Tracy Harris
Roasted red pepper stuffed with saffron risotto on braised kale with caponata and herb sauce.
The term “gastropub” may have outlived its usefulness.
Back in 2008, Isthmus thought the term needed to be explained. The idea of a bar with inventive, well-thought out food instead of just burgers and fries was still novel.
Eight years on, almost every restaurant that opens here seems to be a gastropub in concept, with wide-ranging menus and carefully curated craft beer tap lists. This has become the norm, and it’s time to put the term to bed. But Rockhound Brewing Company certainly fits the bill.
Rockhound is a small brewpub, or rather, it will be. Right now, house beers are still being brewed at the east side’s House of Brews and not on the five-barrel brewing system onsite.
But it feels like a brewpub. The rustic, good-looking space has big windows and a welcoming U-shaped bar in the center of the room. On the periphery there are a few booths, but mostly “tall” tables with stools for parties of two and four, and only a few standard dining tables — in other words, it’s more pub than restaurant. The service is helpful and unfailingly friendly. Not sure about a beer? Samples are freely given. Four or five house beers are on tap along with a dozen or so guest taps of mostly Midwestern craft brews. I liked the house “Grinder” coffee porter and the “Hoity Toity” hefeweizen, and I’m looking forward to trying the returning Mosquito Bite IPA.
The menu includes tavern standards like burgers and a Reuben, but also travels far from them. The website describes the cuisine as “comfort food with a bit of a twist.” This is true, but sometimes the dishes would work better with fewer twists.
Good news — the pub’s signature pot pies are terrific. They’re straightforward pot pies, the only twist being a puff pastry top instead of a traditional crust. The chicken pot pie comes with plenty of chunks of meat and doesn’t try to glide by on gravy. And even the gravy is good: creamy and peppery. Carrots, onions, celery, corn and potatoes enhance the filling rather than padding it. Just as good is the beef version. The veggie pie features root vegetables — sweet potatoes, parsnips, turnips, rutabaga and pearl onions — and is vegan. The pot pies are accompanied by a good-sized side salad; for a light eater, this is two meals of food.
But other dishes I had at Rockhound were not quite what I was expecting, and not offbeat for the better. From the “snacks” menu, the sundried tomato croquettes were actually little phyllo dough triangles filled with sun-dried tomato and goat cheese. These were fine, but not what I expect from something called a croquette. And the heavy, cold dipping sauce, made from fresh spinach and yogurt, had no flavor yet killed the flavor of the, err, croquettes.
Fried cheese curds are described as being “house-brewed beer-marinated” but they just tasted like cheese curds in a slightly crunchy batter.
The spinach and chickpea salad seems good in theory, with edamame and corn rounding out the vegetables, but the somewhat wan spinach base was overcome by a sweet, heavy dressing of avocado, tahini and maple syrup. This salad needs the brighter notes of a vinaigrette — even a maple vinaigrette would work.
The duck confit sandwich didn’t feature that much duck for $13; gorgonzola garlic puree spread on the oversized roll didn’t enhance the flavor, either, although arugula, sliced apples and chunks of gorgonzola hold potential with the duck pairing.
I’d heard good things about the saffron risotto stuffed red pepper dinner, and I was glad to see an entree so laden with vegetables. But the overall plate seemed poorly thought out. The red pepper was undercooked, as if it was meant only as a decorative container for the rice. The pepper comes on a bed of vinegary braised kale, which was fresh and flavorful and went well with the risotto and a lovely smear of lemony pesto. But then there was also the large mound of caponata. It was quite good — but I’d already eaten the risotto with the kale, leaving the caponata at the party without a date. How about some toasts to spoon it onto? Or more risotto? Still, the intentions behind this dish strike me as good, if overeager.
The least successful dish I had was the Friday fish fry — haddock with an aggressively salty, heavy batter that was crisp and dark brown on the outside but mustard-colored and doughy inside like an undercooked cornmeal pancake. A tiny cup of coleslaw seemed an afterthought. The dull dressing — neither sweet mayo nor bright vinegar-based — didn’t turn the shredded cabbage into a real slaw.
Despite these missteps, there’s much to like about Rockhound. The pot pies demonstrate the kitchen can come up with winners. There are plenty of vegetables on the menu, not just fried junk food, for which Rockhound deserves a round of applause. Just a few tweaks on some of the accoutrements — dip missteps, batter blunders — and Park Street could have a bona fide hit.
Rockhound Brewing Company
444 S. Park St., 608-285-9023, 11 am-11 pm Sun.-Thurs., 11 am-1 am Fri.-Sat., rockhoundbrewing.com, $9-$19
