New Belgium Brewing Company — Restaurant in Asheville

I was extremely disappointed in the New Belgium Brewing Co. in Asheville. We just visited this establishment on 10/21 for my best friends 40th birthday celebration. It was 15 of us and we were sitting outside under the tents at the picnic tables and my wife went into the building to get a round of beers. She came out with the Variety 12 pack, and she opened the box to pass the beers around to solute to my buddy. As she is passing the beers out 2 "security guards" came up to her and said she could not drink those beers that she just bought. My wife replied that she just bought them from inside the building and she asked the hostess if she could buy the beers inside the cold case and take them out front to drink to her friends. The hostess said yes so she bought the variety pack, and now these security guards were saying its not allowed to drink the variety pack on the premises and its only "to go." She said she was told an employee inside said it was ok and she bought it for everyone to start the birthday celebration. The security guards said it didn't matter even thou an employee said it was fine because there was a sign inside the building, which my wife never saw. My wife asked if she could take it back to get her money back otherwise the beer will go bad since it's so warm outside, plus we just got to the brewing establishment. They said no they won't take it back or do a reimbursment. Then 3 security guards continued to hang around our table "watching us" to make sure we didn't drink the beer.

As we tried to continue and enjoy the 40th birthday celebration we went to go get food from the food trucks and play corn hole. About 20 min later a women and security guard came over to the table and asked whose box this was and my wife said mine. The women's tone was so rude and unprofessional and she told my wife that because she opened the variety box that it was taking to much energy of our 3 security guards to watch our table and she said that she will either have to hand over the box or leave. My wife was so embarrassed and was so upset so she took the beer and left to go sit in the bus that brought our party. She didn't want to ruin the celebration that was already starting off so terrible because of this establishment. The 15 of us are all adults ranging from 40-43, we flew in from Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, NJ, and VA to have this birthday celebration. We were extremely disappointed how this company dealt with this situation and the rudeness of the staff. I rec you inform your staff better so when they are telling patrons what they can do, but other staff is saying they can't and then asks them to leave. It's also unfortunate how people seem like they can no longer talk to others without being so rude and nasty. Extremely disappointed in New Belgium Brewing Co. for leaving such a sour taste in our mouth with this establishment and starting the 40th birthday party in such a terrible way. We decided to leave to go patronize another brewing company that would treat their patrons...

KIDS NOT WELCOME HERE? [At least according to the young thin bearded man wearing a pink wool beanie.]

We were there with our friend and children, eating some of the edible berries from one of the many trees planted in the common areas, when a nice older gentleman security guard asked what kind of berries they were, and gently asked one of the children not to hang on the trees. Apparently this wasn’t enough for a second younger thinly-looking security guard wearing a pink beenie hat. As he approached us, he quickly turned away after realizing the child [age six, weighing 39 pounds] had stopped doing what the other guard told her. Regardless, I witnessed the man in the pink beenie hat passively aggressively shake his head in disgust of the child. I said to him, “it’s okay,” trying to assure him nothing was going to happen to his boss’s firm and strong fruit tree, but Instead of engaging in a friendly conversation as a grown up, he retreated away with his back turned to me, and muttered “no it’s not” in his best passive aggressive act. So, in receiving two different messages for the same act, one from the nice older man, and the other from the younger man with the pink hat, we took our business elsewhere because it’s not fun to spend time at a business where someone makes you feel not welcome. It’s unfortunate because we are local and the brewery had been kid friendly before. The young man in the Pink beenie hat may benefit from some edification [as I was hoping to have with him] on how difficult [some parents would say impossible] it is for parents to make sure their children are obeying them every second of the day, or how playing on trees in the park a half a mile away is hard for an undeveloped brain to distinguish why they can’t do so at New Belgium. Or, maybe a conversation with the older security guard, who was wonderful, would help.

To give this young man the benefit of the doubt, maybe he was just having an overly emotional day, has a special relationship with this tree, or had a bad experience with a six year old in the past. Whatever the cause, we just wanted a break for a moment to drink and eat here, but his behavior indicated to us that he, as an employee and representative of New Belgium, believes children are a nuisance, so we will choose to go to other places that do not share the same distaste for little kids. We love Asheville for its welcoming nature and shared community, and this guy does not embody those...

Not a great experience at New Belgium today. Thought I'd take my disabled brother for lunch and a beer as he lives in a nursing home and rarely gets out. Parked in handicapped space, but between having to get his walker out of the trunk and get him organized so he wouldn't fall, I simply forgot to put the placard up; a mistake for sure, but one any human can make. Then I had to leave him unintended while it took 40 minutes to get food from the food truck and i was only the second person in line. We finally got seated and I heard an announcement that my car was parked in the handicapped space without placard, so I immediately ran out there to put it up and found a note "You're illegally parked!" True I was, so one note, which perhaps could have left off the exclamation mark, was justified. Went back inside, had lunch (dropped over $60); when I went back out, now there was another note "if you can't remember to put up your placard, don't park here". Yes, sometimes I wish my memory was perfect, but it is not. But, that was just mean. All I could fathom was that here was someone that was so thrilled to be right the first time that when the issue was corrected immediately, they couldn't rest until they were right again. And since I can't visit this place with my brother unless I can park in a handicapped space, this translates to "if you're disabled and have less than perfect memory, don't bother to come here at all". No worries. I won't.

I'd like that person to experience just once how difficult it is for caretakers of a disabled person to handle all that we have to handle just to give a loved one a more meaningful experience in life. But, that's not an experience, or a place, I'll...