Ryan Wisniewski
The porchetta sandwich comes with a heap of crisp fries, but you should still start with the dirty rice balls, above left, with their spicy punch.
Craft brewing has expanded to the point where a new brewery can focus on a specific neighborhood, much as it did before Prohibition. A little outfit like Union Corners Brewery can produce small, diverse batches for — and, in the case of its “community brews” series, sometimes along with — its closest neighbors. Once a week, a customer beer suggestion is made during an open brew session.
But unexpectedly, it is the food that will assuredly bring me back to Union Corners. An early chef change didn’t do much to derail the kitchen’s growth, as current chef Corey Stroner was on staff originally.
You want fried food? You got it. French fries are generously heaped next to each burger and sandwich, crisp and cut neatly between matchstick and steak fry. Similarly, the cheese curds have good crunch and structural integrity, but also stretch. Mastery of the fryolator arts is on display.
Special attention must be paid to a unique deployment of cheese curds on the dessert menu. A small helping of cinnamon- and sugar-dusted fried curds that have been soaked in ice cream sit atop a dollop of thick chocolate sauce. They are then paired with one of Union Corners’ rotating ice creams, such as a superb dulce de leche flavor. Yes, these are churro curds, and let me tell you, it kind of works. Let’s just say that if you fondly remember Chi-Chi’s fried ice cream, this dessert is for you.
If not, back on the appetizer menu you’ll almost certainly find the dirty rice balls compelling. They have spice, a one-two punch of fresh scallions above and zippy romesco below. And for those who beg off fried foods, the beet tartare — vegan — is as far from the usual brewery fare as are churro curds. The beets visually resemble the raw beef of tartare, and golden mango puree sits atop to mimic an egg yolk. This is modernist cuisine where you’d least expect it, and the flavors are rich and satisfying.
There are burgers aplenty, including an earnest riff on the Big Mac that so many kitchens turn out these days. I’d be happier with a thinner patty, but the perfect pink center was nothing to sniff at. A porchetta sandwich blended creamy mayo with acidic giardiniera over thin slices of savory pork to great effect.
The eggplant banh mi, seemingly vegan but for the mayonnaise, could have presented greater textural contrast, but nailed the Vietnamese sandwich’s bright/funky/herbal flavor. The kitchen also handles meat well. The pork belly on the UCBLT was cooked to its ideal melting point, although I maintain classic bacon would better satisfy a BLT craving.
I was charmed and frankly a little enthralled by the turkey wings, a recurring special that is in fact one drumstick and one wing, deep-fried and slathered with one of a selection of sauces. Some real Medieval Times stuff, here.
I picked Alabama white sauce and was rewarded with the best white barbecue sauce I’ve had in the Great White North. I’ll order this again, and the same is emphatically true for the Buffalo chicken sandwich, a plank of crisp bird on a pretzel bun with just the right amount of sauce and blue cheese dressing. I couldn’t stop myself from eating the whole dang thing.
The tap list at Union Corners is a pint deep and a mile wide. Its small brewing system can turn out new batches of different styles nimbly, and the team can brew casually without feeling the pinch of trend-chasing.
That said, the beer as it is now doesn’t seem like much of a threat to fill the taproom to capacity on its own. The Patersbier was the best from my sampling; it was crisp and bright like an apple, with some pleasant banana accents. The other beers I tried — pale ale, Oktoberfest, and a hoppy brown — were all varying degrees of too muddy and too dark. Nothing was bad, but very little stood out.
Service has a light touch at Union Corners, and the soundtrack always seemed to be playing something great. If the beer still has a little fine-tuning to go, the food should keep the locals more than happy. And if a few non-locals roll into that big parking lot for a turkey wing, it’ll be worth the drive.
Union Corners Brewery
2438 Winnebago St.; 608-709-1406; unioncornersbrewery.com;
11 am-midnight Tues.-Sun. (kitchen closes at 9 pm); $5-$13
