Brother's Bar & Grill

Brother’s Bar and Grill seems to always have a good crowd whenever I have been there.  I think, however, I have only been there on Sunday’s later morning, but all of the seats in this dive-like bar always are occupied.  Perhaps dive bar isn’t the right description of this place as I have been to many more bars that fit the “dive” description, but there isn’t anything that is fancy there.  At all.  I suppose you could also call it a sports bar, but either way, it is a bar.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a trashy, packed like a sardine can bar like Kathy’s, but Brother’s is a bar nonetheless and they serve bar food. 

The place itself is pretty large, dimly lit, and furnished with booths and chairs and tables that are not from this century.  They certainly get the job done and fit in with the overall feel of the bar.  Along with the dimly lit dining area, sports memorabilia hangs throughout on the walls and several TVs showing sports games or news.  I think the overall impression, with the dim lighting, the booth/table/chair style, the TVs, and the busy walls give me the dive bar feel.  There is also a good size bar situated in the middle of the space. 

I have always been mostly satisfied with the breakfast options that I have had at Brother’s.  They do the predictable breakfast fare, such as giant, fluffy pancakes, French toast, eggs/meat/toast, Eggs Benedict, country fried steak, and the like.  They also have some less standard options like seemingly a dozen omelette options and some other tasty, yet greasy selections like the three pigs sandwich which contains three different kinds of pig, and the Monte Cristo sandwich, among other selections.  Like I said, I have been mostly satisfied with the breakfast fare on which I have dined.  If I remember correctly, though, I was a little disappointed with the Eggs Benedict when I got them because they did not used poached eggs as is typical, but pan cooked eggs, sunny side up perhaps.  It has been a while since I had it, but that is how I remember it.

This past Sunday, I met several other people at Brother’s and they had already ordered and/or were in the process of eating.  Once I found the table I was approached fairly quickly by a waitress to take my drink order.  Since this is a bar they obviously have a full liquor menu.  They also have a surprisingly good tap selection.  Luckily they also have one of my all-time favorite draft beers, Left Hand’s Milk Stout on a Nitro tap.  It is like Guinness, just much tastier.  Since I had coffee earlier in the morning I opted for one of these; had I not had coffee earlier I would have also likely opted for one since Brother’s coffee isn’t particularly good.  I am a coffee snob. 

Apparently I just missed the cutoff time for breakfast as the waitress informed me.  I am not the biggest fan of breakfast food unless it is made particularly well or unless it is particularly creative, so I didn’t much mind.  Plus this gave me the opportunity to try a non-breakfast item for the first time.  I perused their selection of non-breakfast items and found mostly what I expected: salads, sandwiches, burgers, and other entrées.  I didn’t study this part of the menu too thoroughly, but the offerings seemed pretty standard, perhaps with a little twist on them. But nothing overly unique jumped out.  Again, though, I didn’t read through the entire menu in detail.  Also, at the front of the bar near the door they usually have daily specials written on a marker board. 

After my tasty beverage was brought I ordered one of my favorite sandwiches, the Cubano.  Interestingly enough, the menu said it has mayonnaise and not mustard on it.  I had them hold the mayonnaise.  The side I chose was chicken dumpling soup.  I love soup and I love chicken dumpling about anything.  Plus one of the most obvious signs of how well a place makes food is how good their soup is. 

Each time I have been to Brother’s I have noticed their service, or at least speed of food service, isn’t their strong suit.  This visit was no exception.  The waitress offered to see if the kitchen would still make me breakfast before I placed my order, but I was under the assumption they were switching over to lunch and were ready for that.  I assumed wrong.  I guess it takes them between ten and fifteen minutes for them to switch over from cooking eggs and bacon to burgers and chicken.  Whatever.  Like I said, though, it was par for the course from what I have previously noticed from this establishment.

Once my sandwich and soup finally arrived, I was pretty hungry so I dove right in.  The soup was, plainly put, subpar.  There were maybe half a dozen of small, think nickel-size at the biggest, flat dumplings that were flat in flavor, no discernible chicken other than the chicken broth, and an overwhelming flavor of celery.  I don’t have a problem with celery, but a chicken dumpling soup should focus on the chicken and dumplings, both which were barely, if at all, present.  I am guessing this soup was not made in house and, furthermore, I could make a much tastier soup, chicken and dumpling or otherwise.  In fact, I think I have had better canned soup before too. 

