Zeus Brewing Company — Restaurant in City of Poughkeepsie

Zeus Brewing: A Masterclass in How Not to Treat Your Guests

My fiancé and I came up from Manhattan to house hunt and were genuinely excited to try Zeus Brewing. It looked beautiful online and seemed like the kind of place we could see ourselves frequenting if we moved to the neighborhood. Being craft beer lovers, it was one of the top stops on our list.

At first glance, the space lived up to the hype—clean, modern, and inviting. We were seated quickly, got water within a few minutes, and thought we were off to a great start. But what came next was an absolute trainwreck of service and hospitality.

We sat at our table for twenty minutes—yes, a full twenty—without anyone taking our order. Three different staff members walked past us multiple times and didn’t so much as acknowledge we were there. A wedding party showed up about 5–8 minutes after we were seated, and suddenly the staff’s ability to multitask or even make eye contact vanished.

Frustrated, we went up to the bar hoping for better service—and were met by someone who appeared to be the manager on duty. Unfortunately, he was not only unwelcoming but dismissive. He avoided eye contact, gave off zero enthusiasm, and seemed completely uninterested in having us there. We felt like an inconvenience, not guests.

I asked for extra onions on my pizza—he forgot, didn’t apologize, and only after the food sat untouched for ten minutes did Bridget (one of the only bright spots in the experience) come by and offer to fix it. She was the only person who acknowledged the issue and showed any sense of care or accountability. She even apologized, which is more than I can say for the manager, who seemed checked out from beginning to end.

Here’s the part that’s hard to ignore: as a person of color and a gay man, I couldn’t help but notice that all the non-ethnic guests around us were greeted quickly and served attentively. I don’t know what was behind our treatment—but the contrast was striking, and it left a bad taste that no craft beer could wash away.

What makes this even more disappointing? We just put an offer on a house one block away. This could’ve been our new local spot—somewhere we’d bring friends, family, and out-of-town guests. But after this experience, I wouldn’t recommend Zeus Brewing to anyone.

Now here’s the twist: we ended up going to Schatzi’s Pub and Beer Garden afterward—same ownership, totally different world. From the moment we walked in, we were greeted with a smile, seated quickly, and received warm, timely service throughout. We sat in the back patio and were still checked on frequently. The food was fantastic, the drinks were cold, and most importantly—we felt welcome. We stayed for hours and spent money happily, because that team understood what hospitality means.

If Zeus wants to succeed in a community like this, they could learn a lot from the...

Original plan was to go to Mill House because Zeus wasn't opened yet when we finished our walk across the Bridge and back. How we since Mill House had no outside tables for 2 hrs due to reservations, and a desire not to dine indoors to Covid we waited for Zeus to open.

Got to Zeus before opening and the owner opened the door for us to quickly ask about reservations which are only needed for the rooftop. We got lucky though and some one canceled so we got a rooftop seat, and the views are amazing.

Now onto the important stuff, first the beer. My buddy and I tried 5 different beers and they were all extremely well executed that we quickly deemed this a favorite brewery.

The Queen City Pils was a perfect first beer and executed incredibly well. Pilsner do not allow a brewer to hide lack of talent and skill as much as an IPA or Stout and this beer showed that the brewer here had some talent and that the beers were going to be amazing.

Next was the Gold Jet Ski lager another style that doesn't hide flaws and one that I enjoy but won't typically rate high on Untapped but I gave this one a 4.75 it was so good. After this it was into Obscurum their Munich Dunkel which is a favorite style of mine and my buddies. We both highly enjoyed this and at this point we decided we will probably need to take the 2 hour train ride again to explore more at this brewery, but we weren't done.

We then hit two of the IPAs a style I enjoy but is also a little played out at times. First up was Multimeter a collaboration with Industrial Arts which has an upstate locations well as their home base Brooklyn location. This West Coast IPA hit all the right notes and was easy drinking. Then we finished up our beer with Orion their NEIPA brewed in collaboration with West Kill, once again solid and making us want more but we had a train to catch.

Zeus though is more than just great beer, it has an amazing friendly and knowledgeable staff and incredible food the Bruschetta, Arancini and BBQ Chicken Pizza were all very well executed and delicious and there was so much more we would have tried if our stomachs could do it.

All in all get yourself to Poughkeepsie if you're not already there and make sure...

One in a million, no, but very good, yes. Lively place, wide beer and food selection, solid daily specials. We started with the Czech dark lager and Zeus NEIPA, thumbs up. Second round was the coffee ale and lemon/hibiscus sour, also worthy of ordering again. Their glassware is fun and fits with the subtle art deco decor. Our server also brought us a sample of the smoky Rauschbier, which was appreciated (and just the right amount). Food was delicious but a little overpriced. Crispy boi chicken sandwich is fabulous, parmesan rosemary fries are flavor-packed (might be an up charge as my sandwich was $3 more on the receipt than the menu). Husband got the Pizza Bianca, which had a great crust but could use some slight adjustments because it was kinda wet and floppy, if toppings were more spread out and prosciutto had some crisp it would be better. Ingredients seemed like good quality but the execution on the pizza could be refined.

One thing that could be improved is the menu format. I don’t mind QR code menus but this one is spaced out a lot and requires tons of scrolling, and rescrolling when you can’t remember the name of what you wanted. A collapsing menu that enables you to jump to each item type would be much less clunky.

Food and drink aside, Zeus is spacious, appealing, has kind and attentive wait staff, and clean bathrooms....