Bissell Brothers — Restaurant in Portland

Editing my review because the table service here is just so unnecessary and irritating. Hoping they see this... Love BB beer, love the space, love the staff, but the table service just kills it. It used to be an awesome place to go in, grab a beer, pay, and repeat until you're ready to leave. The table service turns it into what was a predictable visit to who-knows-how-long-this-will-take. We live within walking distance and went from coming at least once per week for a quick beer to wayyy less frequently because there's no longer an option for quick beers, and table service for a beer or two is silly. On top of that, food service is no longer as fresh and is regularly cold once it's delivered, which is especially bad if you sit in the Garden and your food comes from the old kitchen. The most egregious example was this past weekend. We sat in the Garden and ordered the fondue. It was delivered stone cold. Fondue kinda has to be melted, ya know, or it's just a block of cheese. This is a problem that wouldn't have happened if BB still used the buzzer and patrons still retrieved their own orders. Or at least if it did happen it would've been my own fault, which I'm much more ok with.

Long story short, if we want to go to BB now, we have to consider the following 3 things: 1 - How much time we have since there are so many unnecessary delays in service now, from waiting for the hostess to seat us, waiting for the server to come to order, waiting for drinks, food, etc, and then waiting for the tab. Not worth it if we only want a few beers or have dinner reservations or a show later. 2 - What day/time is it? Will there be annoying and rowdy kids running around? When we're able to seat ourselves, we could avoid the families that bring their kids and let them run around unsupervised, of which their are many. With table service it's out of our control. I'm aware the Garden is adults-only, but that introduces concern #3... 3 - Which food items to order, particularly if we're in the Garden, because if it comes from the other kitchen it will almost surely sit there quite a while and be served cold. No more ordering burgers, wings, anything hot, or anything with a sauce, aka 90% of the menu. That basically leaves salads and charcuterie that aren't adversely affected by the new table service.

And I see the responses here and see that table service appears to be 'optional', but when you walk in and see a sign that says "Please wait to be seated", that doesn't feel optional to me. We did once walk by and order a beer and food at the counter, and when the food was ready the poor guy wandered all around trying to find us because buzzers are no longer used.

Bottom line - This place was such an easy 5-star review previously. I have no idea why they changed their winning formula for the worse but now it's just a hassle. 🤷‍♂️ I'll be thrilled if they revert back and I can raise this back up. In the meantime this is a lack-of-understanding-their-customer-base-folly as big as "New Coke" and when Burger King changed...

The beer here is a 5, the brewery and the business end of it is a 1. The beer here is no doubt among the best you’ll find anywhere but my last visit here made me realize something about Bissell Bros that really turned me off to them. They LOVE making people wait on line for their beer and they LOVE selling out of it. Which is all well and good except they don’t have to operate this way, they CHOOSE to. It’s the exclusivity aura they like to create around their beer and I’m convinced it’s totally unnecessary and fabricated. I have been to Tree House, Hill Farmstead, Trillium, Alchemist, Other Half, the Answer, the Veil, Equilibrium, Tired Hands and many more and I’m just listing the breweries that are all rated higher than BB and I did not walk away empty-handed when I left them. When I asked one of the servers if they had any cans of Substance left from that day’s release, he was so excited to tell me about how they didn’t and how quickly they sold out and how if I wanted to get my hands on some, I’d have to come back the next day early for their release at noon. I’m sure they had hundreds of cases on hand to go for the next day but it’s so much cooler and exclusive to be sold out! It’s great when breweries start out and their beer is so good that people are willing to wait in long lines for it and they sell out because there is more of a demand than they are capable of satisfying but most of these breweries make it a point to grow to the point where they can produce enough to satisfy the demand and streamline the process to buy it so that more people can get their hands on it. BB is totally capable of this, as evidenced by the amount of Substance on tap at many bars and restaurants in Maine and around New England. But when I make it a point to visit the source when I’m on vacation from NY, I leave totally empty-handed, that sucks. I highly suspect they just choose to continue the unnecessary publicity stunt which is just really disappointing. I’m not buying into it, there’s plenty of great beer that other breweries want me to buy without the dog and pony show around it so I’ll...

I want to start off with two things. First I don't leave reviews, ever. Second, Garry Smillie must drink Coors and Bud. Dude has no concept of quality beer, obviously. Now, on with my review. My wife and I came up to Maine in anticipation of picking up some Swish and Subby during our stay. So, on Saturday the 25th we headed over around 9AM for a 10AM release. Line was already massive, by 9:45 the line was out and around the street. I was kinda skeptical on getting a case. My wife calls me and says "hey, there is a shorter line out back" I was like "alright cool you camp back there I will chill here". We were both in and out by 10:20. I was number 160 in line and she was number 110. The line boogied. The reason for the line moving so fast, no growler pours, no merch being sold, straight can sales only. Super professional staff and a great overall experience. THE ONLY THING I RECOMMEND. Put more people on during Saturday peak hours 12-4. Bring on some local college kids or whatever part time. People in line were complaining about wait times, one couple said screw this let's leave....that's where my native salesman and customer service kicked in. I gave them the speech about the brewery and why they were waiting. I compared the line to a Apple release line. We are here for quality folks. I also made several recommendations for them in which they thanked me later. Beer is exquisite, staff was friendly with a customer focused demeanor. I am very passionate about beer and I have since made moves to put myself in a professional role around the beer industry. I am a product believer, and I would stand behind Bissell Brothers product any...