Reserve Artisan Ales

The third and final stop on a Illinois west coast brewery tour. Walking up to the building, it was impressive. It look new and that someone cared to spend on a lot of money on a start of the art facility. The bathrooms were my first visit and they occur before entering the patron part of the facility. Clean and they smelled good: A! Then I noticed the large brew hall, pinball machines, and open space. My mouth began to water. Unfortunately, that's were I woke up from the dream and re-entered reality. No bar, no seats to belly up to, and no bar tender. I saw a "bus" with 20+ tap handles. The needle skipped and scratched the record. I have been a few restaurants that serve beer this way and I don't care for it. I actually despise it. There was a smallish bar to my right were Tom and I went to talk to the chat with the only employee that we could see. We informed that we were first timers and instead of being inviting and telling us a bit, he just said give him a credit card, we get a card, dispense beer. No way to get a taster except for by the ounce. The tap handles on the bus were not in order as other breweries beers were on tap. Much to my chagrin I poured about 4 ounce of $0.43/ounce beer (all the beer had different pricing). I didn't care for the beer. As nice as the facility looked, the self-service and lack of service really ruined my experience there. I didn't finish my beer and was ready to leave in 3 minutes. I wish them the best but this isn't for me. Enjoy!