The Brew House — Restaurant in Blackstone

Overall: Great atmosphere, amazing food - literally every bite we all kept saying wow. Perfect temperature, perfect seasoning, excellent presentation. Spotlessly clean and the decor was simple but very classy. The layout is well thought out and not crowded. This place could easily accommodate any range of clientele. I could see this as being a great spot to grab a quick bite, business luncheon, have a date night, or hold a wedding reception. There were even power and usb power outlets at our table - nicely done y'all. Literally my only complaint is that the Verizon cell signal in the building was horrible and (although I didn't actually ask them) I don't think there was wifi. I could be wrong on that one. Regardless, that's hardly a valid part of this review, the signal was bad outside too, lol.

Food: We ordered Brew House Shrimp for an appetizer. Crispy fried popcorn shrimp tossed in their "boom boom" sauce served on a bed of romaine with diced cucumber. Fried food tossed in any sauce is tricky because it can easily become a soggy mess if the breading isn't perfectly crispy or the sauce is left on the food for too long before serving. It was perfect, we practically inhaled it, and the leftover cucumber/romaine "salad" that was left was lightly sprinkled with leftover sauce. It made a great palette cleanser. Try anything that comes with the house pita chips - they are excellent. They were very accommodating for the vegetarian in our group and allowed substitution on one of the "Big Salad" menu items we ordered. By the way, they're not kidding, the salads are huge. The toasted bread on the club sandwich was so good I think it should be on the menu by itself as an appetizer. Oh, and order anything that comes with the house fries - hot, crispy perfection. I can't wait to go back just to try more of the menu.

Menu & Pricing: There's an art to having a diverse menu with lots of options from an inventory stocking perspective. Most restaurants with this many options have to charge higher prices just to cover having so many raw products available at any moment. Pricing is on point, the portion sizes are generous. There are high dollar items for those who are splurging but plenty of $10-$15 entrees as well. $1.50 domestic bottles and 1/2 price beverages for the girls on Thursday nights. 3 of us had multiple rounds of cocktails and beer, appetizers, entrees, and desserts - the bill was $90. Can't beat it.

Service: Justine was so attentive we thought she was the owner. She was there at all the right moments and we never waited a second on anything. She also did a great job of not hounding us to death. Words I'd use to describe her and her service would be: warm, kind, welcoming, attentive, and accommodating. This isn't a place where the other staff members ignore you either. When the other server attending the table next to us walked by she cleared dishes, asked how we were, etc. - they are a team. I can tell that they have a "hot food walks" policy. When food is ready to go out - it goes out - right now - because although it might be inconvenient for the employee passing by - it's the best thing for the customer. We really appreciate that as patrons.

Entertainment: Live music that was the right volume as to hear it but not blow you out of the restaurant. The web site says Live Bluegrass Every Thursday Night at 7pm, but instead there was a female duet who played acoustic covers of some pretty challenging classic rock tunes. They were obviously new but the vocalist has some power, held pitch well, and the guitar player is quite talented and provided some nice harmonies. They need one more guitar and/or bass and somebody on the bongos and they will be awesome. Regardless, the layout of the space and the volume of the music allows for the folks in the restaurant to hear each other easily while the folks at the bar got a more direct show. It works well.

We have a new place to enjoy and will be...

I want to start off first by saying, I never give bad reviews on restaurants because usually, where one or two things are bad, something else makes up for those things. When recalling our dining experience at The Brewery in Blackstone, VA, there was nothing that even deserved a 1 star. We walked in around 2pm on a Saturday. We were greeted and told to sit where we wanted. We chose a booth on the left and after a quick glance around, realized there were very few people. I believe the manager (a lady) handed us menus and a paper with the beers listed) The waitress walks by and stops, dramatically, and looks surprised that we are sitting there. She walks past us and helps the booth next to us and when she comes back just stands at our table. I couldn’t tell you her name cause she never introduced herself. I finally spoke up and told her what drinks we wanted and she just walks away. We wanted appetizers but figured she’d get that order when she comes back. We wait a while for three teas and the manager comes back and asks for our drink order and we told her we already gave it to our waitress so she starts to take our food order. We order #16 wings (with two flavors) for appetizers, a $31 steak with baked potato and blue cheese on my salad, and two salmon dinners for my husband and dad. After waiting 45 minutes, the waitress brings out the wings and MY steak dinner. I told her as she’s trying to walk away that we need silverware. She huffs away and at that time I realized I did not have salad dressing or steak sauce. She comes back with the silverware and tries to walk away again and I’m like I’m sorry but I need these things. She brings me back RANCH and huffs away again like we’re bothering her. My husband and father had to eat their wings on a napkin cause she didn’t give them plates. We wait another hour and they still do not have their salmon dinners. My baked potato was almost too hard to eat. My steak was so tough I had to saw through it and then pull it apart. My husband and I were sharing a drink at this point. I finally got up, after that hour, and went to pay the check and it was our waitress that was at the register. I told her to take off the salmon dinners cause we never got them. She was mad and said she needed to go speak to someone. She goes in the back and after a few comes back out and says she took them off it’ll be $72 ..something. She never says sorry or even told me what was taking so long. There was another woman standing at the counter waiting for a to go order and was also irritated. When we got in the car we realized they double charged us for the wings. Like I said before, if one part of this dining experience had been good I wouldn’t even care about the rest. We just enjoy being out with each other making memories. But the staff was rude, service was terrible, the food was horrible for the prices….i could go on. We are moving to Virginia and we’re looking for some good restaurants near us and the brewery/restaurants in Philadelphia are amazing and we were thinking we hit the jackpot with one being so close to our new home. It really was a let down. I do not recommend this place at all. I would almost go as far to say I’d be surprised if this place is still in business by the end of the year if there aren’t...

I do not like to leave bad reviews, I know how they can make or break a place, it takes alot for me to leave one, with that said this was definitely my top 5 worst dining experiences. We went at 12:45 on a Sunday during an arts and crafts festival, so I assumed they would be pretty busy, I was pleasantly surprised that they weren't at all. Literally 3 tables with patrons and that was it. The only server/hostess in the building told us to have a seat wherever. She seemed irritated and tired when she came to take our drink order, when we ordered I let her know I have to be gluten free as I have celiac disease and cannot consume gluten ( I do appreciate that they offer gluten free options as most places do not, so when places do that are safe I patronize them frequently, can't say I'd be super excited to give this place another chance though) anyway I asked if the fries were gluten free because I had read on my find me gluten free app that they were, she stated that she didn't know but lots of gluten free people get them, I said so they are cooked alone in their own fryer? She thankfully admitted no, everything is cooked together, I was incredibly grateful for her honesty as I would have gotten them and been so sick for weeks. We ordered and after 45 mins of no food I kindly asked if she knew when it would be out as my one year old was hungry and I knew her patience would soon wear out. She said she didn't know because they only had one cook and she would go check & let me know. Another 15 mins went by and she came out with my daughters fries and said I got him to do her fries so she would have something, again I was appreciative as we had now been there an hour but nothing was said about the rest. I have empathy that it was only 2 people working in the whole restaurant, I understand that must be very difficult and overwhelming and stressful, but apologizing and letting us know would have been nice and gone along way instead of sitting and wondering what on earth was going on. My mother in law noticed the cook goofing off when she went to the restroom, I didn't notice anyone hustling to try and make things better, offer apologies or simply letting us know what was going on. My food was good I have no complaints there but my daughters chicken bites had pieces hard enough to break a tooth when I was cutting them up for her. So if you go take tons of patience...