It's about more than just beer

If you are like me you pick a brewery, brewpub or beer bar based on the beer that is available and give it a shot.  Either it can be a good experience or a bad experience and usually the beer has little to do with your experience.  Beer is very important but the service and ambiance have a great deal to do with your experience as well.  When either one of these is less than desirable it  may doom your your visit.

I know when I find a place that I enjoy, it usually combines all three.   If one is lacking I begrudgingly over look it, but if two or all three are lacking that spells doom for that place and next time I will try somewhere else.  I do not want to waste my time or money on somewhere that does not really care about the customer.

Since I am the QC Beerguy, I always try to chose a place on its beer first.  Usually that will work well for me but not always.  Sometimes the beer is not as good as advertised and leaves me wanting.  In most cases though there is more than enough good beer to save the day.

If the beer meets my demands the service and ambiance either seal the deal or leave me disappointed.  There are times when places I am a regular at leave me disappointed and angry.  This causes me to take a hiatus from that place.  This happened at a couple places locally about a month ago and I have not gone back since.  I know I will go back eventually, but I guess to me it is some sort of principal to not go there for a while.

Service to me is a big key.  If I am greeted with a "Hello", a smile or at least a tip of the head when I sit down at a bar that is a big step on the way to good service.  If instead I am ignored or even worse greeted by a look that tells me "You are not welcome here" it can be bad for a visit.  So needless to say like a first date the first 30 seconds spell success or failure for the place I visit.  Since I work in sales I understand what is good service and do not accept poor service.  I guess that is why I enjoy being a "regular" at the places I frequent, because it usually means good service is on the way.

If the beer and service meet my acceptance it comes down to the ambiance or feel of the place.  There is one place I go to on a regular basis that is in a strip mall and from the outside looks rather disappointing, but once inside the place I feel very comfortable.  If the feel is there as well with the other two keys this is a worthy place.  One such place we were just at this past weekend after our niece's concert in Normal, IL.  Probably my wife and I would of never found this place but it succeeded in all three phases.  The only negative was that my wife's beer was bad, probably the beer sat in the line to long or some other cleaning issue caused the beer to go bad.  Once my wife brought it to our waiter's attention he apologized and than thanked her for telling him about the beer.  He said that they want to k now when a beer is bad so they can address it.

I look forward to exploring places on my travels and when I find a gem I am very excited.  Conversely if I find a dud I am also in a way excited, this means next time I am in the same city I have a new adventure ahead of me.  The beer brings me in, but it is not the be all end all to my decision.  The service and the feel of the place are important as well.  So to repeat "It's about more than just the beer"

QC Beerguy