The Brick House

Random Sunday night stop for food in Pottstown brought us to The Brick House with no cell phone to take pictures.  I will return someday and write another post with better supporting graphics, but here goes stop number 4 on the greatest food tour on earth.

I have to say I did not have high hopes.  From previous experience I think The Brick House is a place to go at night when you're already drunk and wherever you are is closing.  I love the fact that the building used to be a bank.  It reminds me of the Union National, now Univest building in my childhood hometown of Souderton.  Tall ceilings with big windows, marble and stone everywhere.  I remember the high heels of the bankers clacking on the floor and echoing throughout the bank when they had to cross the lobby.  That's the major issue I have with The Brick House, the echo.  During the day everything echoes and at night the sounds of the DJ are overwhelmingly muddled and loud.  They do however keep threatening to improve their craft beer list and the sign outside the door inviting us to check out their new beers was too much to resist.  That and Sly Fox was already closed for the night.

This was a new visit though and I was determined to have an open mind.  This time around I didn't notice the noise at all.  It was a little after 8pm and pretty empty.  We sat at the bar and I asked for a beer list.  I am sad to report that the list has not improved.  I'm not sure what they were getting at with the sign outside, but the beer selection was mediocre at best.  There was a Nitro Milk Stout on the bottle list which I assume was Left Hand Milk Stout, but they were out of that.  I ordered a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon and Steve decided to order a Victory Donnybrook Stout on nitro which they were nice enough to give us a sample of.

For dinner I ordered the Crusted Sirloin, which is an 8oz sirloin with blue cheese crumbles.  I was happy for the small steak portion because leftover steak is never as good as the original.  It comes with a salad and potato and veg.  There was a choice of salad, Caesar or garden. I went with the Caesar. They also give a choice of potato: baked potato, french fries, mashed potatoes or sweet potato fries.  I skipped the potato and went with a double order of veg.  Steve ordered the prime rib special and a baked potato and Caesar salad.

The salads came out and the dressing was drizzled on top instead of being tossed with the salad like I would want a Caesar salad to be.  Despite this, the salad was quite good. A regular Caesar with croutons.

Our steaks came out in a reasonable amount of time and they were actually well cooked.  Both steaks were medium rare as ordered.  I think getting the right temp on a steak is at least half the battle.  My steak was a little peppery, but maybe that's why they called it crusted.  It wasn't too much for me, but maybe for someone who is sensitive.

The baked potato was shared. Steve ate the inside and I ate the skin.  (Can you believe he doesn't eat the best part of the potato?)  The potato was cooked through and there was a little crispiness and salt on the skin.  Not a masterpiece, but a well cooked potato - passes my test.  The other side was the vegetable of the day so I assume it varies.  That Sunday it was squash.  I was happy that the squash seemed fresh and not frozen.  The pieces of squash were unevenly cooked though.  Some of the pieces were obviously from larger sections or from larger squash all together and some of those had seeds that were larger than I'd want to eat.  The smaller, more dense pieces were undercooked.  I applaud the use of fresh produce, but the knife skills and thought in preparation were lacking.  

Overall I would go back and order a steak.  If I was going to be there often I would try to influence the beer list.  Maybe on a slow Sunday after most of the dinner customers have gone the veg goes downhill.  I would definitely give them another chance and as far as I know it is also still an acceptable place to go late night after you're already drunk.