Westbound & Down Brewing Company — Local services in Idaho Springs

Update: I reached out to Isaac after his comment on here and he invited us back in to give another chance. This time everything was much much better - great service, timely tickets, and great food. We brought friends this time and they were very impressed. Granted, we went during a slower time. Isaac went above and beyond to make it up to us. Changing my review to 4 stars. We’ve had pretty iffy experiences before the really bad one, but things are usually good. Based on our 15+ visits, service is overall hit or miss but we keep coming back for the buffalo chicken sandwich and good beers. I encourage going in the evenings when they aren’t slammed for weekend lunch.

Original review: We came to westbound and down their first week open and have been coming back every time we’re in the area, however, our recent visit was quite possibly the worst restaurant experience I’ve had in years. We were put on the wait list for a 15 minute wait. After 20 minutes we were called. When we get to our table the host says someone took it but they’ll clean off another and showed us where we’d be sitting outside. 15 minutes go by, table is still dirty, we’re still just standing there. I broke my foot 2 weeks ago, was freshly out of my boot and wanted to sit to get settled with my dog because my foot was hurting. I moved the glasses to the end of the table and sat down. Someone who appears to be a manager comes out and aggressively says “can you just wait until we clean it before you sit down and whatever” and I said yes and stood up. mind you I was a server for 12 years and not only have I never treated a customer like that, but I would wipe the table gently while they’re sitting and apologize that it wasn’t clean - guess there’s 2 different types of customer service people out there. My husband always says I’m too nice (probably because of my serving experience) so I could see that he was irritated that this women just scolded me. He later said he didn’t hear what she said, he could just hear the tone in her voice, that’s how irritated she sounded. He comes over and says “we just sat down because we thought someone forgot to clean it” and she continues “well we’re busy so that’s what happens when we’re busy. Tables don’t get cleaned as fast as we’d like.” Again, never in my 12 years serving have I ever spoken to a customer like that. We sit for 20 minutes before a server comes over. We order everything at once. Server says it will be 30 minutes for food and we said we don’t mind waiting as long as we have beer we’re happy. So then, our beers took over 30 minutes to come out, no exaggeration. Our server told us 3 times she was going to get them and they never showed. Someone else finally brought them. Now, AN HOUR AND 20 MINUTES go by without our food. About 50 minutes in the server brings us a round of “free” beers and apologizes. The beers were not free. They were never taken off and we didn’t even want them, but I wanted to get out of there so bad that I didn’t say anything. At about an hour and 10 minutes the server tells us she’s going to talk to a manager to see what they can do about a discount. Nothing was done to our tab. When we finally get our food after an hour and 20 minutes, my sandwich is fried when I requested grilled chicken. I just ate it. A lunch stop turned into a 2.5 hour ordeal and I have never waited for food that long in my life. Also if they had actually taken care of our check I wouldn’t still be upset. $75 for an incorrect order and a stressful experience. I understand they’re busy, but keep people on a wait while the kitchen and servers recover and schedule more serving staff or close sections. Also, maybe don’t be rude to customers? That evening we went to tommyknocker where they explained to guests that they’re on a wait to give the kitchen and servers time. No problem. Once we got to our table everything was phenomenal. That will be our...

Came here last Friday. It was around 6:10pm when we entered and bellied up to the bar. We always enjoy the conversations had with a bartender. After we sat, we were ignored for a good while. Something weird was happening with payment on another table. And the bar printer kept beeping because it was out of paper. So the mood wasn’t exactly fun and welcoming on arrival. After many, many minutes, we finally received menus. There was a bar back present who stood bullsh!ting with a dude at the end of the bar who had long paid his tab. He obviously wasn’t interested in backing his bartender. He didn’t get us the menus. The overwhelmed, under-seasoned bartender did.

We ordered a beer and a drink. Again, the wait time was unnecessarily long. There are 7 drinks on their menu, shouldn’t be hard to remember how to make them. But the bartender busts out the recipe book and measured every ingredient with a jigger. And then waits for the shift manager to show face so he can straw taste it. During all this, there was little in the way of entertainment. We were the only bar guests. And so we just looked around in angst waiting for our beer and whisky drink. The mirrors behind the liquor bottles are so disgusting. There’s a weird giant half-dead plant in the skylight above the bar. Everything was sticky or stained.

And then our drinks are served. My beer was in a hot glass. And his drink was short-poured. I watched her add water from the gun and then pause because she knew that was an absolute hack move.

We decide to only order an app because we could feel this place was off. The bartender recommend the Tinga Nachos since they’re new on the menu. I don’t know- maybe we were already soured by the experience at that point, but they didn’t taste like anything. We’ve had the cauliflower wings here before and enjoyed them much better.

The restaurant was quickly filling up around us. Families, groups, couples, all sorts. Then the manager comes up to the bartender and says, “I’m sorry, I have to seat you. We’re getting too busy and everyone just got triple sat.” Oh, okay.. So the reason y’all were ignoring us and treating us poorly was because you precut your only bartender at 6pm on a Friday night with no support staff and we happened to sit at the bar?! What a crappy way to be treated. At that point, we couldn’t have left any faster.

Poor training + low service...

Listen, sometimes a fantastic service experience just makes your visit incredible. I am an ex-bartender, and I so appreciate it when it happens. It is the smallest things, but noticed and enjoyed. After a long drive back from Winter Park, we stopped by here for lunch. We sat at the bar, and Kasey (sorry if spelled wrong, and I should have asked) was our bartender. She gave us perfect service, complete with efficiency, humor, sports talk, food advice, drink advice, etc. So, hope you get her as your bartender, and on to the other stuff. I had the DDH IPA, wife had the cider and then the Sangria, and all were solid, although she liked the Sangria better. I was in a burger mood, and got the mac and cheese as a side. Wife got the Philly with the green chili as a side. One note on her side. It was a little hot for her, but awesome for me and anyone who likes hot stuff. Wife won our usual "food battle" but both dishes were solid. I added the Calabrian dressing (odd choice, I know, but I saw it on the menu for a different item) for putting on burger and in mac and cheese, and it worked well. I liked the background music, I loved the bar setup, and there was a whole rack of cool gear if you wanted to walk away with something. Plus, halfway through our visit, curious where our Sangria came from, there is a whole OTHER bar and restaurant side. The place is right on the main drag of Idaho Springs, and there is frequently something going on during the weekends. This place is also by the public parking for the town, so very convenient. Oh, and cornhole in the back! If I had to knock anything, it was that I think that the $6 add for my mac and cheese was a little steep for the serving size, but it didn't ruin my awesome experience overall. Plus, I LOVE mac and cheese. Thank you, Kasey. You are awesome. I highly recommend this place, whether living in town, staying temporarily in the area, passing through, and see...