Paw Paw Brewing Co — Restaurant in Paw Paw Township

In justification of the one star rating I am giving, it is all about the service and professionalism of the establishment. I'm sure the beer is just fine, like most of the booming breweries in the southwest corner of Michigan. I am from Mattawan, five miles away from Paw Paw and attend college in Minnesota. My girlfriend and I recently came back to Michigan to see my family and do the beaches of South Haven for a week and have a good time. We were back in Mattawan for one of those nights and my friend, who is a member at Paw Paw Brewing Company, recommended it highly to us. We decided to go there for the night and ended up getting there about forty minutes before close looking to try some great Michigan beer. What we got was nothing but horribly rude service by one of the waitresses. I myself have been in the service industry for five years now and am ServSafe certified and trained to serve alcoholic beverages to guests as a part of my job. I have worked for Cadillac Ranch at the Mall of America, a branch of Granite City Food and Brewery in Minnesota, for the last two and a half years as a server. Being a part of the service industry and working for a brewery myself I was shocked at how my girlfriend was treated. Both of us twenty-one years of age presented our ID's immediately and ordered drinks. The waitress grabbed my girlfriends first, a Minnesota state driver's license. Checking with the bartender and then hastily returning the ID was denied with a "Nope, can't serve ya, I just took a class this morning and its too flimsy." After explaining that in Minnesota the ID's are all this way to actually make them harder to fake, and that we have insurance cards, credit and debit cards, and matching college IDs, the waitress refused to even acknowledge them and refused service still. We didn't stay and will never be back again. Watch out if you're from out of state because the Podunk town of Paw Paw isn't ready for your identification, especially at their brewery. There are several signs to look for with the ID and even scanning and they rudely refused us based on one fact of it because of lack of education as a server in the service industry. I find this to be ridiculous and ridiculously unprofessional of an upstart brewery trying to compete with the likes of Bell's and others in the area. If you're looking for refusal of service because your ID doesn't say MICHIGAN on it or looking for lazy workers that want to shut down early for the night than this is the place for you. Not sure who that would be. So good luck Paw Paw Brewing Co. Rudely refusing customers from other places is a great practice in building...

Came in to get some beer and appetizers . They were pretty busy and sign on door said 45-1hour wait on food. Sat at the bar , there had some live acoustic entertainment. Good line up of pale ales to choose from. Waited on quickly, got a couple beers and ordered some of the deep fried pickles and garlic pork rinds. We arrived about 6:30 I don’t think we waited 10 to 15 minutes and they arrived. By the time I finished the beer the place pretty much had emptied out like everyone had been eating already when we arrived, in fact people who sat next to us ordered and got food during this time . Not once did we even get asked if we wanted another drink despite our glasses sitting in front of us empty for 20 minutes despite multiple people behind the bar with the exception of the guy who originally served us . He was gone so long we thought his shift ended until he finally reappeared around 7:45 and asked if we wanted anything? We said yeah , our bill ! Wife even sarcastically said we would have liked to have had another one about 15 minutes ago but we have reservations at 8 elsewhere. Bartender seemed unfazed by the comment and had no reply . We were from out of town and the next day the in-laws were driving down for a surprise birthday party and concert for my wife’s mother who had no idea we were in town and this is where we were planning to surprise her at but the service was so poor I texted the FIL TO moved it to a different location. Probably won’t be back this way until next summer , will probably give it another try then and hope for a better all...

It's a shame this place had so much potential. At the start of the service, things were progressing well. We got in our appetizer and drink orders in a timely manner. That when things fell off the cliff. When crab balls came out, they were blacked from being in the deep fryer too long. Although onion rings were fine. Then we got our dinner the kabobs that were breaded and deep fryed with mashed potatoes and a white sauce also asparagus. Well, if you could get through the charcoal of breading. You guessed being overcooked, then something I never expected to mashed my own potatoes at the table. At no point did anyone come to our table to ask about anything. Then, after 30 minutes, it was time to time to pay for the bill. After we racked 83 dollar bills and asked for boxes. The waitress asked another employee to get a couple of to go containers. No problem, they came back small containers, weird since half and flat bread was left. I asked my daughter if it was big enough to fit everything. Then, like a bolt of lightning, the waitress said that the only size that they had. She sounded like a small child throwing a fit. She wasn't part of the conversation. Why yes, I know the stress of working in the industry....you don't need to speak people like that. For a place that does take out orders to only have side containers is odd. Either way, I'm pretty sure I will not go back. Front the house management was little to nothing. Maybe I picked a bad day, but I don't feel like I will be back when there are better...