http://halesbrewery.com/
This is a local spot, easy to get to, street parking, nice place - so I've always wondered ... why don't I go here more often?
Tried it again last night and remembered - oh yeah. THAT's why. It's not bad ... but it's not somewhere I'm yearning to go try again.
The bready items are great, made by a number of excellent local bakeries. Their side options are rather potato-centric, with none of them being interesting enough to make me say "let's go get some of [whatever] at Hale's!".
We started out with their spent-grain pretzel and I had a cup of french onion soup. The pretzel was fine (could have used better, larger, more obvious rock salt on it) but the soup - oh dear. WHY must you ruin a perfectly good Gruyere covering with shredded Parmesan? Stop it! Just give me that lovely smooth cap of melty gooey cheese. The hard, unmelted parm just made the cheese top impossible to actually eat while on the soup (hard enough with just the guy, but the parm made it stiff and tough and unable to cut with a spoon). And then the soup itself ... well, let's just say it wasn't soup, it was Onion Stew with a teaspoon of broth. Guess the tip is: tell the waiter you want more broth than onion, hold the parm, and maybe not go late at night when they're trying to get rid of everything they have left at dinner service.
As entrees, and because we were at a pub, we sampled their burgers and I'll most likely never order one again. HALF POUND. Who the heck needs an entire half pound of burger? Or if you like a half pound, that's great - but offer a smaller size burger so that the rest of us don't waste food!
Dessert was nice, if somewhat boring choices (please - have something light and airy and small available! sorbets, mousses, fruit and cheese plate, etc).
A good enough local spot, but too expensive for me to visit frequently, and wasn't impressed by the choices available.
Oh, and the beers? NUM-MEE. Those I'll go back for.
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