Rail Werks Brewing Depot — Restaurant in Columbia Heights

First off, let me say that we are very excited to have a brewery in our neighborhood that we are able to walk to! So much of what they're doing is great, and we're really rooting for them to succeed! That being said, there's a few areas of improvement I hope they work out as they get their feet under them.

The drinks: I really enjoyed the fruited sour ale and my husband really liked the West Coast IPA. He tried the brown ale as well, which he said was just okay. They have a cocktail menu, and the jalapeno infused tequila cocktail I tried was top notch. Drink prices were all really reasonable. They do have growlers, but I think they should consider making that fact more prominent as it was hard to see the cooler that they were in.

The food: We had the pulled pork nachos and they were delicious. However the price seemed a bit high for the size and amount of toppings, almost $18. Maybe this is just inflation, but all of the food prices seemed just a few dollars more than what I would want to pay. I think the problem is that at a brewery I expect slightly cheaper prices than a full service restaurant, but instead they are about on par.

The biggest issue we had was with the QR menu. It was in-browser so at least you didn't need to download an app, but it was really clunky and took too many steps to get to the menu. Then the prices on the menu were super confusing because they had upcharges for everything. For example, you could get nachos with just cheese (I think) so that was the base price, then there were various add ons and different prices depending on what meat you got. The sliders were similarly complex to order. I hope they find a new ordering app and simplify their menu pricing and options. Sometimes too much choice is not a good thing.

It was also a bit awkward having to walk past the bathrooms and into a hallway to pick up your food. I think it would be more appropriate to have a food runner when the customers aren't able to see the counter where food comes up. They had more than enough staff, so I hope this is a change they consider. It also would have been nice to have some small plates (the nachos came on a metal tray).

The ambiance: Definitely feels like a good place for a game night, and I would be comfortable bringing the whole family. I bet when it's full the vibe is great, but it's such a big space that when there's only a few people in, it feels too empty. They should consider curtaining off the portion of the room with the stage except when it's in use so it feels cozier if the place is not packed.

The major drawback of course is that there's no outdoor seating. It would be cool if they could install roll-up / garage style doors in the future. It will be hard to complete with breweries with outdoor spaces in the summer, but I bet they'll do really well in the winter.

Like I said, I'm very excited for this place, and I'm wishing them every success. I've been very honest in my review because I hope the candid feedback will be helpful to the owners. I know they've just opened, so some things will take time! We will likely visit again once they had time to work out the kinks around the...

First of all...start w the Mad Props for Bar Manager Corey!!! I arrived early, glanced over and saw a couple folks enter, not in brewery shirts.. so I thought they were letting folks in @ 3:53. I went to the door and tried the handle. Locked. I turned to retreat to my truck. I heard "ma'am that door was locked, those were employees." Regardless Corey let me enter a few minutes early!!! I entered, sat on a bench near the bar...quietly....as I didn't want to be a customer until 4:00. It gave me a chance to look around, take pictures, and peruse the tap list so I could build a flight. My beertender who built my flight, who's name I didn't get was friendly. While I drank my flight I briefly chatted up Denise and William. Again, friendly staff. I enjoyed reading the back of Denise's shirt. There was a pretty even mix of standard height and high top tables. I didn't ask about the tables but I'm assuming some sort of repurposed wood as they had what I thought were horse stirrups on them. A little fun thing. Some of the standard height are picnic tables w bench seating. Parking was easy in a strip mall lot. At the end of the bar is a Culligan water fountain w glasses on top of it should you choose. The tables have a QR code w the food menu, so I don't know what the options were. From the tap room you have a clear view in to the brew house.. yeah! One wall is nearly floor to ceiling windows...not fully but enough great natural light. As I looked up from my center table I wasn't below one, nor two but three skylights!! I like the random train signs throughout. I did a flight and definitely am able to rank the four. I thought about trying more but decided to save that for a future visit. And hey Rail Werks.... thanks for having free stickers on the bar!! I think Rail Werks checks all the boxes.... outstanding Bar Manager, friendly & helpful beertenders, delicious beer, comfortable space and easy parking. Looking forward to my next visit. Corey said he made the menu of cocktails, which I unfortunately didn't peruse. He mentioned a couple of them are on tap.....as her poured me the N/A Pomjito...sorry the sweetly delicious Pomjito!!! He said there were only three kegs of it. To which I replied "I'll take two...and a straw!" I'll admit.... Rail Werks surpassed my expectations. I never set the bar too high for soft opens so I was delightfully surprised. Thanks for making my 339th brewery visit a deliciously...

I visited Rail Werks Brewing Depot and was extremely disappointed with the service.

When my friend and I arrived, there was music trivia and a holiday market happening, so no tables really, so we sat at the bar by the front door. There were two other folks sitting at the bar and a server was with them at the time. He glanced our way, but never acknowledged us which…whatever. He’s already with some customers, so no big deal. After serving them, he went to their service area where people could walk up and order. We figured, okay he’ll help a couple of those folks then come our way. Nope. We sat for about 10 minutes wondering if we needed to go to the order station, even though we saw these two other people being served at the bar. Finally, another server noticed us and asked if we had been helped. I said no and she gave us food menus and took our beer and appetizer orders and we told her we wanted more food but would need a minute. She served our beers (I got a flight of 4 and my friend got a single beer) and told me where to pick up our app then disappeared.

Not one person said anything else to us for the rest of our visit. No one came and took away the dishes after we finished our app. No one asked how we were doing or what I liked in the flight. It was like they were actively ignoring us. And while there was lots of activity in the space, we and the other two guys were the only people at the bar, so not easy to ignore.

Eventually, we decided to finish our beers and go somewhere else for food. While we were doing that, another customer came in and sat on the other side of us at the bar and a different server came and served them right away. He also never said a peep to us. The bartender who initially ignored us ended his shift and sat with the other guys at the bar. And there was another woman doing stuff behind the bar, but she never said anything to us either.

We couldn’t even get anyone’s attention to get a bill. I kinda wish we had just walked out without paying them, but I had to give my number to get texted for food pickup. We just calculated our bill based on the menu. No tax, no tip.

Luckily the beers were mostly meh anyway, so it’s no great loss to never go...