Trail Stop Brewery — Local services in McBaine

Edit- after receiving the comment from the “owner” below, I just happened to be in the area and stopped by to talk to the owner.

The owner I spoke to is actually the owner of the property and the brewery who was a kind professional.

The owner below who commented is the owner of the Marceline pizza company, the food vendor inside. I figured this out because he answered several other reviews at the same time and identified himself as “Andrew.”

“Andrew” needs to understand that I did address our issues very kindly and politely with the staff and the server did notify the person who we believe was the manager, however… Nothing else was said to us. (And that’s ok.)

So to Andrew, you have a very poor business model, you are extremely bad at identifying the circumstances that actually occurred leading up to this review and in the end, I hope you either realize this and change your business or I hope that the actual property owner puts a new food vendor in there.

The south side of Columbia very much needs good food but I’m sorry… $24 for a tiny pizza and being charged for barbecue sauce for a barbecue chicken sandwich that is cold isn’t what we need.

Your attitude in this review response fits your “I’m from Chicago” claim, and maybe fits your response, “this place just isn’t for you”

In a good note, the actual owner told me that the billing charge for refills!

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Well, I don’t think I’ve ever gone out to eat and then wished we had just stayed home and eaten cold leftovers until today, because I think we just paid $89.59 for something like cold leftovers. They have been open for the 4th week now, and it’s not good. They won’t stay in business at this rate. Food was cold, WAY overpriced for what it was, extra charges for everything. Is your BBQ sandwich missing the sauce because it’s only soaked into the bun making it soggy? No problem, for another dollar, they will bring you a tiny bit more BBQ sauce. (Made me afraid to even ask for ketchup!)

The pizzas for $18 & $24 each came out as tiny thin 12” pizzas that you had to fold to even eat because it is so thin. My 5th grader was still starving when we left, after eating a “whole” $18 cheese pizza.

Now, my wife’s chicken sandwich… well, let’s just say I’ll be keeping an eye on her since I’m pretty sure chicken should be at least 160° at some point in its life… but it was refrigerator cold in various spots when she got it.

The service wasn’t horrible, it was obvious that the nice girl was new, so she still got a 20% tip but I told her she might look into self preservation and keep an eye out for another gig because the food portion of this place isn’t going to last.

Contrary to other reviews, we didn’t have to wait, I guess word has gotten out on how bad the food is.

The drinks? No complaints other than mixed drinks being small and over iced… but I’m ok with people getting that because I’m not a fan of drunk drivers.

Oh, but while everyone knows that soft drinks have a 500% - 1000% markup (google it) this place takes no shame in charging you to refill that soft drink. (I mean it’s 2025 and most places don’t even use COVID, Trump or Biden as an excuse to do that.) Wait, it must be the tariffs!

Anyway, we were excited to go here, I was upset our daughter couldn’t make it… until we got back home and I was happy she didn’t have to experience it, and that probably saved me another $30. Congratulations to her.

So… in short… save yourself the agony. You won’t play pickleball anyway because that’s another $20.

Probably won’t be back unless we have guests that we don’t like, then maybe we will...

I'm always disappointed when I feel the need to write a "bad" review, but this was the worst customer service experience I've had in a very long time. In short, our waiter was really really really bad. It started badly, and it ended even worse.

To start, we were never greeted after we seated ourselves, so we eventually had to awkwardly flag down the guy who seemed to be working the section we were in. I had to find my own menu as well by walking over to the bar where I spotted them hiding in the corner.

For context, it was not a busy afternoon. I have all the grace in the world for servers doing their best to manage busy sections, but that simply wasn’t the case on this day.

When he finally came over, there was no apology. No acknowledgment of the lack of service. In fact, it almost seemed like he wasn’t sure why we were there. It was very bizarre. The awkwardness continued when I said something like, “Do you mind if we order some food?”

I had a few questions about the menu items, and all of them were met with lazy and unhelpful answers about “not being sure.” Finally, he offered to ask the kitchen, which we agreed would be a great idea.

After a clunky exchange, we decided to order a flatbread. Thirty-five minutes later, no flatbread and no check-ins from the waiter. No water refills. Nothing.

So again, we had to flag him down and politely ask about the status of the flatbread. He suggested “maybe” it was delivered to the wrong table and that he could “maybe” ask the kitchen to remake it for us. It was truly mind-boggling.

We politely told him to cancel the order since the friends we were eating with had already eaten, paid, and packed up their things.

He never apologized for a thing. Not even a half-hearted, “Sorry ‘bout that.” Nothing.

I hate to give a 1-star rating for the food. Maybe it’s really good! I’m honestly not sure since ours never came.

My wife and I laughed about it all the way home, and it’s safe to say we won’t be back.

That being said, I thought it was a very clean establishment with a cool vibe, which is why I was so disappointed by...

Quick thoughts: Good (in some cases, great) beer, and OK pizza that is slightly overpriced.

I've been excited for Trail Stop to open since it was first announced. I love small, craft breweries and you can never go wrong pizza, so on paper this place checked my boxes. The initial negative reviews after opening initially kept me away, but we finally made it in to try for ourselves recently.

Based on what I could tell, the initial complaints about the wait staff and overall organization seem to be mostly resolved. We had no issues, and things moved along smoothly.

The beer is the standout here. They were out of two beers that I had been very excited to try (the wheat and pale ale), but I grabbed a flight of the rest and was impressed. I can only imagine this getting better as time goes on and they settle into what works and what doesn't in terms of their beers and brewing.

I'm pretty picky with IPAs, but the Double Dose was fantastic, which is rare for me to say about an IPA. The Coal Miners Lager and Qacksalver were refreshing and very drinkable. The porter was also fantastic - I'm really looking forward to the fall/winter seasons to enjoy that one.

The pizza on the other hand left something to be desired. The flavor was ok, but a 12" pizza for the price and quality was a bit of a value mismatch. If the price point remains the same, then the size needs to increased. Overall taste was ok, but certainly not the best pizza I've had in Columbia.

My wife and I split the hot pepperoni, which was $24, and each got a side salad $8 each. So for pizza and a salad, it was $20 per person, and we were a little less than full. I'd say an appetizer was needed, which would have brought the per person cost up closer to $25-30 each for the food portion. Beer will of course set you back more, but it was pretty on-line with expectations. For a couple eating and having a few drinks each, expect to spend at least $75-80.

Overall, I'm looking forward to watching Trail Stop adapt and grow. I'll for sure be back for the beer, and hope they are able to work out the kinks...