Skip It: Broadway Brewery

I am so disappointed.

Last night, Jim and I went to Broadway Brewery. It just opened and we were both very excited to try their food and beer. We even got on their web site and looked at their menu. Locally grown food? Check? Interesting and innovative menu items? Check. What stuck out to me was a Butternut Bacon Pizza: "pureed butternut squash, crumbled bacon, caramelized onions, and cheddar cheese." Yum.

In fact, I looked forward to it all day. When we got to the restaurant, I was impressed. In the same space that Uprise Bakery used to be in, the restaurant was a little loud, but it had a great atmosphere. Not too bright, awesome artwork on the walls and you could see the brewing equipment next to the kitchen through windows in the back.

I looked over the menu, even though I knew what I was going to get. We ordered the Peasant Platter for an appetizer--sausages, local cheese, pickled vegetables, ground mustard and toasted baguette. Sounds good, right? Well, the couple bites I had were good. I just didn't get that many bites. We ate the entire platter in under five minutes there was so little food, and for $12, I was kind of mad.

For dinner, I ordered the Butternut Bacon Pizza. Jim ordered the Pork Burger. When we were served, I was upset again. My pizza looked like cheese melted over a saltine cracker and his burger was very small, considering it was $9. I took a bite of the pizza. My internal dialogue went a little something like this: "Way too salty and cheesy. No butternut squash flavor. Are there even any caramelized onions on it? Where is the bacon? Why does this smell like a Cheez-it?"

I then took a bite of Jim's burger. Oh boy. There was a ridiculous amount of salt on the meat. I mean so much, it was almost inedible. He would've sent it back, but we hadn't eaten in a while and were both way too hungry to wait another 15 minutes.

Jim and I looked at each other and started to laugh. For the remainder of our meal we continued to be Tom and Padma from Top Chef and "judge" our food and its appearance. Let's just say we would have asked them to please pack their knives and go home.

The manager came around after a while and asked us what we thought. I glanced at Jim quickly, and we told the manager our honest opinion. After all, we were paying nearly $30 for our meal and we didn't like almost any of it. So the manager took off the price of Jim's beer, which actually was very good.

In the end, the restaurant has a nice atmosphere, but the food is way under par. Most of the items cost right around $9-10, but the taste of the food isn't worth the price. For the sake of this restaurant, I really hope they get someone in the kitchen who knows what their doing.

I really hate having to say something bad about a new restaurant, especially one I looked forward to for such a long time, but they still have a long way to go. Oh well. At least they gave me a great idea for a new pizza recipe to try at home!