Casa has its salad, Don Hall°®¶¹app™s has the Buster Burger and Coney Island has its hot dogs.
They are signature dishes that have stood the test of time and which could lay claim to being one if not the signature dish for the city. For a restaurant to have one signature dish is impressive, and some have more than one, such as Hall°®¶¹app™s which could also claim prime rib. But those are rarities.
So, imagine my surprise when I picked up a menu at Beer Barrel Pizza & Grill in Jefferson Pointe and counted a whopping 20 self-proclaimed signature dishes. This Ohio-based chain opened here in September 2021, but also boasts a °®¶¹appœlocal favorites°®¶¹app menu featuring another 10 featured dishes, including such time-tested classics as a cauliflower rice bowl. I am not sure cauliflower rice has even existed long enough to be a staple dish let alone cauliflower rice bowls. I am also not sure what Beer Barrel considers local, either, because the same local favorites are on the menu at every location.
There was no way I was going to get to try all of the °®¶¹appœBB signature°®¶¹app dishes, but there was one I found to be quite unique and worthy of its moniker.
The Beer Barrel Meatball Salad was just that °®¶¹app“ two giant meatballs covered in sauce served with a salad tossed in the restaurant°®¶¹app™s house vinaigrette and a big dollop of ricotta cheese as a garnish. All three were separated on the plate, but mixing it up was the way to go as the creamy cheese, zesty dressing crunchy greens and decent meatballs sang when you got just a little of each in a bite.
The addition of a garlic knot on the side of the plate was a bonus and I marveled at how much I liked this concoction because I have never seen a meatball salad anywhere else.
A more mundane choice, but still a BB Signature, the Big Wings were surprisingly good. They were, indeed, big and juicy and though not evenly crisped, they were crispy enough. They are baked and then flash fried I was told, which is a solid method to ensure the meat doesn°®¶¹app™t dry out. It is worth noting that the medium sauce I ordered was very timid so you may want to order up for more heat.
The method used to prepare the Beer Barrel Brussels Sprouts (yes, another BB Signature) was anything but solid. My first bites came off as very bland and unseasoned until I realized all of the goodies °®¶¹app“ the bacon, onion and sweet soy glaze °®¶¹app“ had nestled on the bottom of the little bowl they were served in. They were much better with everything on them, but I grew frustrated trying to stir them up in their tiny undersized vessel.
I also wanted bigger vessel for the Baked French Onion Soup, because it was superb. It had a more beefy-than-oniony flavor but there was still no mistaking that onions were the star, and it was topped with just the right amount of cheese and was perfectly balanced.
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The French Onion should be the signature soup, but that title belonged to the Homemade Chicken & Egg Noodles, which I expected would put my grandma to shame given they supposedly outranked that delicious French Onion.
Grandma need not worry. This soup was dreadful. It was more like a casserole than a soup. There was no broth at all, the noodles were mush and the chicken was tough and dry. Surprisingly, its flavor was good but there was no getting past the consistency. It was as if someone put a good pot of chicken and noodles into a crock pot on high for half a day and still served it.
The best entrée I had at Beer Barrel Pizza & Grill came from the grill side.
The Bacon BBQ Cheeseburger was (surprise) a BB Signature that I am signing off on. This half-pound sirloin patty was seared to a slight char on the outside, which added some of that backyard burger essence. It was topped with some thick-cut and quite smoky bacon, cheddar cheese, an onion ring and it was slathered heavily with a tangy, sweet barbecue sauce that had just a hint of heat. I enjoyed it quite a bit, the thick-cut fries on the side were enjoyable and the only drawbacks were that the onion ring was way too small (compared to the jumbo one in the menu photo) and that the better-than-usual pickle spear that accompanied it had been buried under the fries so it was warm and limp instead of cool and crunchy.
Given pizza is part of its name, I had to try a couple of variations of pies. The first was an original dough style dubbed the Big-Ga Meat-Za because of its toppings of pepperoni, Italian sausage, bacon, ham and ground beef. The crust was too soft and bread-like for my liking and tasted basically like one of those dough knots flattened out. It was OK but not something I would seek out.
I had heard that Beer Barrel°®¶¹app™s deep-dish pan pizza was worth seeking out, so I thought I would try it as well. My server warned me that the deep dish takes about 30 minutes to prepare, and I was fine with that. But I wasn°®¶¹app™t fine when about 20 minutes later I was served another regular-crust pizza, so I am still wondering if the deep-dish is, indeed, a better choice.
I was surprised my order was screwed up because I had the best service by far that visit, up until the wrong pie arrived. During my other visit, not only did my server seem a bit disjointed and not in the mood to wait on anyone, the host decided it was best to sit my party right next to the swinging kitchen doors where the banging and clanging and all the chatter from that kitchen drowned out our conversation as well as the 247 or so TVs in this place.
On a busy night with a line, I would not scoff at taking whatever table I was offered but this massive eatery was mostly empty on the night I was gifted my kitchen-side seat.
Given Beer Barrel has all of those TVs and is so massive, there really isn°®¶¹app™t an atmosphere other than some modest German beer hall accents and loud noise. It is one of those places from the °®¶¹app™90s when the sports bar craze hit its peak; the kind of places that I thought were dying off.
Its menu is also like those places I thought we were done with. The kind with a dozen pages with all sorts of different styles and ethnicities. The kind of places that ooze mediocre because they have a lot of things that are just OK, but nothing you would call special °®¶¹app¦ or signature.
Restaurant: Beer Barrel Pizza & Grill
Address: 4240 W. Jefferson Blvd., Suite M-5
Phone: 645-3663
Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday
Cuisine: American
Handicapped accessible: Yes
Alcohol: Full bar
Kid-friendly: Yes
Menu: Meatball salad ($11.99); Chicken and Noodles ($10.99 dinner, $6.35 smaller portion); Baked French Onion Soup ($7.49); Brussels sprouts ($10.95); Big-Ga Meat-Za Pizza ($17.69 for 10-inch; $24.39 for 14-inch, $31.79 for 16-inch, $47.15 for 21-inch); Bacon BBQ Cheeseburger ($12.75); Wings ($8.35, five pieces)
Rating breakdown: Food: 1 (3-star maximum); atmosphere: 0 (1 max.), service: 1/2 (1 max.)
Ryan DuVall is a restaurant critic for °®¶¹app. This review is based on two unannounced visits. °®¶¹app pays for all meals. Email him at rduvall@jg.net; call at 461-8130. DuVall’s past reviews can be found at www.journalgazette. net. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram @DiningOutDuVall.