On to my Cubano.  The ingredients, except for the lack of mustard which I added once the sandwich arrived, spoke mostly of a Cubano.  But this was not a Cubano sandwich.  First, it was not pressed like a Panini, pressed like a Cubano should be.  As a result, it wasn’t piping hot.  Second, it has an overwhelming taste of pork.  Don’t get me wrong, I love pork.  Pig is delicious.  But in this sandwich they failed to strike the proper balance between bread, pickles, cheese, mustard, ham, and pork.  Typically Cubano sandwiches have pulled pork and ham.  The pork for this one was a sliced pork loin.  I don’t take issue with that, since, after all, it was the second type of pig on that sandwich.  Visually observing the sandwich, however, shows a 20:1 ratio, or so, of pork loin to ham.  I like meaty sandwiches, but this one failed to strike the balance I desire.  It also didn’t have a sufficient amount of melted cheese to compliment the two kinds of pig and pickles.  Come to think of it, there wasn't any melted cheese on the sandwich.  Also, the bread wasn’t traditional Cuban style bread, but this is Minnesota.  The bread of the sandwich fit fine and did its purpose.  Pressing the sandwich, however, would have further highlighted it and gave the sandwich another layer of texture and flavor.

Overall, Brother’s did not impress me with its non-breakfast offering.  Granted this was my first non-breakfast food I had there, it did not satisfy me the way their breakfast food does.  Does this mean that all of their non-breakfast food is lacking?  Certainly not.  Some of their burgers sounded tasty, but, like I said, I am a sucker for a Cubano sandwich.  And if you call it such, make it such, because it is expected to be such.  They could have fantastic burgers for all I know and maybe someday I will try one.  The soup was subpar and I would have probably rather had French fries. 

Here is my French fry rant.  I really don’t like French fries so saying I’d take that over my usually beloved soup says something.  The reason behind my disdain of French fries is because most places don’t know how to make French fries.  They fry them wrong, they don’t season them, and/or they aren’t crispy and flavorful.  Tinn’s Sandwich shop here in Rochester knows how to make French fries.  I will review Tinn’s at some point in time.  But I am not too certain if Brother’s French fries would have been a French fry I would have enjoyed. 

As it is, I cannot recommend Brother’s non-breakfast food based on this experience.  Yes, it is my only experience with their non-breakfast food, but I would recommend getting there early enough for breakfast fare.  For as much as I don’t particularly care for most breakfast food, they do a decent job with it.  Just don’t expect super speedy service.

To recap….

Food:  I cannot recommend the Cubano sandwich or the chicken and dumpling soup.  Neither were what they should have been.  When I order a Cubano, I don’t necessary expect it to be a groundbreaking or uniquely unpredictable take on it like I had to an extent at Rick Bayless’ XOCO restaurant in Chicago, but I expect a Cubano sandwich, balanced, hot, pressed, and tasty.  When I order soup I expect it to be flavorful.  Give breakfast a shot, but skip the Cubano and the chicken and dumpling soup.

Service:  As expected.  Service has never been great there.  They are friendly, just not quick. 

Drinks:  Since Brother’s is a bar, they have a full liquor licenses.  They also have one of my favorite draft beers, Left Hand’s Nitro Milk Stout.  Order one, then another and another.  You will thank me.  I am unsure if they have Coca Cola or Pepsi, but any bar should have Coca Cola since that will make a mixed drink taste a hundred times better.  I assume they will also make any mixed bar drink you like.  Their coffee isn’t very good, but I’ll take a Milk Stout over subpar coffee any day of the week.

Ambiance:  It’s a bar.  Dimly lit, sports stuff on the walls, TVs, outdated tables and chairs.  That being said, it’s a bar and there are many worse bars in town.  They have a better food menu than many bars do.  It’s not a fine dining restaurant, but they aren’t trying to be a fine dining restaurant.  The ambiance speaks to what they are.  Fair enough.

Conclusion:  Brother’s is a good place to go for breakfast.  They always have a crowd of people.  I will have to try another non-breakfast item sometime, but as of right now, I can, to a certain degree, only recommend breakfast food on varying levels based on past experiences because my lunch food was disappointing.  Check it out sometime, it’s a good place for what it is, but don’t expect a lot out of their Cubano and soup.

Jordan

Nupa

From what I could gather by searching Google, this is the first and only restaurant blog for Rochester, Minnesota.  Outside of columns in the Post Bulletin available on their website, I could not find another, independent restaurant blog in the town.  It is exciting to have the opportunity to be the first voice on restaurants in Rochester and to be able to use my knowledge to see how the restaurants stack up, regardless who they are, how many awards they have won, how many billboards they advertise on, or how long they have been in business.

The first restaurant review for this blog is for Nupa.  While Nupa has not been around for a long time, and it recently opened a second location, it is certainly one of the best food options in town.  I have an unofficial top five restaurants in Rochester list and Nupa is on it.  Hopefully soon I will be able to assemble my official top five restaurants in Rochester list and I am sure Nupa will appear on that one as well.

