Company Brewing Was a Disappointment

After one Sunday brunch and a weekday lunch, I concluded that Company Brewing was a restaurant with a good, if not a great brunch, and a forgettable lunch menu with one exception, the Popper Grilled Cheese. The restaurant was half occupied at brunch and almost empty at lunch. However, as the afternoon rolled on, more customers began to arrive.

It’s inviting, with its popular industrial chic look, many tables, a long bar, and an upper platform where customers can observe the corner of Center and Fratney through large windows. At brunch we watched an ambulance with two police cars in close pursuit, sirens going full on, screaming past us as we sipped pre-brunch drinks.

From a short list of four brunch drinks, we ordered the familiar, a Bloody Mary and a Mimosa. The bloody was worth a salute as a companion declared it, “the best bloody ever and it’s not made from a mix.” A “Snack Sleeve,” a mini sausage and some green olives adorned the bloody which was, of course, accompanied by a beer chaser. The Mimosa was equally impressive made with Cava, orange juice, and for an additional citrus punch, dry curacao.

Also on the Brunch Drink menu, Irish Cold Brew with Tully, combining batch whiskey, Scotch Whiskey Liqueur, and cold brewed coffee, and a Troubleshooter, with Gin, Campari, and grapefruit.

For our meal, we stayed with conservative choices and ordered eggs, bacon, and brunch potatoes, Poutine, and for something different, the Fricken Jamwich.

Three over-easy eggs were flawless; the Nueske’s bacon was crisp; and the potatoes were deep-fried with a parmesan crust. Oddly, toast wasn’t on the menu, but as requested, our server brought two slices of Troubadour sourdough that had been grilled and buttered. It was just toast, but darn, it was good.

For the Poutine, the chef ladled sausage gravy, more sausage than gravy, over too many fries, and buried in the fries were cold chewy muenster cheese curds. A sunny-side-up egg finished the dish, a pretty picture, but those cold curds needed some warmth which could have raised it to a decent poutine, not a rave.

As for the Jamwich, it was a celebration of complementary flavors starting with a large crisp piece of buttermilk-marinated chicken in a brioche bun. The chef sauced it with Hooks 4-year cheddar which the menu referred to as “fondue,” then gilded the lily with apricot jam, pickled red onion, and some irrelevant lettuce. It was fricken delicious.

Also on the brunch menu, a scrambled egg sandwich, French toast and an unusual Pork Belly Benedict with Miso Hollandaise, scallions, and garnished with black sesames.

Lunch was less satisfying. Among the items ordered, only the Popper Grilled Cheese raised any enthusiasm and that was because it was a riff on an ordinary grilled cheese with an unusual mix of flavors starting with its “jalapeno fromage fort.” I had to go online and look that one up. Here’s what I learned. A common variety of the fromage fort is a mix of small pieces of cheese, combined with butter, garlic, salt, pepper, and both pickled and fresh jalapenos. It’s blended and often used as a dip or, in this case, the filling for a toasted cheese sandwich plus brick cheese and bacon. But there was more: The exterior of the sandwich was coated with parmesan before it was sautéed which added a tasty, crusty exterior crust. According to our server, this extra crust is called “parmesan frico.” The sandwich had spicy heat from the jalapeno and funk from the brick cheese. It was memorable, but in my opinion, pairing the frico and fromage fort was overkill; one or the other would have been enough.

The Fried Chicken Sandwich was just that, a buttermilk-fried chicken breast that sat too long on the heat with American cheese and house-make pickles. The Fried Tofu Sandwich made with Simple Soyman herb tofu was a tower of deep-fried tofu topped with cilantro-lime slaw. It required a knife and fork.

Company Brewing is mainly a brewpub and to that end there is a two-page menu listing its craft beers, plus cider, special cocktails, wine on tap, NA drinks, and an extensive list of spirits.

In the plus column, the service was excellent, and to keep it simple, a 20% gratuity was automatically added to our bill. Company Brewing is a bar with food and with that in mind, don’t look for haute cuisine. Instead, come for drinks, comfort food, and if you are a grilled cheese aficionado, try the Popper Grilled Cheese.

On The Menu

The Rundown

• Location: 735 E. Center St.
• Phone: 414-930-0909
• Hours: 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. Mon-Thu, 12 p.m. to 2 a.m. Fri, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sat, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sun
• Neighborhood: Riverwest
• Walk Score: 84
• Transit Score: 53
• Website: http://companybrewing.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/companybrewing
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CompanyBrewing/info/?tab=overview
• UM Rating: 4 stars (average of Yelp, Trip Advisor and Zomato)
• Cuisine Style: Breweries