Have Good Product or Good Service or Die.

So here is a thing I hate, businesses that are not good at anything. You're the spork of life. Trying to be everything and pleasing no one.

This is especially true when it comes to craft beer and taprooms in the Twin Cities area. I drink a lot. I am a horrible cook, so I eat out a lot. I do this at various establishments in the Twin Cities area, nearly every day. It continues to boggle my mind how many places can't provide either good product or good service. It's legit hard to find both in the same location.

I can imagine what you are thinking, if this jack hole doesn't like the product or the service, they can either learn to cook/brew/bake or GTFO.

Which would be great - except as a jack hole, I do not care to do any of that. I eat/drink/exist out in the consumer based economy and I at this time will use my made up right as an American to complain.

The places I visit exist in two spheres, which I define as good product or good service. Occasionally these overlap. More often than not, they do not. Rarely, there is a place that can't manage to stick the landing in either circle. These places I avoid unless there is an unrelated compelling reason to visit.

If you have good product I will forgive poor service. This "good" could be defined by price or quality. If you are a dive bar selling pints for less than $4. I do not expect exceptional service. I expect it to be dingy. To possibly have some questionable characters. To have a hint of danger just on the other side of a careless comment.

If the product is exceptional, I will wait. If the atmosphere is engaging, I will allow for a longer wait for my next drink or for food to arrive. In nearly every situation there is an opportunity to balance the scales.

If the service is exceptional, it covers up for a lot of mistakes. If the product is superior, a misstep or two can be forgotten. What can not be accepted is a failure on both fronts.

A two front war is often said to be a fool's folly. Yet the taproom, dive bar, restaurant is constantly fighting on those grounds. It may be why the failure rate is so high.

Today I bounced from space to space and I experienced the full spectrum of good product, good service, both or none. To me, it helped define the landscape of taprooms especially over the next five years.

Have good beer. Or. Have great service. If you have neither, you will cease to have problems to worry about.

The market is glutted. At least in my opinion. Yes, media will tell you that we are not at "max brewpub" as defined by MPR News. But I feel that this assumption is missing a major issue. We may not be at "max brewpub" by capacity or economy. But I feel personally, in my limited experience, that we are at a level where breweries, brewpubs and beer bars can no longer afford to be bad at both product as service.

An important thing that I will define is that product is separate from atmosphere and location. Each can paper over the cracks of poor product or service. In the local market we even have what I would call a few zombie breweries leeching off their location alone. They are mostly dead but just don't know it.

My focus is on the overall quality of product, service and existence. So I will not be naming names or calling out specific experiences. I visited several today but one visit is not a full picture of reality. So it makes no sense to shame or call out anyone. And since at best I have maybe 50-60 people who will read this, why poison their future experience.

I try to balance new places with places I know and trust. So today after visiting a location that I have been to several times a week for more than a decade, I decided to try a place I have been but once. It was clear that I was not a regular. It was post Vikings game, so the crowd was thin. I opened a tab and then after my first beer, the entire interaction with the 'tender was nothing more than a transaction. Never was I given a suggestion for my next purchase. Never was I asked how I enjoyed the last.  Money for product exchanged - never an attempt to encourage future visits. I had my three sample size beers, which were fine if not exceptional and I left.

Next was a place I have been to before and would likely not visit again, except for on this occasion, they were hosting a fundraising event for something I am also a supporter of. In the past I have not enjoyed their beer. But the space is nice, they always have solid food trucks and before today their service wasn't an issue.

You know when you walk up to an employee in their place of business and they seem annoyed you are making them do their job? Yeah. That was tonight. Employees would rather be anywhere but at work. Have any questions about the beer? Make it quick. Want to possibly keep a tab open? Nope. Already closed out. You the customer are an imposition.

The thing that makes it worse is, the beer, the product is meh. It's not bad but it isn't good enough to make up for the lack of effort from the staff. The location closed at 8. By 735 they were flipping over chairs and making the vibe, "get out". I stood up and one employee told me, "it's no rush" as they flipped over the stool I was just sitting on.

I took my glass of half consumed beer and set it on the bar. The contents were iffy at best and not worth the shade the employees were sending my way for daring to still consume my purchase 10 min before close.

This particular location will likely continue to exist. They have environment, momentum, food trucks etc to cover up their lack of giving a shit. I may even return if they provide a space for a fundraiser for something I support.

But here is the rub, they might not even be here in six months. There is no guarantee. As a brewery, tap room or beer bar fades away, so much time is spent on the outside influences, market environment, political landscape. Rarely does any one ask if they provided a good product, good service or both.

As the attrition continues, as each article about a dream deferred or a passion project that passed is thrown into the ether, ask yourself if the subject provided either or both good product and good service. The truth more often than not, to the unbiased, is that they found a way to fail on either or both accounts.