American Icon Brewery — Restaurant in Vero Beach

I’ve never left a bad review on a place due to service even if they rightfully deserved it because I myself have worked as a server and I know we all have our bad days and moments where we get stuck in the weeds and things can happen that fall out of our control. However, the service was so ridiculously and inexcusably bad. I’ll start with the only good thing I can say about this place: The appetizers we had of a giant pretzel with beer cheese and the chicken and waffles was great and the building itself is cool and what I imagine is a fantastic place for a casual get together if our experience with our server hadn’t been what it was.

A meal that should’ve taken no longer than 45 minutes, turned into a 2 hour ordeal solely because our server kept disappearing for long periods of time. There were about 3 hostesses huddled at the stand by the start of our night who sat us. To even be greeted by our server at the table we had to wait about 20 minutes which should’ve been our first red flag, but we’re easygoing people and we figured they must be having a busy night so we’ll write this off. Nope, it was a Wednesday night and by the time we needed a refill on our drinks, it was clear this would be how the whole night would go since we couldn’t find them on the floor at any point to wave them over. I know it’s not the hostesses job to do the actual serving, but considering we were in their direct view and they saw us multiple times looking around, you’d think one of the three would take some initiative to find our server or at least get us started with a drink if they know the server is backed up. It’s worth mentioning this place has an 18% auto gratuity built into the check which isn’t an issue for me personally because I know how hard servers work and it sucks when you get stiffed but this night had me viewing auto grat in a completely different manner since it was clear this persons tip was already solidified so they didn’t care to provide any form of service. The burger I ordered for my main course came out very dry and overcooked (I asked for medium rare) and my fries were cold which leads me to believe my dish was probably sitting on the hot plate longer than it should’ve. I wish I could’ve sent it back in an appropriate amount of time in order to enjoy my meal with my boyfriend but after our food was dropped off, our server didn’t return for another 30 minutes to pick up his empty dish and my full one and offer me a to go box. I let her know it was overdone and I wasn’t interested in taking it home, we were just ready to leave. They did at least take it off our bill considering I barely touched it which was in my opinion the least they could do, but then we fell into the trap of ordering a dessert which in defense of the kitchen, when our server did finally get to place our orders— it did come out in a timely manner brought to us by their food runner who was more attentive than anyone else had been so far making me wish I could allocate the full 18% and then some solely to him and the kitchen. But after we had that delivered, trying to get our bill was a whole other 30 minute wait. Again, it’s not like our server was running around working with other tables, they were just nowhere to be seen. When they did drop off the bill, we already had our card ready to go so we wouldn’t have to wait another 30 minutes between the drop off of the check and the pick up of the card. Unfortunately there was an error with our bill and we needed to wait for the server to appear yet again to clear it up with them.. so you can imagine how long that took.

I had really high hopes for this place and maybe I’ll give them a second chance considering all the other people on here mentioning the great service they received, but it won’t be...

Opened in October of 2017, American Icon Brewey is located in Vero Beach's oldest municipal building, a diesel power plant built in 1926. You can't get more Steampunk than that. The brick building is gorgeous with patio seating and two floors of indoor seats. Even so on the night I stopped by I was told the wait for a table was over an hour. I was offered a seat at the outdoor bar where there was absolutely no one working. I was then offered a seat at the end of a communal where I was completely ignored by the wait staff. Eventually a seat opened up at the main bar where I was finally able to get service. Despite the snafu in service I decided to stick it out.

The menu is filled with pub grub like burgers including the beyond meat patty, nachos, ribs, tacos, pizza, and an impressive giant pretzel. I ordered the buffalo shrimp which arrived crispy and delicious. My portion was generous for the price. For my drink I had the Ali Punch made with AIB 1926 Hef, Bacardi rum, peach schnapps, white wine, lemon juice, and it was supposed to have fresh berries but there was no evidence of them. It was indeed packed a punch.

The real star for me is the historic building. It was built by architects Carter and Damerow and by the engineering firm of Kennard and Sons in a masonry vernacular style. The Diesel Plant had 3 operating engines and in 1937 the 750-kilowatt Busch-Sulzer air injected diesel generator was added. The plant was the only source of power and electricity for Vero Beach until the 1950's. If you sit upstairs you can see the trains travel down the FEC railway tracks that were used to transport the equipment and diesel fuel to the city's generators. In 1958 plans were made to build a new steam electric power plant and the diesel plant was only used a back up. By 1995 the plant stopped operations and vacated the building leaving six generators behind. The five working ones were sold to third world countries where they are still operating today. The sixth non working generator from 1937 was turned into the centerpiece of the brewery and it became part of the bar. Through the efforts of the Indian River County Historical Society, the plant was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on February 26, 1999. In 2001 developers cleaned out the building and repaired the roof but it sat empty until it was sold to developer Michael R. Rechter who did a $6 million renovation on the building and adapted it for American Icon Brewery. I could not love this building more. The brick work is gorgeous. They just don't make buildings like that anymore. After I ate I spent some time looking around. The building was honored with historical pictures and signs explaining the equipment. The retail store was where people entered the power plant and served and it also served as the office and reception areas. Out in front of the building is the 1937 flywheel that went to the diesel engine displayed inside the building. I love how this plant was preserved. I think a brewery is the perfect use of this historic building.

After visiting American Icon Brewery I realized that they have an outpost in Ft. Lauderdale closer to where I live. It opened in March of last year in Flagler Village. They serve beer and food but all of the beer is brewed in Vero Beach. I am going to have to check this second location out but the real draw for me is this incredible building. It is a bonus that the food and drinks are...

I just ordered from here tonight, and it’s so good. We got the Icon Burgers - one regular and one with a gluten free bun. They get extra points for having the gluten free bun available on their website for online ordering because a lot of places don’t include gluten free anything when ordering online. The gluten free bun was good, no crumbling! My order was ready on time, so I was I. And out within minutes. And the actual building itself deserves 5 stars because it’s so cool looking inside and out. Will definitely be returning here to eat in the outside area.

Update: 12/29/24 (original review was 5 stars)

We waited an hour to eat here tonight. They waited until after we had been waiting for an hour to inform us that they were out of basically everything except burgers. Luckily, we were all fine with burgers. Once we got our food, all of the bacon on our burgers was barely cooked, except one plate that had had completely charred bacon, and there were like 10 fries on each plate. My dad ordered a flight of beers, after he ordered them, they came out and said they were out of them. As we were eating we heard that they actually ran out of fries too. So I'm assuming they split what was left between the 4 of our meals. Which is fine, but no discount or substitution for the fries, or anything was offered. It just seemed like a hot mess there tonight. Even the food wasn't as good as it usually is. They definitely changed their gluten free bun. It basically disintegrated the second I picked it up to take a bite.

I will say, all the servers were amazing and friendly. They were dealt a pretty rough hand for their shifts tonight and handled it very well.

Whoever is in charge though... yikes. I understand 86-ing things every once in awhile, but it was literally the whole menu.

And from what we heard from other tables, they knew way before we were waiting, so they should have been telling people as they were coming in and putting their names down for the wait. Given people a chance to decide if they actually want what was available or if they needed to go elsewhere and try again another night.

We sat out on the patio, we asked twice for one of the heaters to be moved over towards us. We were told that was fine, never happened.

I would probably eat here again, it seems like they just had a bad night, but wow, rough night.

Also, keep an eye on your bill. We didn't realize that night, but they add 18% gratuity to your bill automatically. So we left a cash tip not knowing that the server just got a 50% tip between our cash tip and the 18%...