Barren's Distillery + Restaurant — Restaurant in Camden

To start with the good, the chicken pici pasta and the fish in the fish and chips were excellent, as were the drinks (a pink gin gintonica and an aviation in blue with their harbor gin). The rest of the experience was a little dubious. I'd made a reservation online for the patio to ensure we'd get a spot (during peak dinner hours on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend) and we arrived on time, but there was no space on the patio and we were given the choice of sitting at the bar or upstairs. We chose upstairs, which does have nice views of the harbor, to be sure, but the speakers were apparently on the fritz because it was as quiet as a library. Everyone was whispering to avoid sounding too loud in the echo-y space (until someone started playing ping pong in the adjacent room, anyway). Our server was nice enough but took our drink order, then came back quite a while later to apologize for forgetting what we'd ordered; retook our drink order, and then when our drinks came, the order was half wrong. We also had to ask for some water twice. Dinner itself as I said was pretty good except the fries in the fish and chips were underseasoned and extremely dry. We'd have asked for some ketchup or vinegar or something to make them more palatable but that would have required trying to find a server - good luck. I'm assuming this is mostly down to start-of-season issues that will get better as summer kicks into gear but for now it felt distinctly lacking in service...

The establishment had some highs and lows. Highs include an unforgettable outdoor experience. Right on the water with a dynamic outside space as well as a cool hybrid indoor/outdoor bar. The bar boasts an impressive mix of liqueurs. Also, we got a flight of their distillery gins (more on this below) and we were impressed. The Dorolenna Gins are particularly well done. Someone/their distilling team knows what they are doing. I hope they do well with these. Now for the unfortunate lows, When our flight of gin was brought out to us (and it took a long time), the first clear gin had a solid teaspoon of sand-like particles at the bottom of the tasting glass. There was so much of it I thought it was meant to be there but asked our server. She looked confused and brought it immediately back to the bar. I saw her interaction with the bartender who clearly appeared not to care during their interaction. The explanation was that they use those same glasses for some sort of oyster seasoning and it was missed. Totally fine, things happen but there was barely an acknowledgement it was a mistake or an apology. Just an “oh well, here is a new one”. Again, things happen, no big deal but neither staff seemed to really care. In addition to this, service was very slow to start (they seemed to be well staffed) and our server had the same laissez-faire attitude throughout the experience...

From sitting down to getting a drink was 40 minutes. (It was a Tuesday night and not that busy). I was excited to try a fun drink, ordered the Blue My Mind for $17. I didn't care for it, but no sign of time server to say anything. Ended up trading drinks with someone else in my party who didn't mind the taste. Ordered crab dip to start, but got deviled eggs instead. It was explained that they ran out, but the eggs were complimentary. We then watched the couple at the table across from us (who arrived at least 30 minutes after us) enjoy their crab dip. My son got the fish and chips, which he said was great. Fries were good to. His girlfriend ordered the apple scallop salad. She had it last year and really liked it. This time they ran out of apples and substituted frozen blueberries. This changed the whole flavor of the meal. They did give us a complimentary shrimp cocktail in exchange. While it's always nice to get something complimentary, we didn't ask for eggs or shrimp. I think coming over to our table and explaining that they were running out of food would have made more sense. At least give us the opportunity to make another choice or go elsewhere. We would definitely go back, because the bar has a great vibe, but only for drinks, I probably wouldn't eat...