Brother's Beer Bistro

Hello foodies!

The Ottawa restaurant scene has become more exciting over the last couple of years.  I have a list of restaurants I am making my way through.  New places I want to try always being added as others get crossed off. Today, I want to talk about Brother's Beer Bistro.

The atmosphere is relaxed.  Big windows, so the space is fairly bright (I was there for lunch both times), exposed brick walls for that factory/industrial vibe.  Servers are friendly.  It can be a little slow, particularly when waiting for the bill, but that is really my only (small) complaint.

As you may be able to guess from the name of the restaurant, Brother's is all about the beer.  They have an extensive beer list.  They make beer cocktails.  Each dish has a recommended beer pairing. Every dish has beer as an ingredient in some way (although they can make many of their dishes beer-free to accommodate dietary or religious restrictions).  Their website has a blog about beer.  So if you like beer......

If you don't like beer, I'd argue that you just haven't tried enough of it, because as this place so ably demonstrates, there is a beer out there for everyone.  The servers are extremely knowledgeable, and are more than happy to make a recommendation.  The server I had for both my visits gets extra points because he explained what I could expect flavour-wise from the recommended pairing:  banana.  To me, this is an abomination. But the fact that he explained the product so thoroughly allowed me to nix the standard pairing, and I was completely happy with the alternative he provided.

Now, the food.  It was interesting and creative.  On my first visit, I ordered short rib carpaccio.

This dish has a lot going on, and all of it good.  First, there is the meat.  Cold, flavourful, quality beef short rib sliced paper thin.  Beautiful texture (I find with raw preparations of both meat and fish, texture is almost more important than taste).  Excellent olive oil.  Little sprouts.  There were little cubes of cold root vegetables: carrots, parsnips, they provided a nice counterpoint.  Most interesting was the crunch aspect: crispy pie dough. As someone who often finds the crust the best part of a pie, this appealed.

On a different visit, I opted for charcuterie:

Visually beautiful, I appreciated this dish greatly.  It was an excellent combination of unctuous fat from the meat, aggressive acidity from the various pickles, and cooking neutrality from the cheese.

Another dish I tried was the smoked mackerel panzanelle:

 

Lots of interest here.  What is most interesting is what is missing:  the bread/crouton.  A panzanelle is, by definition, about the stale bread.  They handled the mistake well, offering to remake the salad.  I declined, as I had a later engagement.  And really, the salad was great even without the bread.

Returning to my first visit, there was the dessert:

 

The PB&J.  As I have mentioned before, I am not a dessert person. But, on m first visit I ordered only one dish, so I felt the need to order dessert for blogging purposes.  The dessert gets mixed reviews.  The chocolate and peanut butter pot au creme was amazing.  Lovely texture.  Nicely complimented by the salty caramel corn.  The cookie with strawberry jam was less successful.  It didn't match conceptually or texturally with the pot au creme.  It was a distraction from the main event.  The pot au creme was truly lovely:  smooth texture, intense flavour.  The cookie and jam just didn't add to the dessert as a whole.

All in all, Brother`s gets a positive review.  When I am looking for a place for an evening out, it is now one of the places I automatically check.  Therefore, I recommend that you check it out, too.

Follow me on twitter: @culinarykira