WISEACRE Brewing Company HQ — Restaurant in Memphis

So, as is often the case, this brewery's best beers are not on tap, but in the bottle on premises. I understand that each state, and County for that matter, have different laws with regards to alcohol, but let me share my story anyway. Wiseacre has an incredible bourbon barrel astronaut in the bottle which I was dying to try. So, I order one, take it outside with my party, open it, pour iy out in a glass, and begin to partake. Five minutes later, a particularly rude employee comes out, announces loudly that I am not allowed to drink to-go beers on her property, and confiscates my $13 beer. So, I'm thinking, much like getting caught for speeding, "OK, I broke the rules. I got caught. I got punished. No big deal." I ordered something on tap and went on with my life. THEN, we went to a different brewery, and again, several of the beers which I wanted to try were only in cans or bottles. "No problem," said the beertender, "I just have to pour it back here, and hand it to you in a glass." Needless to say, we have a new favorite brewery, and will probably not be going back to beer-stealing Wiseacre anytime soon. I understand that the law is the law (although each brewery seems to be interpreting the law differently), but in my opinion, there are much better ways to handle the situation than did the Wiseacre's...

Staff have always been great. Great venue for catching up with friends.

General management cannot get their head(s) on straight and will tell me something different everytime I come in.

If you want a growler filled, I would recommend going anywhere else.

Edit after reply: On the first growler fill-up, the dude didn't know how to fill and I was left with less beer (see pic). I didn't notice this until I got home and considered myself SOL. I came back the next day and talked with "a manager" to verify they would make sure they knew how to fill growlers. However, he wouldn't fill mine this time and told me he would only fill a "Tennessee growler" and one from out of state was unacceptable. I was a little confused and asked if it was only from their brewery and he specified Tennessee. He offered me a 4 pack of tall boys on the house which was equivalent to a growler and I considered everything even.

However I go back again today with a growler from TN and I'm told they will only fill growlers from their brewery...

Such a headache trying to figure this out, you can even tell from their reply they overcharge for growler fill ups... better just to steer clear.

Edit 2: another growler filled...

“Finish your beer or I’ll take it from you.” - the Wiseacre bartender as he walked by ten minutes before closing. Since when is Covid an excuse to be rude to your patrons? Thirty minutes before closing another bartender came around to each table and aggressively told everyone “last call, lights off at ten, everyone needs to be out by then,” at which time my friend tried to order from her and she told him to go to the bar and get it himself (in that language). I understand that you have a closing time and that you want to stick to it. There are better ways to communicate with your customers, who are trying to support a local business during tough times. And for the record, Memphis’s Covid curfew has been extended to midnight so it’s not as if they were just trying to avoid a violation.

The beer was good, and the space is cool, but the beer is good at Ghost River, High Cotton and Memphis Made too. Given that this is not the first time a Wiseacre employee has been rude to someone in my party (“we’re closing, you need to chug that beer NOW.”), I’ll save myself the horrible customer service and head somewhere...