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