Humboldt Brews LLC — Restaurant in Arcata

I’m really sorry for this review … but I have to be honest. Please let me preface this with how hard I know people in the food industry work. However, I have been going to this place for 35 years. We decided to buy wings today to take home. This establishment actually charged me a “Service Fee” $13.70 and a fee to use my card $2.47 when I was buying almost 100 worth of food. I was basically told the charge is for parties of 6 or more dining in (completely reasonable)and TAKE OUT ORDERS? So I asked her, “If the two of us sat down and ate it at the establishment…would it be at our discretion what to tip for the service? (and I always tip generously ) The answer is yes.I was so disgusted that they charged me a “Service Fee” and a card fee while buying $80 in food with two people to go. Charged me these fees and didn’t even tell me they were going to. Is it just me 😶🫤? It’s not the staffs fault but, I’ll never return. Oh by the way…they threw 2 quarter pieces of celery for good measure. Total of 24 wings and a fry for almost 100!!! I do have to say they gave me a refund and apologized but, how many people does this happen to? Inflation and hard times is...

Where do i begin. The lack of customer service right from the get go set the whole tone. Walking into this place you think it's going to be a fun inviting place. It's not. You don't know if you seat yourself or if you have to wait to be seated. After waiting to be greeted for over 5 min and standing at the entrance looking like a fool i found my own table. Eventually the Waitress made her way to my table and asked with disgust if we were going to be eating because the kitchen was going to be closing in an HOUR and she wouldn't be around to take care of my table after it closed. After confirming that we would in fact be eating she asked to take our order which really didn't matter considering she got it wrong. The food isn't great. I imagine if you were drunk it would be fine and probably wouldn't even notice the flies walking all over your meal. But eating sober will only leave you feeling like you should have just regurgitated your previous meal. The best decision you can make about this place is to go...

The place has changed so much since I used to be a regular that I'm not even sure if this is my old pub. If it was once Humboldt Brewery owned by former Raiders great Mario Celatto, then it's the right place. They had the North American winner for best stout (oatmeal stout, my all time favorite) and a wide selection of ales, pilsners and lagers made on the spot. They also served THE BEST Buffalo wings I've ever had, which went with the beer superbly. Back then, it was a sit down family restaurant in front with a sports bar in the rear, filled with Raiders paraphernalia. Mario was usually behind the bar and was a friendly host who invited his former playmates to come to the bar to visit.

Then one day, he changed it all. The place closed for refurbishing and when it opened, it was then a pub only aimed at the annoying hippie college crowd: loud, obnoxious, filled with a hundred young morons who believed they were brilliant to a man. I never went back again.

But it sure was a great place until...