making a mental note of nearby spots and then it hit me. "Wasn't there a new brewery..." Fat Pants Brewing Co. Could be good, could be bad, won't know till we go. Plus they were open till 10pm on a Sunday, rare in these parts.

Good looking establishment I'd say, mix of an industrial metal and wood furnishings. Tap line has 24 available. Two friendly women were working the bar and happily greeted us as I took Google photos and wandered the area. Flight is 4 for 10, they technically only have 7 beers on tap so we got everything and a double of the stout to warm up on the side. I say technically because there's a hard lemonade they do. You can add fruit "twists" to it, believe there were 3-4 flavors. All I remember was mango, which is in the pint glass.

We each had our top threes and debated, but conclusion was: Pucker Up, hard lemonade, wild card winner. Monkey Grinder, Mosaic, personal winner. Bajo, session IPA, tasted like West coast style and enjoyable. Orange Shag, Belgian wheat, three of us didn't care too much for this. Especially hit a sadder note for my two friends who love Belgians. Prairie Pilsners, all agreed this was good. Had a bit of raw yeast taste that makes it stand out amongst other Pilsners. Chocolate milk stout, nitro, smooth and basic. Didn't get a ton of milk, though I did find myself already looking at the bottom of the glass shortly.

Shirley, cherry witbier. This was probably sadly the weakest in their line up. Cherries were overly tart to the point of, was there really cherry in it? Combine that with a witbier and you are going to find it hard to drink. The luxardo cherry aspect intrigued us all but still fell flat. A small jar of that stuff is already expensive enough, no way even at wholesale price could you get it's worth without charging a lot.

Overall though I'd come back to try a pizza and get another flight. Then finish out the night with some...

EDIT 4/18/2023: After reading the owners response: Thank you for the explanation. I am fully aware how tough it is to run a business BUT, the point of my email (which to forgot to mention) is according to 325G.051 (see below) you MUST tell the customer ORALLY and POST a sign. That is not a choice of either, you must do BOTH. When I hand my credit card to your staff, the very first words should be "We charge a 3.99% fee for credit cards." IF he said that to me, I would have paid with cash. You take that option (cash or credit) away when you don't play by the rules. I know you appreciate your customers and your customers appreciate you for making it through COVID-19 but you need to say the words and play by ALL of the rules!

HEADS UP: If you pay cash, you pay the advertised price. If you pay by credit card, you will pay a service fee of almost 4%. They sent me photos of where it was posted - I never saw any sign posting and I was at the register 4 times. In my case, there was also no verbal warning there was a fee. To their credit - they also refunded the service fee when I requested it. Be aware - this has become common place (charging a surcharge) in the food service industry, check your receipt, look for the posted signs, listen for the verbal warning.

Want to know more? 325G.051 SURCHARGES ON CREDIT CARDS. Subdivision 1.Limitation; prohibition. (a) A seller of goods or services may impose a surcharge on a purchaser who elects to use a credit card in lieu of payment by cash, check, or similar means, provided (1) the seller informs the purchaser of the surcharge both orally at the time of sale and by a sign conspicuously posted on the seller's premises, and (2) the surcharge does not exceed five percent of the purchase...

Very few times will I change my mind and leave a restaurant/establishment upon walking in once finally committing to a choice - however - my husband and I did just that at Fat Pants late Saturday evening.

I'll give them 3 stars because we were genuinely excited to try some of their things on tap, they seemed to have an extensive THC menu which is cool to see these days, and their giant pretzel looked pretty appetizing

However, upon walking in, you'd think this was a daycare instead of a brewery. We weren't able to find a table at all in the drinks area because multiple tables were taken up by only children (no parents in sight) - additionally they were running around and playing tag (at one point, smacking into my husbands arm as he was trying to read the menu at the bar).

We both stood at the bar trying to decide on a beverage for a bit, walked around to look for a spot (some tables in the food area appeared like they were either taken/needing to be bussed as well) - and left instead. We love children - we just weren't expecting it to be that kind of situation later on a Saturday night. We feel like, at the very least, kids running around in the bar area poses a bit of risk for a beer being knocked off a table or out of someone's hands, and we just...