Florida Avenue Brewing Co. — Restaurant in Wesley Chapel

I love beer. When I had more time and space, I used to make beer. I love the taste of craft beer compared to the normal swill people subjected themselves in the 70's through the 90's. When it comes to food, I know my food. Florida Avenue Brewing Co. has earned my respect in both beer and food, and is hands-down one of the best places to go for either a date, reuniting with friends, or to have a great time with a lot of people in a large party.

First the beers: At first, I was a little worried that the taste would not live up to my standards, but I was wrong. Each beer that I tried has a pronounced flavor profile that made it a strong competitor in each bracket of types by itself, but it also had the body and character that made it better than merely good, it was wonderful. This soon became one of my biggest worries. . .I was going to spend way too much because the beer was so good! The one beer I kept coming back to was the Luminescence Hazy IPA, which has a 7% kick to it. It is smooth, refreshing and drinkable. While it is hoppy, it isn't so complex with the bitterness that the first time IPA drinker would back off, it was inviting and like a good book where you don't even notice you have turned countless pages, I lost track of my sips, finding the bottom way too quickly. For me, this is a danger-zone beer because I can drink this all night. Which I pretty much did. I paired this with a happy-hour special for 10 dollars--loaded fries and a beer! Recently, I can't get a good breakfast at that price, but an amazing beer AND loaded fries? 10 dollars? Sold. The fries were crispy, the cheese sauce not grainy, instead it was silky smooth, and the bacon added the smokiness I need from bacon! I also tried the Flipa IPA, which is complex, bitter and hoppy-- but not as smooth as the Luminescence. Their stouts are also amazing and have a good body to them, but I kept coming back to that Luminescence!

The Food: Holy of all that is holy, the people that prepare the food are obviously in love with what they do. It shows. I ordered the Bipimap bowl with steak as an addition. It came out beautifully, each part of the bowl was meticulously prepared, colorful and looked like it was about to be put into an art competition. Impressed, I dived into it, and every part by itself was amazing, brimming with savory yet delicate luscious flavors. When combined, each part was elevated to a new tier of taste. Originally around 14 dollars but with the steak closer to 20, it was worth it! The prices were, at first, holding me back but you pay for a culinary experience, not just a meal. I had come one time before, and had steak flatbread along with little pulled beef sliders. These were so excellent that I remembered them fondly MONTHS after the initial experience.

The owner(s) know what they are doing, and have a good grasp on how to execute a recipe for success! Elevated food, supreme drinks, and a wait-staff that is educated, patient, professional, confident, and warm.

This place is a win-win in my book. I don't get to go out often, but when I do, I want to come back for more! This was the perfect place to end the school-year with the other teachers. Maybe we can convince the school to host a year-end party...

I usually don’t leave reviews, but after this experience, I feel like I have to warn others. I made a reservation for six people on 3/13 for 3/14 at 7:00 PM—my birthday. After calling the restaurant and confirming that there would be live band music at 7:00 PM on 3/14, it was disappointing to arrive and find out there was no live music at all. But honestly, that ended up being the least frustrating part of the night. BTW, The pictures on Google looked great, and the service had a lot of positive mentions, so I thought this was a solid choice. I was wrong. The begins: We arrived around 6:50 PM and were told that we had already checked in , but we had to wait to be called(???). Fine. But then, why did we even bother with a reservation if we still had to stand around? Anyway, we waited, took some photos, and tried to stay in a good mood. Until 7:30 PM, we were still not seated. My husband finally asked the host what was going on, and guess what? "We don’t know." Are you serious? At this point, I was annoyed, but my friends told me to stay chill.

Here’s where it gets suspicious—everyone else in the lobby got seated before us. We were literally the only group left waiting. And magically, after the entire lobby was cleared, suddenly, we got called.

The service gets even worse: The server came (Kelly), but we didn’t get any drinks. I’m the only one who drinks, but I’m on medication, so we skipped it. Not sure if that affected our service, but things got bad from here. Our food took forever. And when it finally came, everything—including our appetizers—was served all at once. To make it even more insulting, a bigger group that arrived after us got their food before us. At this point, I was beyond irritated, but I didn’t want to ruin the night for my friends. We just ate, tried to enjoy ourselves, and even asked the server to take a group photo.

The final straw: One of my friends never got her wings. She said it was fine and didn’t want to make a fuss, but I reminded her to make sure they didn’t charge her for it. When we got our three separate bills, she told the server about the missing wings.

And then? The server turned to the rest of our table and ASKED my other friends how many wings they got. Excuse me??? You’re basically saying we’re lying?? I told her straight up, "If you don’t believe us, check the photo YOU took for us. There are no wings in front of her." The server checked and, surprise surprise, suddenly found it "weird" again.

And the cherry on top: Most restaurants at least offer a free dessert for a birthday. Not here. No acknowledgment, no policy, nothing. Just a completely terrible experience.

All in all, the rest of my birthday was still enjoyable, so the restaurant didn’t ruin my day. However, my friends and I felt mistreated and unvalued, and our experience here was nothing but...

Our family has dined here many times but this was by far the worst experience I've had in a long time at ANY establishment. We went in on a Saturday between 3:30 & 4:00 and reveived attitude and rude treatment from the 2 hostesses, all the servers outside, and the manager. We headed out to the patio like we normally do for open seating; we were rudely corrected by a server who directed us to the hostess. At this time, most of the inside area was empty, and about 6 tables outside were available. We headed to the hostess, where we waited a few minutes to be acknowledged, then made to wait another 5 minutes or so with a party of 6, which turned out to be 15, of which we informed the hostess. Rather than ask if we could be split up, they put two tables together outside, completely in the sun, even with several open tables in the shade. If we wanted to sit in the sun, we would have gone to the open grass area that was uncovered and didn't need a hostess, but I digress.

We had 9 adults and 6 kids, one of which was a 3 month old, and none of the staff thought to move us to the shade. The manager then made a point to directly tell us that the kids needed to be supervised if they wanted to play (when they were literally next to us in the grass area at the table) to avoid customer complaints. I did respond with, "Yes, we know, we've been here before" but the manager gave me an attitude and walked away. We only wanted to have a few drinks and no food, but they insisted on telling us we had to sit if we wanted to be on the patio. When my husband asked again about being seated more under cover for health and safety reasons for those in our party, he was met with attitude and no willingness to help.

The manager then came out and stated that those were the only two tables they were allowed to put together for large parties. I told her that we didn't expect or need to sit together and just wanted to get some beverages and sit in the shade. She replied by acting as if splitting us up was weird and not doable and went on to also say that it would mess up the serving rotation (I'm sorry, but that is not the customer's problem) and that seating with kids was difficult.

I worked for years in the restaurant industry and we would never think to tell customers we couldn't seat them where they needed our wanted due to our rotation. Also, this is a restaurant that allows kids, but they are a disturbance and make seating a large party difficult? We left because we truly felt like an inconvenience and had no one willing to work with us. No smiles, no positive interactions, no talking other than saying what we couldn't do; we felt unwelcome and disrespected. If this is how Florida Ave plans to be from now on, you'll be losing out on a ton of business, and it stinks because we really enjoyed...