Lazarus Brewing Co. East 6th — Restaurant in Austin

Do not leave your tab unattended here, especially if it’s big. I was forcibly auto-tipped 20% before they even gave me a chance to close the tab myself. But worse than that, it would seem the staff doesn’t even have a consistent consensus on their own policy surrounding this.

The cashier informed me that tabs are auto-tipped 20% if you “walk out”. I asked if that meant after a specific time, or if it meant after they closed. Cashier said it’s after they close. I challenge this because I returned to the venue before they closed on 5/8/24, and my tab was already closed. Another employee came up and contradicted the first cashier, saying it’s after 4 hours. There’s a sign by the register that says “walked-out tabs will be auto-tipped 20%”, but it does not specify the 4 hour requirement or anything else. When asked if I could challenge the charge, they said they’re unable to do anything with previous transactions - as a service worker, I can almost guarantee this isn’t true.

The excuse they give is that this is common practice. That doesn’t make it ethical. Here’s the Webster-Miriam definition of extortion:

extort verb ex·​tort ik-ˈstȯrt to obtain from a person by force, intimidation, or undue or illegal power; also, to gain especially by ingenuity or compelling argument

Besides this, they raised the prices of all their beer by $1-$1.30 since December 2023. Most of their beers are $7.50 - this is a 17.33% YoY increase. That’s more than inflation. So why do they feel the need to extort their customers? Where’s that money going?

On top of all that, they don’t do happy hours of any kind whatsoever. Unfortunately, a lot of happy hours are held here, ironically. I’ll be extra cautious going here in the future, and I advise you to do the same.

And in case you’re wondering after all this, no, the beer is not worth the price. Go to Cuvée next door, they do all day happy hours on...

NOT WORTH IT! I was so disappointed by the service at this place! I got there with a group of 8 people on a Wednesday evening, we sat outside and saw there was a big line so I waited in line with 2 friends hoping to order pitchers for the whole table so that not everyone has to wait in line. When we finally got to order the lady at the cashier just said "that's not something we do" about pitchers, weird but OK so I ordered 8 beers. After she made me wait because they had to change the keg, they finally told me they were out of that beer and that I had to choose another one. Not great but OK, the main thing was that they didn't apologize or cared that i had been waiting for those beers. Finally after one drinks with my friends I decided to close my tab. There was still a line to place on order, but since I was just closing my tab I went straight to the cashier asking for it and the guy told me to go wait in line! I have never seen this in my life. When I checked with him that he wanted me to wait behind 6 people just to close my tab he said yes. I started to argue that he can just pull it and I can sign while he serves other people but he said "you can walk out and we'll close it for you". No way I was gonna let them close my tab with a 20% tip when they're being so rude... I had to fight to close my tab!! I am never going back, we went to Zilker which is two blocks away and they were way nicer, had pitchers...

Went to Airport Blvd location. I had a flight and enjoyed all of the beers that I tried so I took 3 crowlers to go to share with friends back in San Antonio. When I got home, all 3 had leaked and when I took them off of the plastic holder 1 exploded with the top coming off. Good beer, but if you want buy the crowlers to go, make sure you keep them as cold as possible during transport.

Edited after contact from Jessica at Lazarus: changed from 4 to 5 stars and added advice for crowler transport. I’m still unsure if crowler leaks/bursting were from a packaging issue or transport. The beers were never brought above 80F but since they were stored cold at Lazarus, even that temperature change added to the vibration of car travel to San Antonio may have caused the leaking. Note that the temperature change being a factor is my speculation on the cause and not an excuse/deflection offered by Lazarus. Regardless of the cause, Jessica addressed the issue and I am happy with the result. Again, the beer was excellent, service was friendly and the quick contact about a customer issue is a sign of a well run business. I’ll return to Lazarus when visiting Austin and hope to try their food and more of their delicious...