Factory by Beer Tree Brew — Restaurant in Town of Union

UPDATE 2/25/24 - Just a quick update that factory has changed their recipe for the brewer bites! The new pretzels have a crispier shell and a soft inside. In my opinion this makes the brewer bites that much better! End Update.

Our visit was a Saturday Night Between 6 and 10 pm.

This was my first trip to Factory by Beer Tree and I have to say I left very impressed! This is a local microbrewery that converted an old store in a dying mall to a double floor restaurant/bar. At the time of this review this establishment is still very new. I have been by this place a number of times and have yet to see it anything but packed to full (but still very limited due to COVID) capacity.

The menu is very compact, composed of a half dozen appetizer options, a single burger, some sandwiches, salads, and a variety of 12-inch "Wood Fired" pizzas. The menu does include vegan and vegetarian options. Prices do scew a bit to the higher side, running slightly more expensive than the run-of-the-mill Red Robin or TGI Fridays.

We happened to get lucky with our visit and were sat almost immediately upon entering the restaurant. The decor is very modern and welcoming and there is enough separation with the seating to put those who may be worried about the current pandemic at ease. There is outdoor seating however this night was a very chilly late-winter night and outdoor seating was not available.

There was a very short wait from the time we were seated until our server took our orders. As the place was packed, this was more than acceptable. Wait times overall were surprisingly short between placing our order, getting our food, and getting the check, but at no point did we ever feel rushed. It felt more like a well-oiled machine, like the staff were well-trained and into a groove that works perfectly for the capacity of patrons they are serving. Absolutely top notch.

We started out with a moscato and one of Factory by Beer Tree's own brews, Super Scoop'd Cookies and Cream, an Imperial Stout. I would highly recommend this beer to any stout fans, as I happily purchased a canned 4 pack to take home after our meal. I did notice that Beer Tree does tend to focus IPAs, but they do also brew a small assortment of other types of beers.

For an appetizer we started with the Brewer Bites, which is essentially pretzel bites with a beer cheese dip. The bites themselves were delicious, but I was surprised to discover the cheese dip was more on the sharp side. I personally prefer my beer cheese dip more on the mild side, but they were good regardless and that is more of a preference than anything else. I also felt the Brewer Bites were a bit on the pricer side for what you get. As an example, 8 small bites and a cup of cheese dip for 11 dollars is nearly double the price of Red Robin's equivalent and is also a smaller portion. Better quality food does deserve higher costs, but I feel the portion that was served would be more adequately priced at 8 or 9 dollars with the rest of the appetizers on the menu.

The main course was a 12 inch Chicken Pesto Pizza. The pizza was top notch, made with a very thin crust and is just the right size for two people to share. We did end up taking a couple slices home but a full half of the pizza likely would have been enough to fill me had we not had the appetizer.

Overall I highly recommend giving Factory by Beer Tree a shot. Expect a wait if you plan on visiting on a weekend during dinner rush, but the wait is worth it for the great beer...

Great Beer, Great Staff, crazy loud and poor food execution.

My family and I came in on a Friday night and had to wait a bit for a table, this was fine and we actually had time to wander around the mall a bit until they texted us that our seats were ready.

It was a packed Friday night and I am glad it was as I think Beer Tree is a welcome edition to our community.

As glad as I was that it was packed, the blasting music and odd acoustics made it impossible to have any type of a conversation. My younger son was very thrown off by the noise. It's very cool that you can see the brewery and the open ceiling looks awesome, but the downstairs level would benefit greatly from some sound dampening of some type. We couldn't hear our server at all and had to ask to have things repeated a few times. It wasn't her fault and she even apologized for the loud music. At one point it even added some comedy to the evening, lots of misunderstandings.

The Beer I had was outstanding, everything about the beer service is well thought out and impressive.

The food was OK but missed on a few points. Not sure anyone will read this far but I tried my kids dishes and they tried mine and here are the highlights and lowlights.

Fries - Fries are great, crisp, well seasoned, and good portions. Everyone loved them. I will be getting these again on my next trip. Crab Wrap - This is a wrap that would have benefited from being on a roll. It's a cool concept but between the Crab, avocado, wilted lettuce, and wrap itself it ends up eating pretty mushy. Needed crunch, and some citrus to cut through. Crab itself was tasty but, just the crab on a toasted bun with crisp lettuce and a lime wedge would have been better. Steak Sandwich - My son got this, ordered Medium rare, it was cooked properly, Steak needed seasoning and this like the crab is kindof a one note dish. He seemed to think that it just needed an ingredient removed which would be a prevailing theme for the food. It's so close, but it's not quite there. Fish Sandwich - This was good, I really enjoyed the crunch on the fish, could have used more sauce on the bun and a hit of salt when the fish comes out of the fryer would have gone a long way. 4 Cheese Pizza - Would have been better as a three cheese pizza, my wife and youngest son shared this, she would have ordered something different but was so overwhelmed by the noise that she just had a few slices. One of the cheeses just didn't work. Crust was Good, not a ton of flavor but it's wood fired so I get that, sauce is great, but the cheese was really odd.

I don't mean for this review to come off as completely negative, we are already planning our next visit, it will probably just be for beers and apps FRIES!!!! and without the kids. Overall this place is really cool and a much needed addition to the area. The Menu needs some fine tuning and the environment could use some tweaks, It was great to see it packed and we will be back...

I am a huge fan of Beer Tree's craft beer, by far the best in the Southern Tier, so I was thrilled to find out about this place at the Oakdale Mall. I moved away from the area awhile ago, so I didn't know it was here until very recently when I came back into town to visit family.

It's a beautiful space, very modern with a large outdoor patio for seating (the interior has the dreadful unpadded metal stools & chairs that a lot of modern restaurants seem to have, what I lovingly refer to as "Robert Irvine stools" because every restaurant made over in Restaurant Impossible has the same stools). We sat outside.

The beer was, as anticipated, top notch. No complaints there.

The service, however, was abysmally slow. Our server was very kind and apologetic about the wait, but, it took over 15 minutes after ordering a beer to get it. I am not sure if they were short-handed or what, but a 15 minute turnaround for a beer at a brew pub is absurd. Our server was wonderful throughout, but it was clear the kitchen and bar were slow or way, way behind. We visited on Labor Day, so perhaps it was just busy.

The food was aggressively okay at best. I ordered chicken wings as an appetizer with an IPA Honey glaze and a Buffalo Chicken wood-fired pizza.

First the wings. They are quite large (as they should be) and were fried well- the skin was crispy and they were plump and juicy. However, it was clear NO seasoning hit them after coming out of the fryer, and they were brushed with the most meager coating of sauce imaginable. I couldn't even taste it on most bites, so it was just unseasoned, unbreaded fried chicken. The glaze was flavorful, but if even a granule of salt had hit the chicken and it was glazed plentifully, it would have been wonderful.

The pizza was similarly disappointing. For a Buffalo chicken pizza with bleu cheese, neither element was very prominent- there was barely a tickle of spice, maybe a small spoonful of wing sauce hit this thing. I tasted bleu cheese in tiny pockets only. It was also excessively greasy for a thin-crust wood-fired pizza.

Both bits of food really seemed as if they were trying to be as stingy as possible with ingredients. I know it is going up against other food in the Southern Tier so the bar isn't super high (especially for Johnson City), but this wasn't even servicable bar food, and given the quality of Beer Tree's craft brewing I was expecting that quality to carry over to the food. Doubtful I'd return when I can just grab a 4-pack of Beer Tree's beer and make better...