Stout Craft Co. Kitchen & Tap House — Restaurant in Menomonie

In Reply to the response from Chris about being very disappointed…. I am the Marketing Director for the Stout Ale House…I have been in touch with your wife (Shay) about the situation…First I want to say that we at the Ale House care about all of customers and strive to make sure they receive the best customer service possible. You and your wife unfortunately make that difficult for us to do. In regards to the events of that night…I was approached by you and I told you we would take care of it…at that moment I could not take care of it as I was in the middle of the concert. I talked with the management of the artists and told them this was not in our contract or part of our deal for them to be able to sell Meet and Greets at all. However at that time nothing could be done as the Meet and Greet was about to happen. Jay, the GM of the Ale House, told you he would make it right but he just couldn’t at that moment. We apologized and you said that was okay and that you just wanted us to know about it. At no time did Jay threaten you or your wife or use any foul language as we have multiple witnesses to this…his tone might have been harsh as he was running around trying to run the event. For that we are sorry. I know Jay personally and he would never use profanity to a customer. After the concert you came to me and asked if I could get Chris to sign your truck…I apologized about the situation with the meet and greets and I went above and beyond to get Chris to sign your truck for you. Your wife said to me how thankful you were and how much it meant to you both that WE (Stout Ale House) would do that for you and that we made your dreams come true….You said the concert was one of the “highlights” of your life. Then a week after the concert you contacted me upset about the meet and greet situation. I told you I would look into it and get back to you. These things take time as I had to contact the management of the artists. These things take time. If it is your money you wanted back for the difference in price you stated to me how you are very wealthy business owners and it didn’t matter you just wanted an apology…which BOTH Jay and I gave you. As I stated before we strive to make our customers 100% satisfied. We are sorry that the artists management decided to sell those meet and greets…we had no prior knowledge to this and had no say in the matter at the time. We sold our tickets to help cover our cost to bring a quality entertainer to the Menomonie area. At the end of the day…as much apologizing we have done to you and your wife and bent over backwards to get her truck signed etc. I truly believe you are just unable to be satisfied with anything. You just want to cause problems, and no matter what we do you will not be satisfied with...

My husband and I have been regulars on and off here for the past few years. We used to go 1-2 times per week and always did trivia on Tuesdays. Long story short, we stopped going completely about a year ago when management admitted they knew a team that consistently sat at the bar and won was cheating every week. I started a new job in Menomonie, so we decided to give them another chance and have been going once a week or so again regularly. After our experience last night we have decided we are NEVER going back. I want to emphasize that we were regulars, so have tried most everything we care to try on their menu. Many. Times. Last night I ordered the fish fry, which is normally very good. For whatever reason, last night it was super overcooked and the baked potato looked overcooked as well as it was completely discolored on one side. (The portion of fish was also much smaller than usual, which may explain why it was so overcooked but that is honestly beside the point.) I now dearly wish that I had taken a picture, but it was so obviously dried out and discolored that I didn't think there was any chance they wouldn't fix it for me, a regular customer. We let the server know, and were pretty nice about it at first because accidents happen etc. and our food had always been pretty good. Server comes back after a while and says "the kitchen said that's just how the fish fry is." I explained that I had just had the fish fry LAST WEEK and it was great, nothing like that, and wanted it again, hence why we came back on Friday... The kicker for me is SHE WAS OUR SERVER LAST WEEK WHEN I HAD THE FISH FRY. They comped my meal, she said I could get something else if I wanted but completely refused to let me order another fish fry. I am not a "let me speak to your manager" girlie, despite how this review may seem, so I just shared some of my husband's dinner and we left it at that. We will...

if you're someone struggling with Celiacs Disease (severe gluten intolerance), run the other way. We ordered a gluten-free pizza for my daughter explaining it was for an "allergy" (this is the only keyword most restaurants take seriously). The server seemed to fully understand the importance of this. The pizza came served with...ready for it...a BREADSTICK! Not only was the breadstick obviously full of gluten, it was served ON TOP OF the actual pizza. The server then asked if my daughter could pick up the breadstick and lay it in a paper towel. I'm not sure what the intention was of the breadstick or if she expected the pizza to now be "fixed" and safe to eat?!? We ended up sending the entire thing back so they could make a new one. The good news is I believe they actually did make a new one; bad news is that by the time the new pizza came, the rest of us were almost done eating our food:-(

In all fairness, I decided 2 stars was appropriate as there are some good things with this place. The atmosphere is pretty neat (sports bar feel), servers were friendly, they were very accommodating when we asked for a different table so my elderly mother could more easily sit, and the Trash Can Nachos appetizer was rock solid. We learned they offer either a free drink or dessert on your birthday too so that's cool.

I do think it would've been appropriate for them to offer SOME sort of concession on our bill for the gluten concerns and my daughter not being able to eat with the rest of us, but they did not. My daughter did end up suffering some stomach issues following the meal so she did ultimately get "glutened"...