Peacock Alley — Restaurant in Bismarck

Long post incoming: This business took a long time to open, but one of the first things anyone knew about it was that they weren't going to be a brewery; they're buying wort from a company called Smartbrew and fermenting onsite. That in and of itself isn't necessarily unheard of, but they aren't acknowledging that it isn't brewing. Calling the guy from New Zealand who started Smartbrew your brewmaster is misleading. They also decided to straight-up ban people (myself and several friends included) from their Facebook page for having the audacity to question or criticize their choice, rather than bothering to just call themselves Edwinton BEER Company. Easy fix. Fargo Brewing did it when they weren't able to brew in ND until the law changed.

On their beer menu, there's absolutely zero description of the beers. Sorry, when you're making your own beer that no one is familiar with, you might want to mention what makes the two different IPAs different. Cascade hops? Double dry hop? Who knows! Probably not anyone in the business since they don't brew it themselves. Oh, they're also charging $7 for a beer they aren't actually brewing. Other breweries that actually are putting their figurative blood, sweat, and tears into brewing don't charge that much.

On to the experience of actually going there: Beer choices were the double IPA (Go figure, no idea what was actually in it), honey brown, Scotch ale, and blueberry wheat. All were average. Also sampled the stout, which was lighter in color than the honey brown and translucent. Yikes. We ordered three appetizers: brisket candy, cheese curds, and shrimp salsa. The cheese curds were good, the shrimp salsa was fine but nothing to write home about, and the brisket candy was beyond dry. I don't understand why you would talk about and go through the effort of lovingly smoking meat for hours upon hours just to cut it into cubes and fry the bejeezus out of it, drying it out. It was tough, unseasoned, and flavorless. Entrees were the loaded beef hotdog, venison brat, jerk sandwich, and the Woodrow flatbread, with sides of truffle fries and mac and cheese. All of the food was cooked well. No complaints there. However, the food itself left much to be desired: the hotdog and brat were like chewing sawdust. The jerk chicken (as mentioned in another review) was devoid of anything even resembling jerk flavor, and got the pita it was resting on soggier than my socks after walking through a flash flood. The flatbread was sweet, sweet, and more sweet. The fries were standard, and the mac and cheese was good, though quite heavy. Perfect analogy for the well-cooked but bland food is the old adage about polishing a turd....and we all know how that goes. Side notes on dining experience: If you're being a "German" restaurant, maybe offer more than just Heinz mustard? In your hot, fly infested dining room, maybe chill the water you have stashed away in a keg in the server area that no one can see? Because it was warm and unpleasant, not cold and refreshing.

Service was fine. Our server, Ben G, seemed a little leery at first (I theorized that maybe he's been inundated with pointed questions about their "brewing" and is a little on edge about the prospect?) but warmed up over the course of the evening.

Another aside: Notice the comments on this and other review sites mentioning the owner? Seems to be buddy-buddy or distaste? Draw your own conclusions. Also, notice some of the other reviews here on Google that are just 5 stars with no comments? Seems a little fishy.

TL;DR:...

Worst customer service I have ever experienced. The manager was extremely rude and disrespectful. A group of friends and I went to Peacock Alley for some drinks on 8/28/21. Our waitress let us know that she had only been serving there for a couple of weeks so we were patient with the amount of time it took her to take our drink orders. Only one person in our group ordered food (a plate of asian nachos). When our order came out, they brought a plate of mediterranean nachos instead of asian nachos. When we told the waitress that these were the wrong nachos, she just stared at us visibly upset and not knowing what to do. We asked if she could fix the order and she said “No, because I read the order back and you didn’t correct me”. My friend, being a picky eater, informed the waitress that she would not be able to eat them. She finally agreed to take the plate back and get her the correct nachos. After several minutes she came back with the same nachos and said that they are unable to fix the situation and we need to pay for the incorrect nachos adding that, if that was a problem we need to talk to the manager. We agreed to speak to the manager, even though none of us are the “let me talk to your manager” type. We felt that this was a small mistake with a simple fix.

The manager came storming over and immediately demanded to know which one of us approved the order. He was so incredibly rude and told us again that we need to pay for the incorrect nachos because the waitress read the order back. We explained that, while we understand that we share part of the responsibility because she read it back and we didn’t notice the mistake, the waitress still took the order wrong in the first place. After being scolded by the manager again, he said that he will fix it this one time but this will never be done for us again. He and the waitress proceeded to stand across the restaurant talking while staring at our table and pointing at us. Most of us hadn’t even finished our drinks when the waitress brought our checks and after she brought our cards back to us, she stood at our table waiting for us to leave (It was still 2 hours before close). It was so uncomfortable that we left without finishing.

Most of us have worked in the service industry and understand that mistakes happen. We were not upset with our waitress and were not rude about the mistake, we only asked if we could get what was ordered. It was very disappointing that it was handled so poorly by the manager. There is never a good reason to yell at your customers (even if they are wrong). My friends and I were all frequent customers of Peacock Alley but will not be returning because of how awful the manager treated us over a $6...

I recently tried one of Edwintons beers at an establishment that shares the same owner. It was awful. No flavor, no character, and flat. Seeing as this "brewery" is not even completely up and running yet I decided to ask around and check their website. What I have come to understand is that this place is not actually "brewing" beer. They are paying (what I can only assume is an absurd price) to have wort (un-fermented beer) shipped in and then they finish someone else's beer on site. The website claims that it is a great process so that the freshest ingredients can be used from "around the world". Why would you want ingredients from "around the world" when you can literally find the best ingredients in your own backyard (water, hops, malted barley). Also this opens their product up for all sorts of sanitary problems. There is literally a countless list of things that could occur and will ruin the final product. To me this process seems like selling beer that comes out of an industrial sized Mr. Beer kit.

I was not trying to stir the pot but simply trying to understand. Out of disbelief I messaged the "brewery" to confirm or deny this and if so, ask why they went with this process. I was blocked from commenting on further posts and ignored. Needless to say, I became upset. I was merely trying to ask questions to gain a better understanding of why they chose this route. To me this seems like someone trying to cash in on the craft beer hype without doing 90% of the work that goes into making a good beer. I have since found out that every single person that has asked them these simple questions has been blocked and experienced the same customer service. It is clear they are avoiding even the possibility of someone questioning their practices. I WAS excited to check out Edwinton when they eventually open. Not any more...

This "brewery" would get no stars if possible. 1. The beer I had was awful. Flat, boring, and tasteless. 2. The beer they make technically isn't even their beer. 3. They have terrible customer relations.

If you want a true craft beer try Buffalo Commons, Laughing Sun, or Dialectic. The jury is still out on their food as the establishment isn't even open to the public yet. However, if you are going there strictly for the beer, there are so many better places to get a craft...