Broadway Brewery & Grill: Experience the westside on the eastside

Something’s wrong with NE Broadway. There are a lot of cool little businesses along there. I love the Rose and Thistle. But for the most part, they are underperforming. Almost every stop along NE Broadway is a bit too…bland. I gave this some thought awhile ago, and my conclusion then was that Broadway and its surrounding area is the westside invasion. A few weeks later the Broadway Brewery and Grill opened up. The BB&G is an offshoot of the Old Market Pub, a microbrew joint down off SW Garden Home, and one that I’d never been ecstatic about. Mostly the food is extraordinarily bland.

I’d managed to avoid the BB&G since it opened a few months ago, but cruised in there Saturday afternoon with my brother. It is extremely typical, with birch veneer and flatscreen TVs. The bartender was very nice. We split a calzone. The crust was baked perfectly, kudos to the chef, but, the calzone was very bland. Just like with the Old Market Pub, they are able to take something that sounds fabulous and make it very white bread.

I won’t say much about the beers, except that I got a bloody mary instead of a beer today. We sampled the Granny Smith, which I’d thought would be a cider (instead an apple-brewed beer), but it wasn’t inspiring as a beer either.

So this started out as a rant about Broadway catalyzed by a visit to the Broadway Bar & Grill, but it turned into a bit of review. Overall, the BB&G is a fine sports bar, but not a destination for me.