Inside Surly's new $30M Facility

They can, but choose not to. Adding a kitchen adds several more layers of headache to the building/opening process, on top of the large added expense.

 

Ok, pheasant terrine. My mistake.

 

With that I take my bow! Also trolls need to eat too!

 

It's a damn shame Todd's wide Linda didn't know what she was doing running Café Twenty-Eight in the Linden Hills neighborhood. You'd think she would've learned her lesson when they let her take over the restaurant at the new place.

/sarcasm

 

Here's my take on Surly's restaurant:

Surly created a "destination" brewery, meaning it's a place that people are traveling to (almost like a vacation), so it should be special and memorable. Check out Stone's restaurant menu (http://www.stoneworldbistro.com/bistro_menus/dinner.asp) and you'll see what Surly is trying to do. I get where @wapavz is coming from. We are all used to our local breweries having food trucks and we don't really expect incredibly fancy food (although some trucks do bring some impressive dishes). And yes, Surly is known for being metal, informal, and generally rough around the edges, but that doesn't mean that's all they are or that they must be limited to that image. They're known for excellent beer so it seems logical they'd also want to be known for excellent food. And Guzman came from Solera, which tells you right off the bat what the menu will be like. Plus it's all smoked meats and bone marrow and shit, so that's kinda metal... Anyway, with this new place, I think Surly wants you to remember the food just as much as the beer. They want to set themselves apart from everyone else and I'd say they'll do that easily.

With all that said, I thought the food was very tasty but I probably won't eat their often because of the price and portion sizes. A chicken wing and a drummie for $16 is too rich for my blood even if it was fried in duck fat. But I knew what to expect before I got there because I looked at the menu and saw instantly the type of restaurant it would be: small portions of excellent food with a la carte sides all for big bucks. But I tell ya, if I go to a nice restaurant, I expect good beer. So vice versa, it should be the same way, right?

And as everyone has already said, if you don't like it, don't eat there!

Cheers!

 

Thanks for the informative review.
Really gave me a feel for the place, without all the unnecessary bitching of some of the other ones I'm reading here.

 

Wow, just wow.

Just order a cheeseburger then. Or, is the "fancy sauce" too exotic for your bland tastes?

 

Town Hall would have to stop selling its beer at Town Hall Tap and Town Hall Lanes if it were to go that route, as the Surly Law permits distribution at only a single site for non-brewpub breweries (hence the closure of Surly's Brooklyn Center taproom to pave the way for the opening of the Minneapolis Beer Hall). Alternatively, Town Hall could follow the Barley John's model and build a brewery for off-site distribution in a state more friendly to alcohol-related commerce. I'm still hopeful that momentum is building to rationalize further some of these policies, and the Minnesota House of Representatives should be much friendlier to consumers and brewers in the next session than the last. I just hope that the effort to relax or eliminate the brewpub/taproom distinction isn't forgotten during the annual Sunday sales drive.

 

Her place was awesome! I enjoyed calling on her when I was in the beer business.

 

What do you mean by "calling on her" ?

 

He was a beer rep for a distributer I believe. Reps "call on" their accounts. It's a common term.

 

But my dad is king of the castle. If he wants fancy sauce he can have it.

 

So basically, when one person felt the need to criticize Surly's new food menu for changing from food truck fare to fine dining (with appropriate pricing increases), you felt the need to white knight Surly to the point of outright insulting him and trying to play Jon Stewart. Keep it clazzy, m8.

 

do they sell merchandise at the new tap room? thought i saw a post on FB about it but now i cant find it.

 

Yup, but stock seems to be down from the holiday rush. They expect to have new stock in next week

 

Hmmm, because you are so educated, you know what is best for Surly. Your posts don't seem to support a high return on that educational investment.

 

Everyone has a right to their opinion. However if Surly's new (IMHO kick ass) brewery isn't your cup of tea, come to Rochester and hang out at Kinney Creek. I believe any "inadequacies" will melt away...

 

Kinney Creek does not get enough love. ^_^

 

Overstatement of the year right here....

 

i think kinney creek gets the appropriate amount of love.

I did kind of feel that they were almost trying too hard to be edgy when reading their menu, but I'm not bothered enough by it to bring it up.