Humble Sea Brewing Co. — Restaurant in Santa Cruz

This brewery, looks and feels high end, and as expected, they charge high end prices. That would be all fine and dandy, as long as the the service matched the price tag. Three of us ordered two beers, a salad and two open face toasts. We were immediately served our beer at the counter, and given a table number for our food. We sat outside in the nice courtyard and enjoyed our beers. Around the 20 minute waiting mark for food, we all began to get hungrier and think "okay, so you have to be patient for he food." At the 30 minute mark, we thought "okay, something is up" as we still didn't have food, it was food that did not need to be cooked just plated, and no one else was ordering food so they weren't swamped with other orders.

My husband went to the counter and kindly inquired about the food, and was met with a gal who was very rude and treated him like a dumb a$% for asking, but then said the food was being plated NOW and would be right out. 5 mins later, our avocado toast and tomato goat cheese toast made it's way to the table. We asked about the salad, as our third person didn't have her food and were told it would be right out. 10-15 mins and another reminder later, we were brought the kale water melon salad.

The food was great, but it should not take 35 mins for toast and 45 mins for salad when no one else is ordering. No apologies were made, but instead we were met with eye rolls, lies, and rudeness. The food and beer were good, but because there are other breweries with great service, food and beer, we will be going elsewhere...

Have been going there for over a year and have loved it. Great location, great beer, great ambiance as a result of the diverse clientele, great friendly servers (sucky and over priced food from a "taco wagon" but hey, I don't go there for the food). So why a two-star rating now? Because the owner decided to follow "Beer 30" and charge sales tax now -without warning and visible notice of that change inside or outside- ON TOP of the "advertised" beer prices. So a beer of some kind is say still priced at $7/glass on the board but when you pay now, it's not $7 anymore, it's $7.65 now. I've known the servers for a while and none of them said a word to me, I just noticed, I was getting quarters back all of a sudden. Shen I asked what was going on, I was told "we had to pay $150k in sales taxes last year"...Well, almost any brewery in Santa Cruz and the Bay Area have inclusive prices, i.e. what you see advertised is what you pay. To surprise the consumer about this "mistruth" in advertising is a shady practice if not illegal. And in Humble Sea's case where they made a change from a price that included the sales tax to the SAME price that now DOES NOT include sales tax without notification of that change on the premises-is totally unacceptable. If you need more money, raise the price but don't do this cowardly BS, which IMHO is also unfair competition to other breweries that DO ched prices...

We swung by to pick up a 6-pack and decided to sit down for drinks. Humble Sea is notorious for charging more for their drinks than listed on their menu as you can see from online beer review sites (even for other locations like the Pacifica Humble Sea). My friend and I were both predictably overcharged by a mere $1 and yes, I understand we can just consider that a donation or an addition to the tip but the worst part is ...after we told them about this matter, they picked up the wooden sign with the wrong price right in front of the register, stared at it, conferred with a coworker about the wrong price, and then put it right back! I mean, they could have at least stored it away very easily. The price was also listed wrong on their chalkboard as well. I would consider it a little bit of..whatchamacallit? False advertising?

And another example of their lackadaisical attitude: I paid in cash and they actually asked if I needed change back as if they couldn't be bothered to count out the nickels and were missing pennies in the register. My friend paid with card and he did a chargeback just based on principle. But prices are definitely not local friendly and personally I don't think it is in the top 20 breweries in Santa Cruz in terms of vibes.

On a cheerier note, they have outdoor seating and spacious unisex bathrooms. The two workers pouring the beers...