Metro Pulse/Restaruant Rover/City Brew

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City Brew
424 Gay Street
523-0750

by Ally Carte

Sure, being a restaurant reviewer sounds like the most fun job in the world. Eat on the company's dime (actually, it's more like a nickel at the Pulse). Jot down some brief thoughts. Pontificate to the city about how you feel about important issues like the proper seasoning of seafood or the value of interior design. Easy as, well, pie.

If I've learned nothing else in my short tenure thus far, it's that nothing is ever what it appears. Which is not to say that reviewing restaurants is as hazardous as, say, taking on the school board, but there have been some unexpected pitfalls. Be too flip and you piss off an entire nationality. Dislike someone's favorite local dish and you're clearly an idiot.

But these stings are nothing when compared to the land mine that is City Brew, one of the new downtown Regas ventures. The Regas restaurants are like cotton—you know, the fabric of our lives. Mess with Regas and you're taking on a family steeped in Knoxville's food history. Makes it hard to work up the gumption to say anything bad about one of their endeavors.

And then there's the whole baggage that comes with the Gay Street space that City Brew now occupies. You can't go anywhere in this town without finding someone who loved the old Great Southern Brewery, which used to be here, and the beer that was brewed there.

None of this craziness, of course, should have anything to do with a restaurant review. But, since I've gotten some glimpses already into how people can respond to this column, I know that somewhere already someone is spinning a vast conspiracy theory. Believe what you want. I honestly have no stake in any of this, other than a fervent wish to see more good restaurants downtown.

Despite the fact that it can take forever to get, City Brew's food is top-notch. I've been several times now—each time admiring the new buff and brown interior design and the local artwork on the walls—and have yet to find anything that doesn't taste wonderful. Sandwich-wise, my favorite of their offerings is the Woodstock Tofu Sandwich ($6), a mile-high stack of marinated spicy tofu, hummus, tomatoes, cucumber, onion and bean sprouts. The fries that come with this dish are a textbook example of what potatoes can be—crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The Veggie Burger ($5) is also a delight and, I'd wager, is the best in town.

The entrees are good eatin' as well. Take the Glazed Pork Tenderloin ($9). Medallions of perfectly cooked pork are covered in a nicely spicy BBQ sauce and cranberry relish. The side of mashed potatoes takes the edge off of the sauce's heat, while some jewel-like julienned zucchini, squash, and carrots add a nice crunch. While the entree is bliss, the pork also comes piled on a roll with some vinegary chow-chow as a sandwich option ($6).

On the main course menu as well is a Bratwurst boiled in the Brew's own Blonde Ale ($10), Fried Green Tomatoes Parmesan ($7), and half a dozen other options that will make you drool. Nantucket crab dip ($6), a heady, creamy concoction of crab, spinach, pepper jack cheese, and ale served with tortilla chips, is a great appetizer, as is the hummus plate ($5), a well-spiced version of the standard chickpea dip served with wheat pita bread, Kalamata olives, and cherry tomatoes. The house salad ($3), granted, isn't going to win any awards for inspiration, but the Ginger Honey Dijon dressing just might. For dessert, you've simply got to have the Chocolate Godiva Pinwheel ($4), a rich chocolate cake moistened with Godiva liquor and covered with a mocha frosting.

The biggest problem—and it is pretty damn big—is that it seems almost impossible to get any of this lovely food in any reasonable amount of time. It may have something to do with the sheer size of the building and its imposing layout, which is partially why the old GSBC's service was also remarkably lackluster. But that can't be the full problem. When City Brew first opened at the end of last year, I chalked up a two-hour plus lunch to a new restaurant working out the bugs in its system. Now, after another two-hour plus lunch on a weekday, it seems that those bugs have set up camp back in the servers station. Dinner, admittedly, was better, but the half-hour wait between entree and check was still frustrating, especially given that the place was half-empty.

While the high quality of the food (and the nice, hoppy, bitter IPA I enjoyed) would almost be enough to make me recommend City Brew to my friends and family, the slow kitchen and lackadaisical service makes me want to warn them not to arrive hungry or expect to see the outdoors any time soon. Hopefully, this is a kink that can be worked out. It would be a shame to see this building close again, when it has such potential and is run by the city's restaurant kings.