Andrew S.
Yelp
Large groups beware!! I've been a fan of Riverwalk's beers for quite some time, so I expected to have an equally enjoyable experience visiting the brewery, but that was hardly the case when my group of 10 tried to get some beers as part of a birthday celebration.
We ordered our initial beers without issue, chatting pleasantly with the staff, seated ourselves at the picnic tables in the beer garden, and had some pizzas delivered. However, when I went to the bar to order my second beer (the first one out of our group to try doing so), I was informed by the manager that our ENTIRE PARTY WOULD NO LONGER BE SERVED. When asked for an explanation, he simply said that we were a large group and he had assumed that we had already had some drinks elsewhere that afternoon. We had been quietly keeping to ourselves, had done nothing to disturb other patrons or the staff, and showed no signs of being overserved, so this came totally out of the blue.
A couple of people in our group had small dogs with them, so a large part of the reason we chose to come to Riverwalk was because they allowed dogs, but once we were asked to leave, our options were limited when it came to finding another establishment that could accommodate us, which in turn led to several members of our party going home much earlier than initially planned, putting a large damper on the evening (it was only about 8:00 at this point, by the way).
It's been about 24 hours and I'm still bewildered by what happened; in my 10+ years of visiting breweries, I've never been to one that treated respectful, paying customers this way. If they suspected that one of us was too intoxicated to drive, I would understand if they wanted to stop serving that specific person, but to shut off an entire party after one round is utter absurdity. They can be sure that I or any of the rest of my group will not be returning for another visit, and I caution any other large groups before planning an outing to Riverwalk, because there's a good chance your money won't be any good there.