Beer Church Brewing Co. — Restaurant in New Buffalo

Our experience can only be described through text, but I want to assure all readers. This is a truly magical place. One which is filled with the sound and scent of community, friendliness, and most importantly, beer.

We arrived in the small town of New buffalo after a long day of travel and sightseeing along the coast of lake Michigan. Beer Church provided abundant free parking near their establishment which allowed quick and easy access. We had to wait about 40 minutes for a table but this allowed us to walk the streets and inspect a few local shops before quickly returning to the alcoholic temple.

We were seated outside at a splendid table with plenty of space for both plate and elbow. Our server, johnny, approached quickly after our seating and took our drink orders. Here is where Beer Church truly set itself above typical small town eateries. Johnny was well informed on the menu, and he was very honest about flavors, even suggesting we avoid certain items based on our tastes. Johnny truly elevated an already wonderful experience to something spiritual. I may never be the same.

The pizza we ordered first was called the "funghi." First off, the crust is something that could only be made by angels. But the toppings were also phenomenal. The only slight critique I could give is that the toppings had trouble staying on the pie, but when it tastes as good as it did one quickly forgives and forgets this sin.

We followed this up with their dessert pizza. Which came complete with dark chocolate (which had been scorched), Nutella, raspberry jam, and Mascarpone cheese. It was a decadent experience that inundated our senses with the smell of chocolate, baked bread, and fresh berries.

Alongside the pizza we had the privilege of consuming one of their beers. Namely, the Pontius Pilate. This was a hazy IPA with strong notes of grapefruit. I would heavily recommend It to those who are fans of "juicy" IPAs.

I feel that by going to the beer church and entering into communion with it's staff and my fellow consumers I have entered into a state of Nirvana. Truly a religious experience on par with any Sunday Mass.

Shout out to Johnny, our server, for being a badass that made our short stay even more wonderful than it had any right to be. We hope to make a pilgrimage to New Buffalo in the future to once more partake in the Beer...

A few years ago we visited Beer Church for the 1st time, had a fantastic experience! Over the course of the last few years when in town we'd look forward to visiting. Today we stopped in, were greeted and sat fairly quickly and efficiently, once the waitress came it was downhill. She approached us asking to take our drink orders, ask her for waters and a few more minutes to look at the drink menu. 10 minutes later (and after one of her other table decided to leave from lack of service) she came to take our order, after we flagged down a waitress from another section. When our food arrived, delivered by a food runner, it took her another 15 minutes to come check if everything was ok. My sandwich was extremely hard one over done on the edge and very doughy in the middle; the kitchen did a nice job hiding the terrible cooked dough by flipping the sandwich over. When we were finally able to speak to our waitress and told her what was going on she made excuses saying that some times it is typical for the sandwiches to come out that way. She did go talk to the manager and they did make it right by making a new sandwich that we took home, after the waitress assured us we wouldn’t be charged for the third sandwich?!?!? Again the refire was brought to our table (by a food runner) our waitress walked right by our table to proceed a to have a 5 minute conversation with the next table and not even look our way to settle our tab. We were not in any rush, but our dining experience shouldn't have been almost 90 minutes.

This wasn’t our first time at Beer Church and we always look forward to stopping in when we are in the area. After reading some of the recent reviews and with the experience I hope it’s not the signs of what’s to come. I would hate to see this place, like many others do, forget what made them so successful but now they are so busy and don’t worry about what got them there, and slowly start to slip away. Whatever happened to a great customer...

Save your money and time and go elsewhere. Yes, it was a busy Saturday afternoon but that was no excuse for our server continuously disappearing on us. We had to find help twice. Had the GF pizza here last Summer and it wasn’t bad. This time it was chewy trash with no cheese on it. I got a side of “parmesan” for my pizza and was charged $2.50 for “grana”. Perhaps specify that you are going to charge 2.50 for a side of cheese flakes that you didn’t even let me take home. And 1.00 for a side of bleu cheese for the $12 plate of 6 tiny wings? What a joke! This place is a money grab and you are paying for the atmosphere. You can have just as good of an experience and a way better dinner several other places in this area. SKIP THIS overrated one. I gave 2 stars instead of 1 because their beers and service atmosphere used to be good when they just served beer and it looked like an actual church, years ago. Bigger isn’t always better! Never again. We come to this area several times a year and Beer Church is now on the “no-go” list.

I’m taking away a star on my review because the owner felt the need to reply and insult my pallet and suggest that I eat fast food. (I don’t) I’ve actually dined all over the world. I was simply pointing out the poor business practice of sneaking charges onto a bill that were neither specified by the staff, nor outlined on the menu. I’ve read through several negative reviews and it’s clear to see that perhaps the owner should spend their time training their staff and correcting their business model instead of trolling and attacking those who want to share their dining experience...