Witch's Hat Brewing Company — Restaurant in South Lyon

You go to a brewery to drink a beer, right? Well I’ve never seen a place known for making beer do so much to prevent a customer from having one.

So on a rare night out with my wife and our two little kids, we’re excited to go to Witch’s Hat. We get seated right away and our server comes to table within a couple of minutes. We hadn’t had a chance to look at the beer menu yet, so we order an app and tell him we just need another minute or so to decide on drinks.

And then… nothing.

The app is ordered, prepared, and brought to the table but no server to order a beer. Finally, a few minutes later, he comes back to the table and we order drinks and dinner.

And again, no beer. Meals are ordered, prepared, and brought to the table and no beers. Halfway through our dinner, I snag a different server walking by (because ours is nowhere to be seen) and ask them to check on our beers.

And again, nothing. We finish our dinner and our kids are getting antsy. I walk inside, run into the server I spoke to about our beers ten minutes before, and say that if the beers aren’t coming, we need them removed from our bill and we need to pay. She says, “he’s bringing them out now” and points behind me. I say “Ok,” turn around to see my server carrying our beers out from behind the bar, and think to myself “well at least I’ll be able to quickly enjoy this before we leave.”

My actual server gets to me with two beers in hand and asks what’s going on. I say “We’ve been waiting for those for a while.” He briefly acknowledges the situation, to which I reply “I also need my bill and a box” and head back to my table.

And then again, nothing! For almost five more minutes we wait, until he finally comes out… with no beer.

I mean, I get it - I did say if they weren’t coming, I didn’t want them - but he had them poured and in hand. He said “I took them off your bill…” well I sure hope so! You should have taken them off my bill and still served them after waiting for 25 minutes for two beers.

We paid, we left, I’m still thirsty, and it will be a long, long time before I consider...

Ok. It's January 2022 and we're nervous about going out. Omicron is everywhere. Just how much can you stay home!?!! Well...let me tell you that Witch's Hat is trying to do right by you. First, They mask up. Then....They have this very cool way of ordering that is just about touch free and almost person-free. Their QR code in the frame on the wall works perfectly and is also fast and extremely user friendly (powered by Toast). No server needed to come to our table to breathe on you and take your order...but someone did drop off 2 glasses of water and quickly left. Then we ordered 2 beers and some wildly delicious wonton fried pickles to snack on. These items were delivered quickly and simply and as friendly as things can be when they are trying to keep it basic, safe and relatively contact-free. When we were done we paid online thru the app. No exchanging of a credit card or cash from a person and then back to us. We're older. We're vaccinated and boosted. But we are also older...did I say that again? Well it bears repeating. Did I also say I appreciate their efforts to make their establishment the safest it can be in times like this. They even went the extra step to install a foot opener in the ladies room so you don't have to touch the handle to open the door on the way out. I've seen this before in other places but this one really works well and is easy to use and that isn't always the case at other places. My picture features mostly their stuff like the wall GR code, my delicious beer (Hop Cones of Dunshire...oh so good hazy IPA) and their logo coaster. I also added my mask and my plant that I just acquired somewhere else and couldn't leave in the car to freeze on this very cold day in Michigan when we were trying our best to have a Sunday Funday. It worked. It was fun and you can bet we'll go back for more A+ beer to do our part to keep this wonderful brewery in business. Their beer is consistently top notch and I love That Woman and Train Hopper but everything they make is distinctive in it's category and full bodied and...

Came out here as a destination for a solid motorcycle ride and to add another tick mark to the SE MI Brewery Discovery Tour. A 90° Saturday deserves a cool, refreshing, adult beverage, a solid meal and a few relaxing hours of reading. Got in just past 3 pm. Police car in front of the place. Oh, great. Turns out he was just a high-priced crossing guard for the fundraising event going on here. Wish I had known about it. But I was hungry & thirsty, so I paid my mandatory $15 entrance fee/"donation" to get in and "enjoy" a limited food menu, a live band and way more noise than anyone could ever consider relaxing coming both from the band outside & the sound system inside as they competed. With beer already having been consumed, and rain starting to fall, I couldn't leave, so I grabbed a pair of earplugs and decided to make the best of a obviously sub-par situation. Order beer in the front & pay for it because they aren't running tabs due to the fundraiser. Order food in the back and pay for it. Wait to pick up said food in the middle and then return to my table up front. Getting my steps, for sure. The beer is good, I had several over the hours I waited out the rain. The food is probably pretty good under normal circumstances but was just OK today, nothing to write home about. And the temperature is too high inside. After an hour I'm still sweating with no apparent relief in sight. A number of families are here and their kids are grumpy, whining &/or screaming in part due to the noise & the rest from the temp. Little kids are a sensitive barometer, ignore them at your peril. Add some sound-absorbing material and check your thermostat setting. In summation, under normal circumstances, I suspect I would have had an enjoyable day, thus the 4 star rating (benefit of the doubt). Today specifically would be a...