Denizens Brewing Co.:

Reviews 3

MA

Mary N

I had the worst customer service experience Ive ever even witnessed here last night and I didnt even make it in the door! Thats really saying something since I worked in customer service for over 6 years. For some background: I lived in Old Town Alexandria for 5 years prior to moving to MD, so Im always on the hunt for dog-friendly places. I was very excited to learn about a brewery on the MD side of DC that allowed dogs in their outdoor beer garden, so my husband and I planned a trip over here from Greenbelt. However, as we were walking up our dog happened to sniff one of their little bushes and their rude owner, Emily, proceeded to walk up to us and tell us to get our dog off of their landscaping, which consisted of a couple evergreen bushes and tall grasses. There was no hello or welcome when she spoke to us. It was purely abrasive. At the time I was a little behind my husband and didnt hear what she said, but I could see his face change from excited to uncomfortable after she approached him. After she walked away a little, I asked my husband what the woman said and as he was explaining she turned back and stared us down. We were still walking towards the establishment trying to ignore the first weird interaction. She then proceeded to ask us if we had a problem in a confrontational manner. At that point my husband calmly called her out for being a little passive aggressive when she first approached us. She quickly mentioned that theyre "dog-friendly" while walking away from us, but clearly her actions showed otherwise. I told her we didnt feel comfortable here based on the way she treated us and that we would take our business elsewhere. We started to walk away but stopped for a second outside to process what just happened. My husband was so bothered by the interaction that he decided to go inside and ask for the manager so that hopefully other people would be spared from this rude person. He found the woman who confronted us and asked for the manager. She let him know that she was the owner and he calmly told her how weird and impolite the interaction was. She insincerely told him that she was sorry but was just trying to give him "feedback on where to walk his dog." My husband called her out for being disingenuous and explained that our dog was just sniffing a bush. The owner then asked him what she should have said and my husband gave her examples of how a nice person wouldve responded. However, if I were in there I would have told her she shouldnt have said anything to us. There are nice ways to indicate that you dont want anyone on your "landscaping" (low iron barriers, curb, rocks, or if its really important a little sign). Anyway after several minutes of back and forth, my husband finally got Emily to admit that the way she treated us was completely inappropriate. My husband accepted her apology and wished her well. She followed him out a couple minutes after he left and apologized to me while attempting to make me feel bad for her since she "works so hard." At that point, it was too little too late and shouldnt have taken so long for her to understand that she messed up. She told us that she hoped we would come back another time but it didnt seem sincere since she didnt even try to offer us anything to incentivize us to give them another try. Our interaction with Emily was so poor that we will never be coming back here again. Honestly, she should consider removing herself from a customer-facing role. Based on previous reviews, Emily may respond to this post saying I dont understand what food service is like, but my brother has been in the food service industry for 25 years. He would never talk to a customer the way Emily spoke to us no matter how bad his day was going. Bottom line: I wouldnt recommend this place to anyone. Good luck if you ever come here and have to interact with Emily, because she doesnt understand good customer service.

IV

Ivona Cetinic

Honestly, this was my favorite spot when I moved to SS a year ago. Great food, nice selection of beer and (surprisingly) wine, people chilling at the patio (that is amazing) puppies barking, kids playing. That patio is to die for.. Small pocket of west coast in down-town Silver Spring. Since then things are going down. Food is getting way too elaborate with no real benefit to quality, and although I though it was a thing for the winter and the supersonic food truck will be back for summer, that didnt happen. I would forget their stale chips and popcorn (surprisingly sweet for something that contains salt and pink peppercorn), dying veggies served next to the good white bean dip, if those fried pickles would come back. Beer is good, but not 15$ for 0.75 L-fill-up-your-growler good. But service. Really. Bad. That bartender inside should be given some time off in tropical area since he seems so depressed and pissed. Your servers should try to smile and facilitate peoples orders, not rush away after only half of the table ordered their drinks. But pinnacle of the rudeness was tonight. ~20 of us. 2 kids. Yes. We are human. Humans reproduce. And then they have kids. We have money - we pay for our service, and most of the times - we will tip really well if you are nice to us. But we got charged 5.5$ for a cup of milk. That is a price of 2L of horizon organic milk in store (I know, as I said I am human, and I have a child). Also I was asked to move our child from the stairs since stairs are not for kids to walk on. I understand. As well as you should that I have a toddler that wants to go up and down the stairs, and if he does it once, he will be happy and I will be able to take him elsewhere. I assume I am not hipster enough. Well.. Yep... I am not. But I can afford much more than a regular hipster can. In the end, after I protested about the declining service to one of the owners, I was told that if I dont like it here, I dont have to come any more. Well I will not come any more. For sure. P.S. And if you will give an answer to this review, please, just let me know where that food truck from last summer went. So I can get some of those fried pickles.

GA

Gabe Cisneros

Just earlier today I came here for the first time with two others. I really like the feel of the place. I love the patio, it reminds me of mcminamins(if youve ever been to Oregon). The space inside is not crowded with tables. I didnt get a chance to go downstairs, perhaps next time. My server was great and had intimate knowledge of the beer. On reviewing the reviews, I really like that Emily(the co-owner) responds to every single one (even if they are not well done or rude). However, I cannot give the remaining two stars for two reasons: 1. We ordered the pretzels first and they did not arrive until we had finished our meal and were ready to leave. We did really like the stone ground mustard. Is there wasabi in it? 2. This is the real problem. Each of us ordered the kitchen burger the same way, with bacon and cooked medium. We even said that it was OK if it still mooed at us. When they arrived, each of them were cooked well done. Pretty much makes them dry. Which is incredibly unfortunate because the goat cheese and tomato jam are excellent toppings and it only failed because of the lack of moisture. The two smaller patties I think are a good idea because the toppings are less likely to slop off the backside when biting. In the end, we did ask for a discount on the burgers because they were not cooked per the order. We did receive that discount and it was exactly what we had in mind. I do find it concerning that we had to ask for this to be rectified, rather than the shift manager coming to our table. All that being said, I will return if I am in the area. Denizens has a full calander of events and live music, and the specials for happy hour are competitive. The menu is simple, and has something for everyone, yet its not packed with items you could get across the street.

Other organizations