Journeyman at American Factory - Valparaiso, IN — Attraction in Valparaiso

Further update 12/23/23: Took 6 people out to dinner. Corn fritters, chicken rolls, French onion soup, and the burger all continue to impress. The grilled cheese with brie and apples on raisin toast came with just out of the refrigerator ice cold apples with was the only problem with our meal...lack of quality control, but the waitress volunteered to remove it from the bill. The cask strength flight of whiskies is really nice, but they currently only sell 2 of those bottles in the gift shop...they are good so it would be nice to be able to purchase them in Valpo. If you haven't tried it yet, the barrel-aged old fashion is the first cocktail to order here!

Update 11/11/23: Decided to take 2 Army buddies from Chicago here for lunch on our annual Veteran's Day get together. Really nice time. We happened to check in for a table with the new General Manager and after I mentioned why we were there, she decided to take us on a behind the scenes tour of the facility...and then buy our first round of drinks. Well, you cannot ask for better hospitality. Thanks!

More importantly...the food today was really good. The chicken rolls and corn fritters (my favorite) appetizers were both great. My friends both had the butternut squash soup and liked it. Cinnamon raisin grilled cheese, burger, and meatloaf were our mains. Everyone really liked what they had. The service was outstanding as it has been every time I've been here. Unfortunately, I did have a chat with our waitress and apparently the smoked trout dip appetizer still tastes like just plain cream cheese...take a hint chef, add LOTS MORE smoked trout (raise the price if necessary) or just take it off the menu; it is not doing your restaurant justice as is.

Sidenote: There are now a few cask-strength offerings for sale in the gift shop. The cask-strength wheat whiskey "Corsets, Whips and Whiskey" is excellent...ensure you buy cask-strength while you can! There is no substitute for cask-strength.

10/19/23: My wife and I had dinner there tonight to try the dinner menu. We have really enjoyed the 3 Oaks location for many years. Tonight we started with the smoked trout dip and toast. Basically it is just cream cheese with a few tiny flecks of smoked trout which we could hardly see and really could not taste at all. How in the world did that pass a quality control test? They would have to drastically increase the amount of smoked trout in the ratio in order for me to honestly recommend it. I had the turkey schnitzel sandwich and a salad with their homemade blue cheese dressing. The sandwich and the dressing were tasty. The dressing was very light...think creamy blue cheese with the flavor but not pieces of blue cheese; well done for the style they went for. My wife had the cauliflower steak, which is listed under the "Mains" section. She liked the flavors, but there was hardly anything on her plate. She is very slight and eats very small amounts, and she was asking where the food was. There was one "steak" cut out of a small cauliflower head and a few tablespoons of spinach and sweet potato hash. Hardly a "Main" even for a vegetarian and for $21 it was a serious disappointment. Having said all that, the service from our waitress...

We visited for lunch on a Saturday in September. It was a warm day, so they had the garage doors open by our table which provided a nice breeze. Since this was a family luncheon following my father’s funeral, we had high expectations and hoped for no issues. The outcome? Very good service, very good food and drink. No issues. Our party of 12 were all very happy throughout our visit.

I myself enjoyed two different house-made beers - the White Chapel Kolsch and the Axe Handle American Pale Ale. Both were good, but the ale was really good. Many enjoyed the specially priced mimosas and bloody Mary’s from the brunch menu and enjoyed them without complaint.

For food, several of our group enjoyed the brunch menu including breakfast skillet and fried chicken with biscuit and sausage gravy. Several others ordered from the lunch menu. One person had a large salad, and a few of us had sandwiches including the delicious prime rib sandwich (tender, not fatty and flavorful) with Swiss cheese and horseradish sauce; hot honey chicken sandwich; and two enjoyed the Turkey Club. All sandwiches came with fries and homemade ketchup. Everyone enjoyed their meal without complaint. No food was left that wasn’t consumed or taken home.

One other reviewer here commented on small fries and the ketchup’s overly sweet taste; we did not find that at all. Other reviewers complained of poor service. We had a reservation and were seated promptly. We were quickly served water and then the server promptly took our drink orders. We were not rushed; food came out in a decent timeframe and glasses were always full. There were, by the way, two other tables of ten and eight plus several other tables with smaller groups and couples, plus bar patrons. Other restaurants would have had a challenge providing good service with this many groups. Our server provided impeccable service. Food was hot and fresh and tasty. Drinks were well done and tasty.

The place is massive! Very cool inside and out! For a larger group, or small, I would recommend...

This is gonna be great when the newness wears off. We attended the 6p-10p event on Saturday. We expected lines but it really did come off as completely unorganized. After getting our badge and wristband, we wandered in and was surprised to see an open table. We sat down and after a few minutes we were asked by a staff member if we were there for "the event". It was then we were informed we were seated in the restaurant, that in order to sit there we needed to be seated by the hostess, and that the event was upstairs. Why we weren't told this by those who handed us our badge for said event, I don't know. When we finally went upstairs, we had no idea what was going on or where to go. After wandering, we finally found the end of an extremely long line which we had passed when we first entered the room. After standing in that line long enough to get past the couple of turns the line made, we saw a second line that was much shorter. We wished we knew about that 2nd line when we first got in line. I also wish they were serving all the food and drink options in both rooms. But we did get as much food & drink as we wished, the number of punches on our badge was quite generous. I do wish the custard dessert was set up. It tastes good but the custard was just liquid. We never saw anything about a tour and there were no tastings of Journeyman products. I was really hoping to taste the new Popcorn bourbon.

For the grand opening event, I'm giving them a 2.5star because of the confusion caused by zero communication and what appeared to be unorganization. But for the venue, the staff, the food, and potential after the newness wears off, I give them a 4.5 star. Rounded up the average to 4 stars. Looking forward to coming here...