First Bites: BrewGrrs Burgers and Brews
Months behind schedule but just in time for the season, a new casual concept eatery featuring brews and burgers, BrewGrrs, finally opened its doors a few days before Christmas in the old Modern Age building at the eastern end of Miracle Mile.
It’s fair to say there is nothing exactly like this restaurant in Vero Beach. Offering 36 beers on tap, a dozen burger options, and a variety of sports airing on big-screen TVs, BrewGrrs is something of a cross between a brewpub and the Miller’s Ale Houses found elsewhere throughout the South.
Headline news: What you quickly discover at BrewGrrs is the brews are the thing. The beers are lovingly presented in their own menu, each with its story, and beer novices can sample a tasting flight of beers – presented in four glasses set into a wooden beer tasting paddle shaped like a bottle. Very nice.
But if BrewGrrs is hoping to do a big food business as well, there is a lot of room for improvement.
Look & Feel: Very casual. With a sit-down bar on one side facing the 36 ornate beer tap handles, an open kitchen opposite, and wooden tables in the center with no-back wooden benches, BrewGrrs has more of a brewery feel than a restaurant feel. (There also a half-dozen booths along the walls with more comfortable seating.)
Food: On our visit four days after BrewGrrs opened, we started – after ordering beers, of course – with the charbroiled kielbasa bites ($8.50) served with chive and mustard seed potato salad. The six chunks of kielbasa were very tasty; the potato salad wasn’t.
One of us would have been inclined to start with a salad, but the five salads offered on the menu are all described as “entrée size,” and the waitress confirmed that there aren’t any dinner salads.
For main courses, I chose the East Meets West burger ($9), my husband chose the Plain Jane ($8) with some crumbled blue cheese on top (an extra $1), and our companion opted for the Garden of Eden ($9.25).
The East Meets West comes with avocado, lettuce, tomato, sharp cheddar, and a mix of Dijon and chili mayo on a hamburger bun. I asked to have it on sliced multigrain bread – one of the options offered – but it came on the bun anyway.
Our companion’s Garden of Eden burger comes with sautéed mushrooms, fontina cheese, red onion and tomato drizzled with garlic aioli. She asked to have hers on a focaccia bun. It also came on a regular hamburger bun.
When we pointed these miscues out to the waitress, she said, ‘Sorry.’ Not sorry, as in, ‘Let me take it back and get it corrected.’ Just, ‘Sorry.’
My husband’s Plain Jane came as ordered on sourdough bread, but the crumbled blue cheese was not atop the burger but in a separate dish on the side. He spread it on the burger, but it was not entirely obvious why this had not occurred in the kitchen.
The burgers (two ordered medium rare, one rare) in each case were slightly more cooked than desired. You may wish to adjust your order accordingly. The burgers themselves were not as juicy as the best of those served elsewhere.
But the big disappointments were not the burgers – which were certainly passable if not great – but the sides. The standard accompaniment at BrewGrrs to hamburgers is French fries, and these were grim –dark, greasy mounds that should never have made it out of the kitchen.
And our companion, who had ordered Corny Slaw (a $2 upgrade) in place of the fries, was equally disappointed. The slaw came with virtually no dressing, and chunks of cabbage and onion that each could have been diced into many pieces.
What we will not be able to report on in this column are the BrewGrrs dessert offerings. We were planning to try the Oatmeal Stout Cake as a conclusion to the meal, but when the waitress came, instead of inquiring about dessert, she presented the check. Oh, well.
Drink: BrewGrrs offers a full bar, and drink prices seem quite reasonable.
Service: On the evening we visited, service was a bit erratic. But we would put that down to startup pains. Our guess is service gets better quickly.
Prices: The tab for our party of three – with appetizer, a beer apiece and a burger -- came to $55 before taxes and tip. Not a bad price.
Initial impressions: Young people in particular seem likely to be attracted to this restaurant, and if BrewGrrs gets the food part of the equation right, it could have a bright future.
I welcome your comments, and encourage you to send feedback to me at tina@verobeach32963.com.
The reviewer dines anonymously at restaurants at the expense of Vero Beach 32963.
Hours
Daily, 11 am to closing
Bar
Full Bar
Address (MAP)
390 21st Street, Vero Beach, FL, Phone: (772) 226-5700
