Linda Falkenstein
Sweet cornbread, crisp beer-battered fries, lean ribs and a farmhouse ale make a great Thursday special. The pulled pork sandwich is available Tuesday through Sunday.
Dining companion, at last, speaks: “I’m not sure why you’re reviewing this place. It’s not really a restaurant.”
True enough. Right Bauer Brewing, on Main Street in downtown Sun Prairie, is more like a traditional Wisconsin tavern than a restaurant. It’s intimate, with a few tables and booths and an area of board games. The name refers to the trump card in euchre, one of the great Wisconsin tavern card games.
Right Bauer brews its own beer; these days, craft beer seems to require more than summer sausage sandwiches and pickled eggs. On the other hand, running a full-fledged restaurant is another magnitude of complicated.
Right Bauer has come up with an efficient compromise: its small menu mixes and matches basic elements to create rich, snacky bar appetizers and a few sandwich baskets. Food is more than an afterthought, but beer remains the focus.
Terrence McNally, brother of brewmaster Martin McNally, runs the kitchen. The heart of the menu is appetizers. Nothing is too fancy, but everything is done well. Beer-battered fries are crisp, only lightly battered and not too greasy. Beer-battered cheese curds, which arrive mostly molten, have the same light batter and likewise avoid the intense greasiness that can sink this Dairy State standard.
The beer-battered curds also show up as the curds in the poutine. In my experience of this French-Canadian dish, curds come naked, warmed by the gravy. But hey, pile it on. You didn’t order poutine to shed a few pounds, did you? (Don’t try that.) Poutine was my favorite dish at Right Bauer, and was prevented from being very much too much by its light gravy, made from smoker drippings and carrying all the flavor you’d expect from a smoked gravy.
Other appetizers are nachos, a quesadilla, and queso fries; each is topped with your choice of the barbecued pulled chicken or pork and barbecue sauce.
The pulled pork and chicken (and a vegetarian option, smoked jackfruit) also appear as fillings in sandwiches and in Tuesday night’s taco special.
The pulled pork is juicy without being greasy, rich without the intense melt of pork belly. It’s mostly lean, and judicious application of the sweet and peppery barbecue sauce — add more from a container on the table — enhances the flavor without drowning it out. The pulled chicken is likewise tender; jackfruit is vinegary, but one of the better jackfruit preparations I’ve had. Both meat sandwiches come with a side of fries; jackfruit comes with a side of vegetarian baked beans, one of the few missteps at Right Bauer. Though obviously conceived with good intentions, the hearty beans are too dry, essentially a sauceless bean mash. Coleslaw is the better side — a rough chop, somewhat sweet, with a little heat to the dressing. On one visit I swapped fries for beans; subbing sides doesn’t seem to be a problem. I would appreciate one little restaurant-y touch: a nice pickle with the sandwiches.
Thursday and Friday’s special is a full- or half-rack of Memphis-style dry rub ribs with a side of fries and a square of Right Bauer’s creamy, buttery, dessert-like cornbread. The smoking of the ribs is subtle; they arrived mostly lean when I tried them, and my only caveat is that it’s not a lot of food for $15 (half-rack). Saturday’s special is brisket; Wednesday is wings. From there on, it’s all about the beer.
House and guest taps (total: 15) are posted on a chalkboard. Guest taps are mixed in, so if you want to stick with Right Bauer brews, look carefully. Currently Galaxy Queen, a New England-style double IPA, is reigning, but don’t overlook Nitro Latte, an unusual blonde milk stout. Beers are also available in flights of four.
Right Bauer is a charming addition to Sun Prairie’s Main Street, in a 19th century hardware store that retains the original wood floor, cream brick and tin ceiling. But competition is just across the street in Eddie’s Alehouse, a tavern with a bigger beer list and menu; two blocks away in the Cannery Square development, Full Mile Beer Company has a full menu and also brews its own beer. It’s a scenario ripe for a pub crawl.
Whatever reservations I have with Right Bauer go back to Dining Companion’s original comment: It’s not really a restaurant. While the barbecue is pretty good, if you don’t like barbecue, or don’t feel like barbecue, there’s not much else to eat. But if you know what to expect, there’s no reason that a nice fresh IIPA and a hedonistic poutine can’t carry the day.
Right Bauer Brewing
239 E. Main St., Sun Prairie; 608-318-5002; rightbauerbrewing.com
4-9 pm Tues.-Wed., 4-10 pm Thurs., 3-11 pm Fri., noon-11 pm Sat., noon-8 pm Sun.
$3-$25