Stone Brewing Tap Room - Richmond — Restaurant in Richmond

What a Beautifully invigorating and INVITING brewery patio!!! OMG! When we first walked up I was so please! If you haven’t been, the backdrop is right out of a movie set. The brewery is tucked away behind a patch of trees, you walk down a path that crosses a bridge to see a food truck?!?!? However, once you pass the brightly painted truck...BANG!! you are at a patio of people sharing time, there are Adirondack chairs set up by the creek, tables with umbrellas & open air tables that are spaced perfectly apart, Industrial light bulb strands that set a modern mood, dog watering stations in different areas and lovely well behaved dogs enjoying just being out.

I really dislike posting this kind of review, just because it spreads more negativity into our already strife-filled world…so plz know it is hard to post this about our Friday 4-22-22 visit to Stone Brewery.

The brewery has a wonderful system where you scan a QR code at your table and place your order, pay (or open a tab). There is no waiting for a guest attendant to get your order or going back and forth into the brewery. You can order food from the food truck and they text you when your order is ready! I was so very happy that our friends invited us to a place we’d never been and that they had experienced and felt we would like. We did enjoy and like everything, until the entire interaction train-wrecked with our 3rd and final table attendant.

A snapshot of her “customer service” went as follows. We had a bit of a slip up ordering our second round of beer (which was close to closing time), so when she brought 1 beer out we apologized because we knew she’d have to come right back to deliver another (when she could have delivered both at the same time). Her response to us as she rolled her eyes and walked away was, “well do whatever you have to do on your phone.” When they were clearly closing, she walked passed our table and stated she’d be right back to “get our empties.” When she returned I still had half a glass of beer and asked if they had a “throw-away” that I could transfer to, since we were still sitting there and her response as she looked at me with disgust was, “that’s against the law, this isn’t Louisiana!” …our table chatter came to a complete halt. I was trying to finish my beer quickly and she stated with a disdainful smirk, “well you don’t HAVE to finish it.” I replied, “I’d like to…you know how much this beer costs here.” She clapped back, “I do know, I work here, YOU’RE the one who chose to come here!” On that note, I handed her my unfinished beer and my husband paid our $70.00 tab for 4 beers, 3 tacos and chips & salsa (you can decided if you think it was a bit costly).

At 52 years old, I don’t go out and patronize businesses to be disrespected and embarrassed by a college aged kid who barely takes the time to put herself together before going to work. Our friends felt so bad and embarrassed that they suggested Stone Brewery, my husband was angry and at this point…I won’t be going back...

It's been a while since I last visited a taproom that felt this poorly designed and operated on a basic level.

Immediately, you're going to notice that it's significantly smaller in terms of space and capacity than you'd probably expect for a larger regional craft brewery. They have a huge parking lot, but only a tiny fraction of the parking lot's capacity could possibly fit inside the taproom. Presumably, this is due to the fact that Stone never followed through on building the bistro/gardens that were supposed to exist in this location. On the day we visited last weekend, the parking lot was about 15% full, but the taproom was almost completely full.

It was 97 degrees out on this day, which called to attention several other aspects of poor design.

There is zero freely available water in this brewery, which seems impossible to even write. To get water, you need to wait in the long line for beer, and then inconvenience a bartender by asking for it, even though they clearly (and understandably) don't want to be spending their time pouring water. Why would you possibly choose this system, over having public water taps, or even some simple coolers?

Stepping into the brewery, the sound level was immediately noticeable as being one of the louder breweries I've stepped into--every surface seems to bounce sound, so the regular conversation around us was a dull roar. That would have been okay, but then the freaking live metal band started playing, at 4 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon. Suffice to say, this was the loudest thing I've ever heard within a craft brewery, in 11 years of visiting them. 100-plus decibels, easy. Half the room immediately chose to walk out into the 97 degree heat, where there was no shade, rather than have their brains exploded by a wall of sound. Parents with small children fled the scene, covering their kids' ears. It was quite the sight.

So ultimately, we were left with the choice of either sticking it out in a room that was like standing next to a jet turbine, or standing outside in the 97 degree heat, with very little shade and no easy access to water. Suffice to say, we finished our beers and left.

Not sure what kind of aesthetic they were even trying to evoke here, but it simply feels obnoxious and...

We LOVE this spot! Stone is one of the few "large" craft breweries on the national scene that is resisting the huge wave of buyouts by AB InBev, Miller-Coors, and Constellation. Instead, they sold a minority equity interest to a VC firm, which allowed the founders to expand their production and distribution capabilities while maintaining control of the company and the quality of their products.

This is one of four breweries in the Stone family and their only brewery and only tap house on the Eastern Seaboard. The space is housed in a HUGE warehouse with a comfortable outdoor space on the banks of a creek. On a sunny day, the outdoor area comes to life with live music, pups, and groups of people playing yard games. The indoor space provides relief from the heat along with a generous selection of swag and the taps.

They offer tours of the brewery seven days a week, and they have a generous selection of draught and packaged beers for both on and off-premise enjoyment. The beers, by the way, are some of the most well-respected in the WORLD. Stone has been winning medals at the Great American Beer Festival for nearly twenty years, and their experience shows in the finished products. They offer a wide variety, so there is something available to please every palate - IPA, Saison, Kolsch, Stout, Gose, Barley Wine, and on, and on, and on... Plus, the staff is friendly, knowledgeable, and patient.

They keep a limited selection of sandwiches on hand made by a fresh market up the road, and they often supplement these offerings with a food truck - or two - parked out front. The place is clean and family friendly, and on a nice day, we love to bike down the Capital Trail from downtown and stop in for a pint or two. If you're a fan of badass suds in approachable digs, Stone is...