For those who don't know of Nupa, you need to check it out.  It is tasty.  They are a quick service Mediterranean/Greek restaurant run by the people that have Mac's restaurant downtown in the Peace Plaza. Someone had the ingenious idea of turning an old eyeglasses store into a restaurant.  They did well.  It is like Chipotle, but their food is better and Mediterranean/Greek instead of Mexican-like.  Nupa's food is what you would expect from a Mediterranean/Greek restaurant and it is made well.  They have your typical selection of Gyros, Hummus, Pitas, Avgolemono soup, various salads, Kabobs, wonderful Tzatziki, Dolmades, Baklava, and so forth.

Their Gyro options are quite expansive, from the traditional beef and lamb combo, to chicken, steak, shrimp, calamari, falafel, and veggie.  As a nice bonus, they pack the pita with far more meat than it can hold so they surely do not skimp.  Having tried the traditional beef and lamb variety, the chicken variety, and the calamari variety, I can recommend all of them.  I was pleasantly surprised with how well the calamari was cooked when I tried that one.

Last night I stopped at the Nupa off of Civic Center Drive on the way home from work to eat some dinner.  As soon as you enter the building you are promptly greeted by one of the friendly staff members.  They are always welcoming and willing to help you in any way possible.  As a side note, I have heard many women talk before how they enjoy going there because the male employees that tend to be Greek are handsome.  Take that for what it is worth.

You place your order at the counter and it is rung up.  After you pay you get a number and find a seat.  As you can tell in the picture above, they have a menu board.  Their full menu, however, is not on their menu board.  They have hard copies of their entire menu at the counter so take a look at one of those if you want something more substantial, like one of their dinner plates.

Beverages are self service.  Unfortunately they have Pepsi.  Fortunately, however, they have among the tastiest water I have ever tasted.  They make cucumber water and it is free.  It may sound weird, but it is wonderfully refreshing and utterly delicious.  And free.  Because of their cucumber water I can look past their Pepsi offering.  They also do have a few different bottles of beer and some wines.  I have never inspected their wines too closely, but I think some or most or perhaps all are from Greece.  Their beer selection is a couple offerings from August Schell brewery in New Ulm, Minnesota, Schell's Dark and their wonderfully delicious Firebrick, and some other "beers" that Minnesotans love, like Michelob Golden Light and the like.  They do not serve hard liquor, but I don't know of any quick service restaurants that do.  Between the free cucumber water and Schell's Firebrick they have fine beverage choices and if they swapped the Pepsi machine for a Coke machine their beverage selection would equal their food selection.

The food tends to take only a few minutes until it is delivered to the table.  I have waited longer at name whatever fast food restaurant and the food at Nupa is much better.  Last night I got the Chicken Divan Pita meal, which is a pita with marinated, charbroiled chicken and honey mustard sauce (a love of mine), topped with Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, and onions, served with Tzatziki sauce, one of the best rice sides I have ever tasted, and a Greek salad consisting of lettuce, tomatoes, Feta cheese, onions, cucumbers, Pepperocini pepper slices, and a Kalamata olive dressed with a vinaigrette.  It was all delicious, as it always is at Nupa.  They are consistently great.

One of the critiques I have always had with Nupa's Greek salad is that the Kalamata olive is not pitted.  I know this having eaten many of them at Nupa before, but I think they should take the pit out of the olive.  When I eat I eat under the assumption olives have pits, but I am guessing not everyone does.  Other than that, the salad is always fresh tasting and delicious.  The Greek vinaigrette is nicely acidic, the Feta and Kalamata both sharp and salty, and the crisp greens and tomatoes give the salad a wonderful freshness.

I cannot say anything bad whatsoever about the rice.  In fact, I have tried to duplicate it at home and have yet to get it right.  It is immensely flavorful and perfect.  It is cooked well and seasoned even better.  I am sure it is cooked in chicken broth, lemon, and thyme.  I can see lemon zest when eating it and the herb presence is obvious as well.  Oregano makes more culinary sense since it is used predominately in Greek cuisine, but it has the look and flavor of thyme. 

On to the Chicken Divan Pita...it was wonderful as usual.  The chicken was charred, moist, juicy, and still hot and the vegetables inside provided a nice contrast in both texture and temperature.  The honey mustard sauce is a delicious compliment to the nice charred flavor of the chicken and the freshness of the vegetables.  Wrapping the whole delicious package together is a warm, tasty pita.  If you peel down the tinfoil while you eat it, it is fairly easy to keep it together when eating.  Like usual, when I got the entire pita eaten I had at least half a dozen chunks of chicken left over that the pita could not contain.  My only complaint is with the size of the chicken.  Some of the pieces were cut a little large to be considered bite size.  I didn't have a problem eating the chunks in one bite, but people with smaller mouths may have had trouble.  Certainly this doesn't change the flavor of the overall pita, but it may play a factor is the ease of eating.  If the size of the chicken chunks is my only complaint, I really have no complaint. 

