Scale House Brewery — Restaurant in Town of Hector

Our family and friends have made many visits to Scale House over the past couple years, enjoying the food, beer, and views. We were excited for our first stop of the season and to see the new redesign.

To get it out of the way, the new decor is very nice, clean looking, and I personally miss the old unique feel/look as this seems a little too generically like everything else at the moment, but that's just me. The beer was still great and they had a wonderful selection.

Why the 2 stars then? Primarily, the service (sans the hostess who was very nice). Once we were quickly seated (it was busy but there were empty tables), the waitress (blonde woman with glasses) came right over and without introducing herself or a simple greeting of any sort, took our drink order. We received our drinks and asked for another minute to look at the menu. Ten minutes later she returns and just stands by us, again, no introduction, no, "What can I get you?" nothing...just stands there till we awkwardly acknowledged her and gave our food order. That was the last time we saw our waitress for a good fifteen to twenty minutes as we watched her readily serve the other tables and we finished our beers and sat there without drink or service. Once our food started to arrive, we were able to get more drinks for those who needed them, but we were missing one of our food orders (bowl of meatballs). We figure they may be a bit busy in the kitchen so we'll give it a minute or two to come out...ten minutes, fifteen minutes go by without our waitress stopping by our table (again, watching her readily tend to the other tables who ordered after us and are getting their food (including bowls of meatballs) while we still have none). Eventually, she stops back by (by which everyone at the table has finished their food (sharing with the person who still has none)) at which point we share that we're still missing food. No apology, no "I'll go see about that", nothing. She just, "Okay" and walks away. Five minutes later she returns with the food and drops it off, again...no comments regarding what happened, apology, any comments really, didn't even ask if we needed more drinks.

The second reason for 2 stars is here...the meatballs. These are this persons favorite thing at Scale House and the ones they received were luke-warm at best and the texture was completely off as if they had been reheated somehow.

After finally being able to get some boxes (again waiting for our waitress to come back to even acknowledge our existence), we ask for our check and we were promptly given the POS device to add a tip to our meal. The waitress proceeds to stand DIRECTLY OVER THE SHOULDER of the individual adding the tip. The individual feeling incredibly awkward left a moderate tip despite the abysmal service and again, no "Thank you, have a nice day" or any sort of minimal pleasant conversation, she just left. We were quite happy to finally get out of there after what ended up being almost 2 hours, most of which just spent waiting to be acknowledged.

We like the Scale House but this service was so impersonal, neglectful, and down-right awful, that I honestly question if we'll ever return and I'd honestly not encourage anyone to go despite the food and beer. I really hope that if this review is read by management, that this is used as a learning opportunity for the waitress on basic human...

This review is being written to help families with young children. This review is not applicable to other parties seeking advice.

For families of young children, if you’re trying to decide on a place, we strongly recommend avoiding Scale House Brewery and drive 5 minutes down the road to Grist.

The staff at Grist treated our party (4 adults and 2 toddlers) with such class, I would highly recommend anyone with young children go there for a good time. The vibe is laid back, people of all ages - families with young, well-behaved children aplenty, couples, groups, everyone intermingled having a good time. Grist is the place to go if you have young children, period.

Why the negative review of Scale House? I called at 2pm on a Saturday, asking how seating works. No reservations unfortunately, the norm for many establishments in the area. I explained it’s a 40 minute drive, we have 4 adults and 2 toddlers, and should we even risk coming over for dinner at 5pm. They explained we should be good for 5pm but things can start getting busy later at night, so come early. I asked if it was Ok that we had two toddlers with us, as I know not all locations are kid friendly. I was told it’s totally fine, and they are a family friendly establishment.

Our party arrived at 440pm, and we became concerned when a sign outside said “today only, Limited Seating, no large groups, etc.” Perhaps this is also the norm with the time of year, staffing situation, etc. Also possible the sign has been up for a lot longer than a day.

We got inside, asked for a table for 4 adults and 2 kids. We were told, we couldn’t be accommodated and that two large groups just sat down. Maybe that’s bad luck.

But I then asked could we be seated at a table of 4, the kids can sit, and two of us could stand. I was told, no, there were no tables available.

However just prior to walking out, I noticed 2 open tables next to each other that accommodated 4 each. Nobody at them. Again, they don’t take reservations.

So I then asked if we could sit at those tables. I was then told that they can’t occupy those tables. I thanked them for their time, and left.

We are very respectful, rationale people. We have been to many restaurants, wineries, breweries, etc, and have to say this establishment was one of the least accommodating places we’ve ever been to. Especially one claiming to be family friendly. Perhaps they think they are, but no part of our experience made us feel that way.

I do want to direct families looking for a good experience to go over to Grist. We did and had a better time than we could have possibly imagined. Lots of Halloween festivities were going on at Grist, we spent 2 hours there, both kids and adults had a blast. Very good drinks, food,...

Came in for a bite to finish out a wine tour with 5 of my friends, one of whom was DDing for us and has a baby whom she is nursing. As we went to sit down at a corner table out of the way that was available, we were told with a rude tone by one of the wait staff that if we were only going to order drinks, we couldn't take up an entire table and would need to go to the bar. As only some of us were hungry, several of the group felt uncomfortable and so we headed to the bar as a group.

Our group is in our early to mid 30s, and did not look like a bunch of college kids or something looking to hog a table. Especially not with a nursing baby!

When we got to the bar, it was extremely difficult to get the attention of anyone at the bar, even though there were 3+ people behind it. Just no one really wanted to look our way. What in the world? And to top it off, the same (college aged?) waitress who had been rude to us, then took 3 similarly aged girls who had come in after us to the table where we had been sitting? (Holding a booth for some friends, my guess?) My friend ended up going to the little sitting area outside the rest rooms to nurse the baby. Very nice. My girlfriend decided to order a beer and I literally had to chase someone down to pay so we could leave and not just dash. Was sorely tempted.

Apparently the word from one of our friends on the tour was that they have decent pizza, though we never got to try it, and, won't be...