Aeronaut Brewing Company — Restaurant in Somerville

This is a difficult review to pen, as I have been a frequent visitor to Aeronaut since moving to the Boston area in 2014. Some of my favorite early weekends living here entailed evenings of Aeronaut and the former Area Four that used to be down the street, and I was there at the very first Nandu release. I give this as context as I contend that the current iteration of Aeronaut does not feel like the same place I grew to love five years ago. A recent visit was emblematic of this.

During an afternoon where the courtyard was no more than 40% full, they were unwilling to seat me and a friend during the 10 minutes that the third member of our group needed to be absent to go back and retrieve her ID from down the street. They were unwilling to back down from a stance of only seating complete parties despite the fact that more than half their tables were empty, nobody was waiting in queue, and they verifiably saw that the third member of our group was indeed present and going to return immediately.

Upon sitting down, we were informed that they were holding to a strict time limitation, which was certainly no understatement....they were quick to both give us a 15m warning as well as hurry us out of, by that time, a nearly empty courtyard.

All of these policies were handed down by staff that ranged from inhospitable to downright rude. From the moment we arrived, the overall experience conveyed a feeling that they would simply rather us not be there.

As a surgeon, I deal daily with the realities of working around covid precautions in the workplace. Additionally, as a former wine professional, I also understand the necessary role of operational and crowd control policies for restaurant customers - especially now. Such policies however, cannot become more important than the customer experience. I have been to several establishments for outdoor dining since they have been allowed to reopen. All have had covid policies (seating parameters, time limits, etc), though they have uniformly been enforced in a more sensible, hospitable way. I don’t deny that Aeronaut needs such policies, and I don’t deny that I was aware of them. There does, however, need to be a great deal more common sense in how they are applied. Until / unless that happens, I would advise people to stay away. It’s simply not an enjoyable experience, and there are plenty of other restaurants and breweries who are handling post-covid operations the right way.

At the point of being denied seating, the manager told me that they’re “trying to do the best [they] can” post-covid. If this is truly their best, then they need to make a concerted effort...

ID policy is insanely strict and asinine. Not coming back ever again and making sure friends go somewhere else.

Tried to enter to celebrate my best friend on his birthday, but I unfortunately forgot my ID at home (my fault). Home is 40 min away and I had a ride from someone.

I asked the staff, “hey can yall just give me a mark on my hand that shows I can’t drink while I’m here?” No.

I asked the staff, “can I get a wristband or something to show I can’t drink?” No. Wristbands only given to minors. But apparently I’m too old looking to be considered a minor, but old enough to look of legal drinking age?

“I’m willing to sit by the host stand or in view of the manager so you guys can see I’m not drinking, I just want to spend the night with my friend who is celebrating his birthday.” No.

“I have a picture of my license and passport on me, can yall just not let me enter and I won’t drink?” No.

Friend asks the bartender, “hey my buddy just wants to sit with us near the entrance and not drink, he doesn’t have his ID on him. That cool?” Bartender says sure, not a problem. Manager then catches wind of this and says adamantly “No.”

I had to have a staff escort me to the table 5 ft in front of the entrance to sing happy birthday to my friend for 1 min. But the baby in the back corner, they’re just fine right?

All my friends ain’t coming...

I'm here now, with three adults and three children. I wouldn't recommend this place for children at all. We brought Lego sets for the kids to assemble and are watching them closely, but have had employees come over repeatedly to give us feedback on the kids. Once, I'd ventured beyond a sign I didn't see saying not to take drinks past it, with a drink and a toddler, and I completely understand they have a strict rule on staying in bounds. But, it wasn't necessary for a lady to come running out yelling 'There's a sign!' and continue on and on. It was clearly rude -- I get that it's an important issue, but it was a mistake. She went in, and another man began to chime in. It was just completely unnecessary to pile on-- I'd been apologetic and was coming back as fast as I could get my two year old to go. A few minutes later, my son was calmly sitting cross legged on the picnic table working on Legos, and a man came over to tell him to get down. Just now, the kids knocked their bench seat over as they stood up quickly. We were immediately standing it up, but this man is mean mugging us from the front and the bottom line is it's not remotely kid friendly. Bartender was nice! Wouldn't recommend...