Broadway Brewery

[Anthony Harvey]

I'm interested in anyones thoughts of the place. I went last Friday and must say that I was not impressed. I'm still working on my write for an online review, but I'm interested to hear about your experience.

From the beer, to the food and the service, lets hear it all!

[Seth T]

This post/thread needs to end. We're all pissing and moaning over what boils down to a poor choice of words. We are all passionate about beer, but when we type our opinions down in a post we choose our words poorly. Sycamore was never terrible. Anthony said he and his friends would never go back to BB but also said he's give it one more chance. This is the number one problem with the internet - typed words never translate as well as spoken words (I know from personal experience how poorly sarcasm translates via email). Maybe we can all settle our differences over a beer or two.

I defended BB after drinking two Mendocino Autumn Lagers, Belhaven Scottish Stout and whilst consuming Avery duganA IPA, which is the number two problem with beer-related websites....PUIs or Posting Under the Influence.

Editors Note: This post was composed after a Boulevard Harvest Dance and a Founders Breakfast Stout.

Anthony Harvey said:

Seth,

If you read my whole post you shall see that I said that I would try it again after the first of the year.

Personally, I don't think I was "burying" BB. I gave my review as I saw it.

If any establishment wants my money, they have to earn it. Not the other way around. BB's success doesn't hinge upon us, it hinges upon them realizing their current faults and changing them. And if we don't point out those faults and successes then we are doing them a disservice.





Seth T said:

My 2 cents. Trying a new place once is not a good idea. Trying a new place on a Friday is also not a good idea. The service always sucks at new places for quite awhile at new places, especially on the weekends.

I am a BeerAdvocate.com addict and it's all about being open-minded to new experiences/beer. I would never give up on a brewpub after one visit unless the beer actually tasted like piss. The beer is good, could be better and will be better after they get their feet wet. This town killed Grindstone Brewery in less than a year and it never had a chance to improve upon its beer/brewing operations.

The CBE is about supporting the beer culture in Columbia. If we bury a place that has been open for a month or two, then we are failing as an organization. I am no way affiliated with Broadway Brewery, but I recommend that we all continue to do are best to see that it succeeds and makes the beer scene in Columbia the best that it can be.

End soapbox....maybe its the duganA talking but I felt I had to say something. No offense intended. I just want the beer scene in CoMo to kick ass!

Anthony Harvey said:

All in all, the 5 of us that went last Friday have all decided to not go back.

The location is nice, and having a decent (but overpriced) bottle list is nice as well.

The service was horrid. All of beers took at least 15 minutes from the time we ordered them from our waitress to the time she would drop them at our table(Most of the were closer to 20 minutes, and even longer when she would forget what beer we ordered and would come back to ask). But lets focus on the beers for a minute.

I understand only having 4 beers of your own on tap. What I don't understand is the lack of information about your beers or the lack of knowledge from your waitresses about your beer. But I'll look past that and focus on the beer itself.

The APA.
Unbalanced and a tad sweet. Great hop flavor but not enough hop bitterness to help balance the malt sweetness. Aroma wasn't too bad, but if anything was underwhelming. All in all I'd rather have a SNPA.

The IPA
More of the same, but worse. The malt sweetness and hop bitterness was so unbalanced I really struggled to finish my pint. A slight hint of diacetyl and very cloying sweet. Again a very underwhelming beer.

The Porter
Nice beer! Nice roastiness flavor and a very solid beer. I'd love to see you play with this a bit, maybe offer a seasonal. A vanilla bourbon oak Porter would hit the spot during December/January.

The Stout
Your server wasn't very helpful with this beer, so I'm not sure if I should be judging this as a Dry Irish Stout or a Sweet stout,etc. But overall I wasn't impressed with this one, but I'd drink it before I would order another APA/IPA.

Now onto the food. I ordered a $9.50 plate that came with 4-5 small pieces of salami. 6-7 very small slices of cheese. Sliced tomatoes, green peppers and some stale bread. There were supposed to be some fruit slices but they didn't come and asking the waitress proved to be a waste of time.

I have no idea what this food item was supposed to be, but for the cost and the end result of the amount of food that came with it, I was very disappointed. And didn't even consider ordering an entrée.

All in all a very bad experience and we all have sworn not to go back. I will give it one more chance, maybe after the first of the year. But in my honest opinion BB is trying to a very upscale place and so far are failing. Just my 2cents.

[comoprozac]

Fair enough, but three out of the first four times I ate there it was not enjoyable. I honestly didn't return until we started meeting there for CBE events. Since then, I have no complaints. My point was that even the mighty Sycamore was inconsistent in the beginning.

Sanford Speake said:

Sycamore was never terrible.

comoprozac said:

I thought the service was good as was the atmosphere. The beer has been mixed and the food just OK. I wrote up my first trip here.

That said with some time to mull it over, I think I'm looking at Broadway long-term. The place is not very good right now, but I think it has great potential. I remember when Sycamore was terrible. Now, it's easily one of my two or three favorites in town. I honestly haven't been back to Broadway in a while. The beer's been a disappointment so far, but I expect it will get better as they get used to the equipment (and the brewer leaves his full-time job).

My bet is that it will be really good in a year. The guys running seem to know what they're doing and this town always allows restaurants time to figure things out. The important thing is that we got another brewery and it's downtown. Now they just have to do their part and produce a better product.

[Jamie Smith]

Normally I would close, but this board is too passive these days...so a heated discussion is a good one.

Seth T said:

This post/thread needs to end. We're all pissing and moaning over what boils down to a poor choice of words. We are all passionate about beer, but when we type our opinions down in a post we choose our words poorly. Sycamore was never terrible. Anthony said he and his friends would never go back to BB but also said he's give it one more chance. This is the number one problem with the internet - typed words never translate as well as spoken words (I know from personal experience how poorly sarcasm translates via email). Maybe we can all settle our differences over a beer or two.

I defended BB after drinking two Mendocino Autumn Lagers, Belhaven Scottish Stout and whilst consuming Avery duganA IPA, which is the number two problem with beer-related websites....PUIs or Posting Under the Influence.

Editors Note: This post was composed after a Boulevard Harvest Dance and a Founders Breakfast Stout.

[Jamie Smith]

I remember one time at Sycamore, while ordering a Hopslam...the keg kicked mid-pour, that was the most horrific, miserable, terrible experience of my life. And then only minutes later, Sanford tapped another keg and all was right with the world, once again.