Bristol Brewing Company — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

Bristol Brewing Company is located in what used to be an elementary school that has since been repurposed into a brewery/restaurant. The unique setting gives it a communal hippy kind of feel. You will expect to find basic brewpub fare, with the only difference being that everything is a bit overpriced: $14 burgers, $12 deli sandwiches and lots of fried appetizers and, of course, all the microbrews you can handle. Our visit started out badly as there are no signs pointing would-be patrons in the direction of the restaurant which, unless you're a local and know the entire building's layout, it is a bit difficult to find. Once we found the restaurant we were met with a lackluster greeting from the hostess and shown to our table along with a complimentary carafe of room temperature water that no doubt quenched the thirst brought on by a 98 degree day. We meet our waitress who introduces herself by throwing menus on our table. The moment we picked the menus up she asked what we would like to drink and in the same breath asked if we were ready to order; we hadn't even cracked the menu open yet. Fifteen whole minutes pass without sight nor sound of our waitress when she finally shows up to deliver our drinks and take our order. After placing our order, we notice a table of three sit down next to us, among other tables arriving after we've placed our order. Our waitress immediately takes their's, and every other table's order, and within twenty minutes the table of three has their food and drinks. Meanwhile, we're staring at half empty glasses of tea and empty spaces on our table where our food should be and wondering why we are the only table without food being that our's was the first order placed in a dining room full of latecomers. Our waitress made a stop at every single table TWICE before she brought us our food. Midway through the meal I had to walk my own glass to the bartender and ask her for a refill as our waitress stood a few feet down having a conversation with another waitress about weekend plans. We finished our meals and waited for another twenty minutes for a ticket that never came even though our highly perceptive waitress saw me twirling my debit card in my hand. My wife had walk to the bar to ask a bartender for our bill and pay for it at the bar. As we're leaving, our waitress, with a startled look on her face, tries to shove a ticket in our face and tell us we need to pay. I kindly told her we already took care of the bill as we headed out of a mediocre restaurant that we most likely will never return to. If you have the opportunity to eat here, DON'T!! You'll find better food and a more hospitable environment at one of the many breweries Colorado Springs has to offer (Colorado...

Not only where we practically like( shunned) and told to goto the other little cafe if we wanted togo service.(by a certain server) more or less actually denying business for their place fix the other place didn't even serve the same type of food and the lack of professionalism or courtesy or air goes the reason why they call it hospitality they took a long time. To bring us a chicken Caesar salad which the chicken was cold there was barely any dressing knowing it was for to go they actually put the dressing still on the salad and only drizzled on top the portions were extremely small the person who came out actually one even a server it was the person from the back kitchen was extremely rude for the prices that they have it was so not worth the crappy service so we went to the bartender when we paid out and we gave him the tip. So between the server was very dismissive to us. how to walk back and forth also not even trying to introduce his name besides the he didn't even ask what you could help us with or try to read through the menu or ask if we had any questions he more or less or tried to tell us to go to the one down the hallway I mean I love the Bristol Brewing Company where the concept is like a schoolhouse but they need to really understand what kind of service these people are actually giving and their lack of care or be nice the word Hospitality which that actually falls in category for a career was so far from it on top of it for the prices that you pay they were extremely small portions so we wound up tipping the bartender because he was the nicest person out of there because we had to pay with him to begin with because we waited and waited and waited for that server to come back and no one showed he didn't ask us what we wanted he didn't even know if it was going to be a four to go so we will end up giving them the rest of this gift card because we work at Texas Roadhouse and he want up getting a 50% tip to tipping the bartender cuz everyone else seemed to be so rude / dismissive or didn't even care and they weren't busy so there was no cause for this everybody else because they were extremely rude the bartender was the only one . So I hope that management start opening their eyes to a broader that perspective because they're going to lose more business than anything especially when you already have one server who greets you with in his greeting stated go to this restaurant this can't come here that can't come here blah blah blah I mean seriously didn't even introduce...

Last week my wife and I and our 9-year old son were on vacation in Colorado Springs. On our last day a local suggested that we check out the Bristol Brewery for great beer and lunch. The remodeled school building is beautiful and the physical conversion to a brewery and neighborhood center was obviously a labor of love.

Unfortunately, from the moment we walked up the steps of the old school building we did not feel welcome. Upon entering the front doors you must choose to turn right or turn left. The only way we knew to turn right for beer was the loud bar noise. To the left down the hall was a separate restaurant. Confused, I stopped at a brewery t-shirt booth and asked an employee how we could order food and have a beer. She glared at me, looked annoyed, and dismissively explained that you order and pay for the food first and the restaurant delivers it to the bar side.

Getting through the crowd in the bar was difficult. However, we thankfully found an outside deck with open tables. Unfortunately, the tables were in the bright midday sun with no umbrellas or other shade. The food arrived: (a) lukewarm watery beer cheese soup which my hungry son refused to eat; (b) a tiny "large" meat and cheese tray with several slices of pepperoni and 1/4" cubes of cheese; and (c) my $8.00 Italian salad that was slightly larger than my wife's $2.99 side salad. Since we had to prepay for the food and no one from the restaurant side ever came back to check on it, the restaurant service was virtually nonexistent. The beer waitress took my credit card to run a tab, delivered the beer and never came back. Another waitress dropped off the check with no credit card. I had to chase after them and request that they find and return my credit card.

At this point you must be thinking: "Yes, but what about the beer?". The beer was very good. I imagine this brewery became famous as a result of brewing consistently great beer served in a small, friendly, cobbled-together neighborhood brewpub. The new, improved, polished Bristol Brewery complex needs to figure out a way to make a stranger feel welcome to sit down with a fresh beer. Forget about the present separate restaurant arrangement. Just give me a bowl of pretzels.

It may be that the owners of the Bristol Brewing Company are happy just being popular with locals and do not care that outsiders do not feel welcome to their "private club." I hope that is...