Caboose Brewing Company - Vienna

I reached out to Caboose directly beforehand to provide this feedback, but never got a response, so now I 'm sharing publicly especially since someone else had a recent similar experience with the wait staff. A friend and I visited Caboose Tavern for a late lunch which was mostly just coffee/beer and were looking to eventually do some food. As is promoted all over their website and social media, we intended to get some work done while eating/drinking at the brewery. However, our waitress had other plans. After ordering our first round of drinks, we pulled out our laptops to get some work done. Our waitress then completely ignored us. Mind you, this was mid afternoon and there were only a couple of occupied tables. She repeatedly went to the other tables and took their food orders and extra rounds of drinks all while never again offering us any other opportunities to order. At one point she came by and simply took one of our empty glasses stating let me get that out of the way. As time passed, we tried several times and finally got her attention so we could get our check and leave, very disappointed and unlikely to return. Caboose used to be awesome, but like many of the other recent reviews show, things have gone downhill.

I ordered the grilled cheese with a side salad. For 16 I wouldn’t say it was worth it. The grilled cheese was really good but also a bit small. The side salad was just a bunch of lettuce on a plate with a relatively plain vinaigrette. The staff and environment were nice though. I wish they would include plain old cold cut ham as an add on for the grilled cheese. All they offer is bacon. If I could’ve paid .5 more for a slice of ham on my sandwich it would have been a lot better. I also can’t imagine it’d be terribly expensive to include tomatoes and croutons in the side salad.

Great beer, but unfortunately the food has diminished considerably. The food used to be great with many unique items on the menu. But the last time I went, the menu was uninspiring with typical bar offerings that can be found practically anywhere/can easily be made at home burgers, wings, quesadillas, nachos and the like. Perhaps they no longer have a professional chef? The ingredients no longer seem top notch. I used to get the shrimp and grits that was delicious with large head and tail on shrimp. No longer on the menu. I tried the Creole BBQ Shrimp but it had small shrimp, no tail or head and the sauce was uninspiring. I can make it better myself. The watermelon ceviche was just so so and I didn't finish it. But the beer is still good! But not sure I'll make the trip there just for the beer. Such a shame as I used to tell everyone this was one of the only breweries that was doing it right with top notch beer AND food. No longer the case.

Very open, warm space with outdoor seating, trees, and access to the W&OD trail. VERY tucked away in the back of an industrial complex, but well worth the visit. Just be aware that parking can be scarce. The food and beer were excellent, the coffee was solid. The service was friendly. We will definitely be back.

EDIT: Changing from 1 start to a 5 because of the way our negative experience was addressed with such professionalism and dedication to customer service- which resembles much of our past experiences with Caboose. Tyler, the manager called and apologized and was extremely empathetic and we very much appreciated the outreach. Since, we have been back to this location and had a great time once again. Absolutely horrified at my experience here and will NOT be returning after years of being an avid customer. The servers are nothing less than disrespectful. When asking for assistance and getting a reply of “what’s up?”, spilling on me with no apology and handing me a rag to clean it up myself, and food was god awful at a high price. I’m saddened at how much Caboose has gone downhill.