Wow, Cupcake and I have really been slacking. I just realized how long its been since our last bar review. SAD... just sad. The good news is we finally got a chance to get out and check out the latest new bar in our neck of the woods. For a while now we've been watching the progress in the gutting and remodeling of the old Bennigans at the corner of 59N and 1960. A chain called The Brick House Tavern bought the location and we have been looking forward to its opening for a few months now. Somehow they snuck the grand opening past us. But that's ok. We're just glad to have another option up in the hinterland of Kingwood/Humble/Atascocita.
George, on one of his MANY days off, had recon'd the place a few days prior to our visit. I think he spent like 6 or 8 hours there . That may give you a hint as to his feelings toward the place..... you might guess that he liked it. He kept texting and sending me text photos of the place while I was slaving away at work. SO not cool. By Friday I was hell bent on getting over to Brick House to check it out. I decided to make an effort at forgiving Cupcake by dragging him along..... and made him drive. ;)
It turned out to be one of those days that we get far too few of here in Houston. It was absolutely beautiful outside. Clear blue skies, temps in the low 70s, most people still at work. Perfect. We pulled up just before 11am, and before we even got in the door I was completely impressed. The bar no longer even remotely resembled the old, tired, shabby Bennigans (good riddance). Stepping into Brick House I found the decor contemporary, subtle, clean and comfortable. It seemed much larger on the inside that the old Bennigans even though it shares the same bones. It has a considerable amount of dining seating, most of which were 4-top arrangements with small couches (love seats? settees?) on either side of dining tables. It looked very comfortable. To the left of the entrance there is a good size bar. There is also an area devoted to sports fanatics who require the comfort of a recliner inches away from multiple flat screen TVs. At the back of the restaurant is a very large and attractive gas log fire place. Outside there is plenty of patio furniture 2 and 4-top dining. The patio is covered and the inside bar opens to provide access and bar seating to the outside as well.
Speaking of the bar, we found that they have approximately 30-40 taps. As you might expect out in the sticks the majority of these taps poured piss beer and many were redundant. Fortunately there were a few respectable beers to be found such as the Rahr Ugly Pug that Cupcake and I knocked back a few of. The crowning jewel I must say....and this alone was enough to make m
e a huge fan of Brick House... is the traditional English style cask pump tap. (Note the lovely barmaid demonstrating). Cupcake tells me that in a previous conversation with the bartenders that the bar's intention is to keep a local (Texas) beer on this tap at all times. The current cask beer is St Arnold's Christmas Ale - in my opinion a great beer for the season - full bodied, amber in color, spiced and probably (hopefully) in the 7-8% abv range. They keep this cask beer at room temp and it has only natural carbonation.... so its a very nice change from how beer is typically served in these parts. As for service, Brick House is of a similar school of thought as the Flying Saucer (our litmus test to bars in Houston). That being that the wait staff is made up of well trained, refreshingly friendly, sparsely clad, helpful and conscientious females. Having only dealt with one waitress (so far), I can't say for certain how educated the waitresses are in beerology, but I plan to find out. There seemed to be almost an excessive number of waitresses milling about. This gives the waitresses more time to connect with the customers... seems like a good thinking on the part of the owners. Although I wonder if they really intend to keep this large a staff on into the future. I certainly have no issue with it.
The menu was impressive for a tavern. Certainly not traditional. Its an eclectic mix of what Brick House calls 'Man Food'. Call me biased but I gotta like that. Its all very hardy. George and I split some devilled eggs (when was the last time you saw them on a menu?!), he got a burger.... I'm thinking it was a bleu cheese burger. And I got an Italian sausage hoagie. The burgers are large and on hoagie-like rolls. They're pretty good although I believe they are fried on a griddle rather than grilled over a fire. In my opinion, if you want to say your food is 'Man food'.. the meat BETTER be grilled over real fire. Fried burgers can be good but they'll never be great. As for my choice, I enjoyed a Italian sausage hoagie. Very substantial and tasty. I also had a side of mashed potatoes that were smashed with their skins on with cheese mixed in... also very tasty. George had a side of something like garlic parmesan tots..... sounds interesting on paper.... but really it was just pre-made tator tots that were heated up and then sprinkled with fresh parmesan and chopped garlic. It really didn't work because neither the parmesan nor the garlic managed to adhere to the tots. So overall it was a mixed bag on my first dining experience here. There are plenty of other things on the menu I look forward to trying though... especially something from the part of their menu titled 'the happy ending'. Hmmmm.
If the size of the crowd there at 11am on a Friday is any sign of the business Brick House is getting, I think we may have a nice watering hole near home for years to come. The clientele was about what I expected for Humble.... a sort of crossroads of mostly Anglos and Hispanics, middle class folks from Kingwood and rednecks and hillbillies (minus the hills) from 'up the road (59N) a piece'.
All in all I must say I am very pleased with our new bar up here in the boondocks. Its good to have a respectable alternative to an inner-loop bar near the house. I'm craving one of those cask beers now. MMmmMMmm.
The Brew Card
Atmosphere: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Clientele: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Beer selection: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Food: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Service: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Prices: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Stuff to do: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Overall: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
s been a pub all that time.... and hasn't been updated since! You really catch a waft of cheesy old vinyl furniture. Smells like one of those seedy little dives that dirty, shady old men eye you from the corner in. But once your nose gets accustomed to the oder you find that its really not all that bad. On a previous visit I found they have a nice little partially covered patio area in back that seems to attract most of the less shady customers. If it weren't so nasty and cold out, we probably would have headed out there.
r as long as we were there. Our perch offered a bird's-eye view of the important stuff that the pub had to offer. It was a decent selection. Not great but not horrible. Maybe a dozen taps. But on the upside, only one tap was piss beer. So George and I got our Irish on. First a round of Smithwick's (that's Smit'ick's to the educated). Then a round of the black stuff. This gave us plenty of time to catch up on some random news and also do some brewing planning. ...and me some time to screw around with the camera.
While doing this we noted they have one or more dart boards (always a plus). They don't appear to have a kitchen. Oh well, I'd probably be concerned about anything that might come out of that kitchen anyway. The bartender was adequate.... served up the beers, was helpful but not intrusive.
