that's really disappointing to hear all the horror stories about lousy service. that's pretty much what did them in at their previous locations in Philly too. *sigh*

I hope they haven't gotten too lazy and comfortable already. when I first read the Firehouse rumor thread I was so excited to hear that a brewpub was coming to Philly, especially one of the brewpubs that got me started on this whole craft beer thing some 15 years ago or so.

Dock Street needs to set the bar and keep it high to bring in more similar places. it's one of the things that has always irked me about west philly, lack of good places to go drink a good beer. sure some of the Ethiopian bars have a decent selection, but it's few and far between, and nothing on tap. every other neighborhood in the city has a great selection of good beer bars (fairmount has bishops and bridgids and belgian and st. stevens, no lib has standard and a few others, south has POPE and SPTR and Devils Den and Dive, NE has Grey Lodge, etc), why can't west philly have a good beer bar? and sure Fiume is great, it will always hold a place in my heart, but you can't seriously count that place.

sorry for going off on a sort of irrelevant rant, it's something that's been on my mind.

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I generally have very good service. Only once when sitting otuside on a very busy night did I feel it took to long to get refills, etc. I think if you only go at peak hours you end up with a different impression than if you go a little earlier or later. I often go a little later.

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the first time I went there, it was a busy friday or saturday night and we waited two hours to get our pizzas. I think a big problem was that they were doing a lot of take out orders and just didn't have room in the oven for all of the food. The service has always been friendly and I have been back several times since and have had better experiences. I hope Dock Street sticks around because the beer and the pizza is worth the wait.

Yikes to the bottle cap incident!

I should clarify my previous post (written after imbibing a Satellite Stout and a Chameleon) and say that for a long time, we always got this one female server who was awesome--friendly, fast, checked on us regularly. I think her name was Erin. She rocked! But it appears she left, much to our dismay Now when we go, the service is very hit or miss. I agree, it seems like they don't have enough people working during peak hours and it's much better to go during off-times.

That said, I'll keep going to Dock St unless every visit turns into a repeat of that one night when we waited 45 min for the first round of drinks. I love the beer and the neighborhood vibe, and all in all it's still a fun place to go.

the summer session was pretty bad. the first total miss imo. i do usually get good service there. maybe they have a hard time predicting crowds.

the cranberry kolsch (was it a kolsch?) was pretty bad too. but then again, I knew I wouldn't like it just from the name.

__________________
"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people."
— Howard Zinn

i never saw that one... was that in the winter sometime?

Never had any real complaints about service at Dock St, although food can be a little slow when it's crowded. I usually sit right at the bar, though, and a couple times "The Dude" himself was my bartender (although I didn't find out who he was until fairly recently).

I need to get back there soon. Been missing out on a lot of the latest brews.

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Erin was great. wasn't sure if she left or if I'm just never there when she's working. but if she has indeed left, she's left quite a hole in the service staff just as Fava accepting the brewmaster position and no longer bartending has left a hole in the bar staff (now I no longer have someone at the bar to talk geeky beer talk with).

__________________
"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people."
— Howard Zinn

I think it was sometime in the fall, around when cranberries are harvested. I'm assuming (hoping!) that they got local/fresh cranberries from the bogs in jersey or someplace nearby. I did happen to see a guy with a horse trailer hitched to his beat up pick-up truck stop in front of Dock Street a few weeks ago. I didn't think much of it and continued to drink my beer when I noticed the most awesome smell of fresh barley malt. I looked over and sure enough they were unloading trashcans upon trashcans of barley malt into the brewpub. it made me smile to know that they get their grains from a local source.

__________________
"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people."
— Howard Zinn