Buffalo Creek Brewing — Restaurant in Long Grove

I have been to and reviewed many breweries on the North Shore and this is the only one I have been to where my wife and my dog were verbally accosted by fellow patrons of the brewery and where the staff of the brewery were either indifferent to that behavior or actively condoned it.

It was a beautiful day today so my wife, our infant son and dog made our way to the beer garden at Buffalo Creek Brewing. We had been here before and knew the beer garden to be dog friendly. When we arrived, we found a seat (our dog sat under the table) and we were attended to and served very quickly which was great.

As we were sitting and enjoying our flights, a random Aussie shepherd walked past us off leash. This made my dog get anxious, but the dog walked on without coming up to us. A few minutes later the dog came near our table and my wife stood up shoo the dog away. It growled at either her or my dog causing my dog to bark and I had to remove her from the situation. My wife called to the owner of the dog and asked him to come get his dog so our dog could return to the table. He grudgingly did so and returned to where he was standing. He and his friend then continuously stared in our direction muttering. It was obvious they were talking about us and judging by their faces, it was not anything positive.

Maybe 15 mins later the dog again walked by and this time the owner walked past us as well and called my "Karen" to her face. She replied asking him to be respectful to others and he told her to "f--k off". He did this with waitstaff looking on and they did nothing. Not a word was said to him.

I went to our waiter and immediately asked for the check and described what happen. He apologized and said that the man was a "regular" and that this hadn't happened before. That was it, not a "we'll talk to him" or "that was inappropriate". They did literally nothing. This man felt comfortable enough to say this to my wife in front of our newborn son because he knew that being a "regular" meant he had carte blanche to act however he saw fit.

We left before anything could escalate as the two men looked like they wanted to make more trouble. Needless to say, we will never be coming back and I highly recommend you do not patronize this establishment. There are breweries in the area that guarantee their patron's safety and also brew better beer...

Can I give less stars? This place has OK beer. The place is newer, and looks nice. But the vibe is just off. The worst part was the experience with the owner. His dog was roaming loose - not an issue, I'm a dog owner - dog was well behaved. However the brewery owner was throwing discs around the brewery for his dog to catch. At one point the dog jumped up, and came down lame. The owner walked over, and just looked at his dog, who was now standing on 3 legs. He then walks away, and the pup walks it off. I then comment, "good pup - walk it off." The brewery owner looks at me and goes, "yeah - he's 14 years old." He then walks toward the bar, and says to the staff behind the bar - "He tells my 14 year old dog to walk it off - Jackass!" and the staff starts to laugh. I immediately walked out and will NEVER visit that establishment again. What a poor way to treat your customers. I will never give this place another cent!

UPDATE based on owners reply: Appreciate the response and clarification. I have ZERO issues with the dog - and only wish the best for him. My issue was with the rude attitude of the dog owner, and that when he made a comment to the staff, calling ME a Jackass, they all laughed along with him. Sorry - but that type of behavior from the staff does not make it an enjoyable experience. My money works the same as a regular customers money. Unfortunately, while I appreciate your response, I will still not...

Came in to give a try this past Friday. Came with three other guys to celebrate one of the guys new job. The place was very cool looking inside, lots of woodwork. It is big but the seat area is not the size of the whole venue. When we walked in only two other guys were there. Perfect. we could hear ourselves speak and hear each other. no typical distractions like at a typical bar of loud people, servers going by all the time. We wanted a place where we would not be bugged. The place fit the bill perfectly. we each ordered a flight, and then had another 2 or three glasses. The place does not sell food except popcorn and beef jerky but food can be brought in from other places and they also have menus from near by places. we ordered a pizza and some appetizers from Joanies. It was very good. People started to fill in a eventually all the table filled in. (we got there at 6 and stayed till about 930.) Other guests were playing games and having a great time.

BCB beers were great, The Hallows was a smooth and powerful Russian Stout, 42K is a Belgian Ale that was great and the others were very good as well. There is a Kolsh that was so so, but not a deal breaker. Overall, I think we found a place somewhat close to home that we can go to, have great beer, cool place and relax and watch a game if need be. See you folks...