Heights Brewing — Restaurant in Farmington

My husband and I have lived in Farmington for years and finally had the opportunity to try this establishment for the first time last night. Let me tell you…it was our first and last time all in one visit.

Visit started out with the bartender (who should not be a bartender) coming over and asking for our drink order. My husband ordered a beer and I got a water (no ice available so it was warm) as I am not a beer person and they had no diet pop options which was disappointing. Twenty minutes later my husband had to flag the bartender down to have him come back to take our order and he completely forgot my husband even ordered a drink….you are a bartender…how do you forget?

We placed our order and probably 30 minutes go by. No-one ever checks in and then our bartender comes over finally and asks if we need anything else. We both looked at him and said…seriously? Are you joking? We still haven’t gotten our food. Again…he seemed to have forgotten that we even ordered food! He runs back to the kitchen and somehow his tablet didn’t send our order to the kitchen so they didn’t have it. But yet all other orders were coming out fine? They gave us the option to cancel our order since it would take 15-20 minutes but we figured by the time we went somewhere else (plus we had kids at home), we would stick it out as much as we wanted to leave. He did offer a free round which my husband did take them up on and they said they would discount our food (which ended up being 10% which is insulting based on the situation). The food did finally come out and it was extremely subpar. Macaroni was not overly creamy, the brisket was dry and flavorless and my husband’s brisket fries were soggy. Disappointed completely. Beer my husband said was mediocre at best.

Along with all this, the staff had food up on the counter and were eating/drinking beer in front of customers while also waiting on customers. No hand washing in between eating and running things to customers. Health violation for sure….plus not great for the customer experience.

Additionally, we never had an owner come over and talk through what happened. One lady (assuming management) did a quick apology but it was two sentences and didn’t hit the customer service bucket at all. But…seeing as the bartender NEVER came back to check on us once food was delivered until it was time for the bill, doesn’t surprise me as customer service does not seem to be a thing here.

We were also blown away in that there was a gentleman who had a customer ask for the Tigers Game to be put on. He flat out said no and came and rudely joked about it with another set of customers that it is the Tigers 177th game and they were losing and he wasn’t going to do it. With as many TV’s as you have, would it really hurt (even though you advertised the State Game for the night) to turn one TV to the Tigers Game? The restaurant wasn’t even full at this time so it wasn’t like everyone was there for the football game. Again…don’t you want to meet the needs of your customers? Customer service is key in the restaurant industry.

This was honestly the worst dining experience we ever encountered and will not be returning. Additionally, our family and friends use us for restaurant reviews since we dine out all the time but this is one place that we will tell them to avoid as there are a million other establishments that we would go to prior to coming here EVER again.

*Since there is no way to respond to the owners comments, I figured this was the best way to do it. Many items that were referred too in the response were incorrect. I never mentioned about not finding a seat when we got there - nobody was sitting at the end of the bar so we took them, I did know what happened to our order and never said that I did not and the conversation about the Tigers game happened right next to us at the bar and it would have been impossible to not hear it (as with many others sitting at the bar). Do not appreciate being called petty. I feel like my review was not read in full based on the response...

The food here is EXCELLENT and the kitchen is 100% GF which is great as I have celiac disease and I didn't have to worry about cross contamination. Always great being able to have anything on the menu!! However, I wasn't impressed with the ciders or GF hard seltzers, they lacked flavor in comparison with other ciders I've had, they seemed "flat" is the best I can describe it. I had a HUGE concern with how the drinks were served.....we had 4 in our party, 2 got a flight of 5 taster drinks, and the other 2 people had 3 or 4 taster drinks each. For those who did not have a full flight, the GF cider/seltzer was served on the same flight as gluten beer "in order to utilize a full flight board". We were told by our server Azealea that "this is how the flights are served". I reiterated again the concern for mislabeling and cross contamination since they shared a flight board and was told "the owner has celiac so we are very aware of what we're doing". Sure enough, the flights arrived marked however there was a mistake with one, we ordered a mango seltzer but it was not on the flight but a GLUTEN beer was!! This really needs to be revisited as it's too risky for those of us with celiac disease. Our server was not horrible but not great either, forgetting our silverware after being asked twice. I ended up getting them myself along with napkins at the station at the front door. We also asked for more water and she took our glasses instead of refilling at the table, this made me nervous because my husband drank beer and if she got the glasses mixed up, there's a cross contamination concern. When I expressed this she brushed me off saying she knew "who's glass was who's". I just got the vibe that she was bothered by me expressing my concern and her responses to them were blunt as if she was annoyed, instead of reassuring. I'll give this place another try just because the food was great but will probably pass on the ciders/seltzers and hopefully the server will be more interested in listening to the concerns of...

UPDATE: We decided to give the brewery another shot on Father's Day evening. I'm happy to say that we'll give them another star. The brisket and "original" barbecue sauce were very good, and they'd made the right adjustments to the seasoning. My husband really liked the "tangy" barbecue sauce too. The fries are still fantastic, and my husband enjoyed the beans. We still think the gluten-free slider buns need salt in the dough and are far too big for a slider. They had about a dozen beers on tap this time plus some seltzer, root beer, and a gluten-free beer. I ordered a tasting size (about 3 oz.) of the DuPont Saison and The Pollinator, a honey ale. I liked The Pollinator pretty well. I'm really a stout and brown ale lover, and they haven't had that style either time we've been in. My husband tried Dragon's Fire, an English-style bitters. He likes ESB, and thought this one was ok. We stopped in this afternoon excited to try a new place. The overall space is not that large, and Farmington folks are very excited to have a microbrewery and barbecue spot. It was very busy, but we got a table. We were bummed that they only had two beers and a cider, but they are ramping up their brewing capacity. We aren't IPA people, so we tried the Unchained Sweet Tart - sort of like a shandy- and their dry cider. They were ok. For food we tried the brisket and pulled pork sliders, the cornbread muffins and fries. Sliders come on gluten-free buns (ALL food here is gluten-free) that are too much bread for the amount of meat. The buns and the muffins needed a little salt in the dough for flavor, and the meats and cole slaw also needed seasoning. The barbecue sauce needed some vinegar and seasoning; it was very bland. The fries were very good. The brewery has only been open for a week, and demand has kept them running. We'll give them another try in a couple of months when they're at full production and they've worked through all of the trials of opening. They...