I had not heard of Amor Artis as it is only a couple of weeks old, luckily a couple invited us to meet them there with our kids to grab a beer. Located in heart of "downtown" Fort Mill, the tap room is on the a smaller side being in a historic building, but it feels larger than it is. Nice wooden floors, a large deck patio out back, and a large chalk board behind a good looking bar adds to the charm of the place. The tables were all nice, thick topped wooden high-tables with wooden slat chairs. It didn't stand out as fancy, but was definitely nice and much higher quality than you find at a lot of places.
The floors were soaking wet when we arrived from being mopped, probably something that should happen way earlier, or at the end of the night. The bathrooms still smelled of fresh paint, but they were not very clean. The door to the brewing area was propped open with no signage or barriers, and it did not look very good in there - needs some organization for sure.
Back near the front entrance near the bar is a small chest set up with a chalkboard wall and easel for your attempts to keep the kids occupied while you try and pretend you have a social life and drink. The only downside is that there are no tables or chairs for a smaller kid to easily sit at, so they try and play on the floor - which was soaking as I stated.
The bartender was friendly, energetic, and let you sample the beers. The beer is OK - there are 2 IPAs that taste extremely similar. I tried my wife's Wit and it was OK. The Hoppy New year was a solid "session IPA" that I would order again for sure.
I would have loved to have sampled a larger variety of their beers, but they don't offer flights....yup, a brewery that does not offer flights. I don't get it, and it still makes me slightly angry thinking about a modern brewery not offering flights! Moving on - I saw someone that I assumed was the owner (and ended up being one of the brothers) that showed up there. I walked over to him and tried to make a conversation. I really tried hard to get him to say anything along the lines of "thanks for coming in" or "you should try X beer" - I mentioned I really enjoyed the Hoppy New year, asked about the IPAs, but got nothing back from him. I eventually just asked him why they didn't offer flights and if they ever were going to. His response, "nope" and "I don't know. Probably not." That isn't paraphrased, it was like trying to pick up a girl who wants nothing to do with you so they just ignore you. If I wanted to drink and get rejected I would go visit college sorority party again. He was terrible at being customer social. If you can't at least BS with customers that are providing a revenue source for his business, either don't wear a giant Amor Artis shirt in the Tap room, or stay out of it while customers are there! Every brewery owner or brewmaster I have met has been wonderful to speak to. They got into because they love beer - they love to drink it, brew it, talk about it, read about, etc. Hopefully he was tired and if I see him again he is more social - but this review is based off this visit.
The place has a lot of potential to be great though. It was busy regardless, but I wonder if they lack of nearby options plays into that.
For a 5-star from me:
- I would need to see flights offered - it's the tap room for a brewery, it's supposed to be for tasting! Give me flights or give me the next brewery!
- a shorter table area setup to dump the kids.
- some benches or chairs on the back deck. read more