I didn't have any Baklava last night, but I have had it many times in the past.  It is a tasty Baklava, though I have noticed some inconsistencies with it before.  They use orange in it, as is evident by orange zest when eating it, and it gives it a unique flavor that I don't recall from other Baklavas that I have had.  Some of the times I have had it, though, it is not as I remembered it being.  But the next time I have it, it is as good as I recalled it being. It has the wonderful, crunchy Filo you would expect, the luscious honey syrup, and nuts.  If you have it once and don't care for it, try it again.  You may have gotten the inconsistent batch like I have noticed.

Overall, Nupa does things right.  The food isn't complex, but it is well made.  They hit the Mediterranean/Greek flavors well and understand flavors, textures, temperatures, presentation, and consistency.  The service is excellent and quick.  Most items are under $10.  And they have free cucumber water.  The restaurant on Civic Center Drive is pretty small, but it is painted bright and there are tons of pictures hanging on the walls.  They also decorate with potted herbs.  The location near the south Hy-Vee is larger, but it seems much emptier and they need to decorate it a little more.  Both locations, however, are always super clean and hospitable.  It may be a quick service restaurant, but the food would be worth a 15 minute wait. 

To recap....

Food:  Great.  Very consistent overall, great flavors, textures, presentation, temperature contrasts, and so forth.  It's not necessarily super unique food or an unpredictable take on Mediterranean/Greek food, but it is well made and they can make rice I cannot duplicate.  Instead of fussing around with a beef and lamb mixture or making my own pitas from whatever else, I would much rather go here and support a local business while eating some fantastic food.

Service:  Great.  Friendly.  Prompt.  Very hospitable.

Drinks: No Coke, only Pepsi.  But they do have wonderful cucumber water, beer and wine, and even a very tasty, locally made beer, Schell's Firebrick.

Ambiance:  Small, cozy place (at least the Civic Center Drive location), but extremely welcoming.  Always clean.  Interesting pictures on the walls.

Conclusion:  One of Rochester's top five restaurants.  Well worth it!

Jordan

Another Day in Rochester's Food Scene

Another day has gone by in Rochester, Minnesota.  It was like most others, mainly wishing that a town of 100,000+ would have a food scene to compliment it, rather than a food scene that would make a town of 35,000 people feel somewhat satisfied.  Maybe the fact that Rochester is in the process of getting a University of Minnesota location will change that.  Maybe someday soon I will find a money tree and offer Rochester the opportunity to liberate their taste buds and learn what good tasting food is like.  That is not to say that there is not good food here.  There is just not enough good food here.

Rochester Magazine's Best of Rochester 2012 restaurant edition came out recently and I took a gander at it today.  Predictable as I figured.  Michael's had the best steak.  Victoria's had the best Italian dish.  Buffalo Wild Wing's had the best chicken wings!!!!!  Newt's had the best burgers and the best fries.  Flapdoodle's had the best ice cream...I actually agree with that....they make the best ice cream I have ever tasted.  And so the list goes on, like I said, predictable and few, if any, surprises.

I began to wonder, is this actually a poll of best restaurants based on taste/atmosphere/service/etc.. or more like a popularity contest.  Granted there is no other Italian restaurants in town, but how has Victoria's won best Italian restaurant/dish for the past dozen or more years?  It is not that good people.  I could have a restaurant and put one, single Italian dish on it and beat them and their 100+ item menu out.   Is Victoria's lasagna really the best Italian dish in town, or do people correlate Victoria's and Italian food then flip a coin to see which of their subpar dishes reign as Rochester's best Italian dish?  I lean more towards the popularity contest theory. 

If I ever find my money tree I would love to open a place to put both Newt's and Victoria's in their place...maybe I could even do it with the same dish.  Newt's burgers are good, but I have had better and I can make better.  You already know my feelings on Victoria's food.  Those two places, as well as others, have tremendous name value and recognition and I feel that they live off of their name and reputation as "best of" winners too much and their food not enough. 

With the help of a few of my friends, we will bring you objective reviews of restaurants in Rochester and the surrounding areas, think La Crosse to Mankato and the Twin Cities to....somewhere in Iowa.  We will focus mainly on the city of Rochester, however.  Each experience will be complimented with pictures to show the restaurants, the food, and whatever else seems worthy of a photo.  We will see if we can taste like the Rochester Magazine staff tastes.  Hopefully I can do a better job.  I have an extensive history in the food business as I am a trained chef  in the French art of cooking, have worked in restaurants, and have done my own catering events.  As a result, I know what good food is and what a restaurant must do to satisfy me and earn my dollar.

The judgement will be focused on the appearance, taste, texture, temperature, etc... of the food, but also the service, drinks, ambiance, and if the food was boring/predictable/not unique and something I can make at home for less money and far more taste.

Until next time.

JK