Fenelon Falls Brewing & Waterbridge Cafe — Restaurant in Kawartha Lakes

Fenlon Falls Brewery General Manager/Owner

RE: Bad Customer Service Experience on Saturday September 14, 2024.

Your Red Ale is quite tasty, had it before in the past, and it was quite nice. That was about the only positive experience of our visit to your brewery.

My girlfriend and I day tripped up to Fenlon Falls from Toronto for the day and stopped by the Fenlon Falls Brewery for lunch, we sat on the patio on one of the high tables with stools. Both servers told us they were busy and would get to us. It took 15 minutes for drinks to come out, no water was served in the meantime which my girlfriend pointed out to me after the fact. Two, a pair of women, presumed locals showed after us and both servers gave them a warm welcome. Followed by a half dozen post practice beer league baseball players in for lunch. Both parties got their orders in after my girlfriend and I, and had their meals served within 10-15 minutes of ordering.

Our meal, the fungi flat bread and order of quesadillas took an hour, AN HOUR, my guess it sat in the kitchen intentionally. Is it regular practice to serve the locals better than those of us bringing tourist dollars to Fenlon Falls? Both servers working the patio treated my girlfriend and myself quite rudely, and to be honest, are old enough to know better. My girlfriend, a chocolate fan (myself too) was so turned off with the experience she did not want to buy any of your chocolate truffles.

After that experience there’s no way in hell I want to patronize your establishment or drink your beer ever again. A copy of this letter will be posted to Google reviews. For the sake of your business, you need to have a chat with all your servers about customer service, because from what I’m gathering, we weren’t the only ones treated poorly by the two servers on the patio for the day shift.

Would I recommend Fenlon Falls Brewing? Honestly, read deep in the reviews along with mine and decide...

I’m new to the Kawartha Lakes area and visited the brewery about a month ago. I had amazing service from Salina. Who gave me recommendations for places to take my dog on a hike in the area. She was super friendly and made an impression so much so that I decided to come back. Most breweries let dogs in so I didn’t think it would be an issue this time around. I drove about 30-40 mins to come back get food, coffee and a beer and the second I walked in I get a dirty look from Amy the server behind the bar. I made a comment about the place being dead on a Saturday that’s odd breweries are usually busy on these days. Her attitude was immediately rude and condescending. She said we don’t allow dogs, I replied with it wasn’t an issue last time and I just drove 40 mins to get here so I wish that was told to me last time I was in and her response was “okay I don’t need your attitude I’m just telling you we don’t allow dogs”. I said okay we will leave and turned around and walked away and she said no come back I don’t want you to leave like that. I asked if she was the owner she said no. So this message is to the owner, do better with your hiring process. I’m a business owner myself and if any of my staff spoke to our patients/customers like that they’d be fired immediately. Not to mention my dog is also a service animal and that should have been her first question if your establishment doesn’t allow dogs. I won’t be back with or...

I am a wheelchair user, and my recent experience at Fenelon Falls Brewery was a complete disappointment, to say the least. This establishment clearly does not care about accessibility for handicapped or even elderly people. Despite the fact that I am in a wheelchair, I was forced to sit outside on their patio in 5-degree weather, without even the option of a heater. Why? Because they lack a basic accommodation that most businesses should have—a way for people like me to get inside. There is no elevator, and only long stairs that are impossible for someone with mobility issues to navigate.

To make matters worse, we had no choice but to endure the cold because the entire village was closed, leaving us stuck with no alternative. It’s absolutely shameful that a business can be so short-sighted and uncaring when it comes to accessibility, focusing only on making money rather than ensuring ALL customers can access their facility comfortably.

The only bright spot in this otherwise awful situation was the waitress, who did her best to apologize and be kind. However, no amount of apologies can make up for such a blatant disregard for people with disabilities. Shame on Fenelon Falls Brewery for failing to consider the needs of all customers. They need to step up and provide proper accommodations or rethink their priorities. This experience was humiliating, uncomfortable, and...