Frēlard Pizza Company - Maltkiln Lane

Drove past this place for years and was always enticed by the outdoor seating area. The outdoor seating area was indeed awesome with a really nice fire pit and a great vibe. The pizza was pretty good, a little pricey, but it's hard to mess up pizza. Unfortunately, those are basically the only good things I can say about my experience here. Most of it was soured by the fact that an obligatory 20% gratuity goes to the house not the employees and then you are more or less expected to leave an additional tip on top of that that actually goes to the employees the tip options given on the machine are 1%, 2.5%, and 5% . In receipt of paying Ethan Stowell Restaurants 20% extra for being at a restaurant, we waited 40 minutes for one pizza while take out boxes flew out the door, to the point that the server had to compensate with a large bowl of olives. In short, if you are dining in here you're a sucker. This apparently recently implemented change makes this feel like a Kitchen Nightmares-style money grift to line the pockets of Ethan Stowell, especially based on how his name is all over the restaurant's windows and also on the menus, opposite the blurb that explains this egregious gratuity scheme. What a shame, because the mood would otherwise be nice. Perhaps this place would have a better life as a ghost kitchen. *I have to say that all the great job but like employees were charming and clearly doing their best, I just left feeling like I got screwed and they're getting screwed worse

Whether it’s dine in, carry out, or delivery, I’ve been eating here and at the Ballard location almost monthly for the last 6 years. I’ve seen them go through Covid, a myriad of personnel management issues, menu changes, etc. I recently went and got a large pizza with no drinks or apps, and the bill was over $50. For one pizza…?! Their recent staff is great and a big improvement, but when they brought the bill we were told there was a 20% dine in fee that goes straight to the house and that the staff doesn’t see any of it in other words, “please still tip”. Keep in mind that they also charge a carry out fee in addition to a delivery fee. Now you have to pay to eat here. The company must really be hurting. This wasn’t the server’s fault, so I didn’t make a big deal, but I found it ironic she was telling us how dead it was all night. Hmm… I wonder why? Maybe because you charge a fee to dine in, take out, AND deliver.