The Brass Tap — Restaurant in Citrus Park

Going to be honest here. For the flagship corporate office, attention to the details must be paid attention to!

TL;DR: Food was great, service was lackluster at first; picked up towards the end though!

Went out to 'The Brass Tap' of Carrollwood tonight to watch some post season football. It was mid-afternoon and not terribly too busy. There was plenty of waitstaff to handle the tables there for the games. However, me and my girlfriend found it difficult for a server, any server, to really pay attention to us.

The food, on the other hand was great! The wings and chicken quesadilla's were out quickly, hot, and tasted great. Also, the different sauces for the wings were excellent; a must try is the spicy garlic sauce!

Talked to Rory which is filling a lot of 'titles' of this place. Not only is he the head brewmaster of Carrollwood Brewing but he's also taking on floor manager responsibilities. My girlfriend and I brought up the lack-luster attention of the servers. Examples include having to physically call over a server (not ours) to get some waters, beers running dry, and (what can only be called a millennial type of thing) servers looking uninterested on their cell phones. I'm not that old, in my 30's, but for the love of all that is good, please just put the dang cell phone away for the few hours that you're working. Trust me, your social life will be there at the end of the shift!

But I digress..

Rory personally handled the situation in a very professional manner. We discussed at length the service that we had experience that night. From that point on, service was on point. The servers paid us and everyone, including a 20-top for a birthday party, the attention that a place like this needs. In fact, we decided to sign up in their loyalty program entitled 'The Brew Crew' as we intend to be back.

In this day and age, it is sad to go out and pay any amount of hard earned money on poor service. This place is trying hard and Rory, whether he is the head brewer or floor manager, really takes pride in his job and the company and it shows! Rory definitely turned a very poor experience into a very positive one!

Thank you...

We’ve been loyal customers of Brasstap in Carrollwood for the past eight years, frequently dining here (at least once or multiple times a week) with our kids and never having any issues. Unfortunately, our experience on the evening of Saturday, March 8th, was extremely disappointing due to the behavior of the manager, Amy.

Despite our kids being well-behaved — acting like normal children in a restaurant — Amy seemed to nitpick every little thing they did. Rather than focusing on managing the restaurant, which has noticeably struggled with service lately, she spent her time hovering over our table of three families. While hovering/making inappropriate comments, a neighborhood family sitting across from us witnessed her misconduct and considered leaving as they continued to wait a considerable amount of time to be waited on… Additionally, her comments about our parenting were completely inappropriate and out of line.

If Brasstap no longer wishes to cater to families, they should make that clear — but considering they’re located in a very family-oriented area, that decision would seem misguided. It’s sad because many of the servers have watched our kids grow up, and we’ve always enjoyed supporting this locally headquartered business.

However, if Amy continues to manage the restaurant, we won’t be returning. Families deserve to feel welcome, not unfairly judged...

This place is close to my house but I tend to travel to other stops.

The interior design and space of this Brass Tap is big and open with outdoor seating and a unique area that can open up to a pass through bar/outdoor area seating location that is pretty nice in the cooler months. At the far end of the building space they have a staging area that local bands play on, nice touch.

However there is a strange atmosphere that makes the place feel a bit pretentious and not that inviting. It's hard to explain but that's my take on it. Just not a warm and welcoming feeling I get when I go and I have been there between 6-10 occasions. Maybe it seems just a bit too commercial. Almost like a tourist hangout.

I have noticed that the service here is hit or miss. Sometimes it's been really good with friendly bartenders that are really knowledgeable about the beer and provide quick and prompt service to average to below average with staff that seems like they would rather be somewhere else and slow service that takes way too much time to get a refill..

Love the way they set up the interior seating and they have multiple TV's to pick up the current popular sporting events that are being televised.

Don't let the rating fool you, the place is nice it's just not one of those places that begs you to make this a...