We kept
hearing great reviews about Urban Brew and BBQ, which opened about 2 years ago
on Central Avenue in St. Pete, but unfortunately we didn’t check it out until a
few weeks ago. We are thrilled to have
finally tried it because it is AWESOME.
The
first time we went, Lance and I had a date night on a Sunday. It wasn’t very crowded that night, so we had
the patio to ourselves, which has nice string lights hung and wood-slat
planters. I love the design of this
place – they did a great job making it casual yet sophisticated. They even took the time to tile the bathroom
floors in pennies, which they individually placed, taking over 30 hours to
create.
We were impressed by their
wide craft beer selection – we were told that each brewery is only allowed one
beer at a time on tap. I had Barley
Mow’s Maven On Cocoa Nibs Chocolate Milk Stout which was almost like a
dessert.
The
barbeque there is amazing. We started a
dish they called “The Thing” – a cornbread waffle topped with pulled pork,
cheese, bacon, and an egg over easy with house made pork gravy. It wasn’t anything pretty – pretty much a
blob of food – but wow it was tasty!
Next we
split the half rack of ribs served with a fresh baked roll and our choice of side. We upgraded our side to the Urban Mac ‘N’
Cheese, baked in a skillet and featuring smoked gouda, parmesan, and cheddar
with prosciutto and crispy bread crumb topping.
We cleaned the whole metal tray. Lance has decided this is his new favorite restaurant (although Datz is still a close second...)
And just
since we felt like splurging that night, we split one of their desserts
– bacon s’mores. It was baked in a
skillet too – if you like sweet & salty combinations, it’s the perfect
dessert. The bottom had a graham cracker
crust topped with chocolate and marshmallows, then sprinkled with chunks of
bacon.
While we
were eating, we read on their chalkboard about a 5 course
dinner paired with 5 Green Bench beers. We
enjoyed our dinner so much, and we love Green Bench, so we invited friends to join us to check it out!
The 8:40pm seating was the only time available, but that worked out well because before dinner,
we actually ended up booking our wedding venue just a few blocks away in St.
Pete at Nova
535. It’s a really beautiful
building with brick walls, wood floors, and a courtyard with 30’ high bamboo –
so excited!
Our
friends Pate and Katie joined us for dinner.
We sat at the bar inside with the small crowd that was able to get
tickets. The food was actually a preview
of some possible menu items for a new sister restaurant, Urban
Comfort, which is meant to open this summer. They are repurposing an old autoshop and
adding all sorts of fun games like horseshoe, volleyball, and even a
shuffleboard court (which
was funded by Kickstarter).
At the
food and beer pairing dinner, Khris, the brewer from Green Bench, gave us a background
about each beer we sampled.
We started
off with their Les Grisettes – a low-alcohol farmhouse ale. Khris explained that this style of beer was
originally brewed as refreshment for coal miners. “Grisettes” comes from the French word “gris”,
which means grey. The women who
delivered the ale to the miners often had grey clothes.
The
first course was a deviled egg topped with pork rinds. I really liked having the crunchy addition to
a typical deviled egg. Urban Brew makes
their own bacon, so they said they use the leftover skins to make their own
pork rinds.
Next we
had the Skyway American Wheat Ale – brewed with four different kinds of
hops. I’m not normally a fan of hoppy
beer, but the citrus in it actually balanced it out so I liked this one. This was paired with black eyed peas with
braised pork shoulder – they explained that it’s a long process to make this
dish, but it was so flavorful. It was
pretty rich though – and I wanted to save room for my other courses, so I couldn’t
finish it all.
After that we had the May The
Fort Be With You – an American IPA.
Again, pretty hoppy, but citrusy.
It’s a reference to Star Wars, as well as a local group called the “Tampa Bay Beer Nerds Hide Out Blanket/Pillow
Fort” – which apparently has a top secret facebook group for extreme craft beer
enthusiasts in the area. This was served
with a biscuit and sausage gravy – made from scratch with lard and sea
salt. The biscuit was a bit dry for me, but very
traditional southern style.
Next
came the Happy Hermit Pale Ale – another hoppy yet light beer. This came with fried chicken, mashed potatoes,
and rosemary gravy. The chicken was
brined for 24 hours in herbs and spices so it was extra juicy and herby.
Finally,
we barely had room, but we finished with the Maximo Milk Stout – named after
Maximo Park on Boca Ciega Bay. This
sweet beer went perfectly with the skillet bourbon pecan pie. It was served a la mode and was seriously decadent.
If
you want to check out the last Beer Dinner before they take a break to focus on
opening Urban Comfort, Urban Brew will be pairing food with JDubs Brewing on May
26th. You’ll need to call to
make reservation since tickets book quickly.