Bricks Bar & Grill - 1/17/13

Happy New Year everyone! Here we are, nearly 3 full weeks into the New Year, and we're still wishing one another Happy New Year. That's weird. That particular greeting should be used for a week, ten days max after Jan 1. After that, a hearty "Hail Fellows Well Met" should suffice as adequate greeting and salutations for all post New Years greetings, whether 'tis directed towards one's masculine counterparts, or in friendly salutes directed towards the fairer sex. Thus ends my speech. 

Bricks Bar & Grill

Bricks Bar & Grill is a relatively nondescript yet quite popular bar and grill in downtown Cedar Rapids. It's been there for a number of years, but was "reinvented in 2011 as a place where adults can enjoy the company of others...". Makes me think they've got some sort of swinger/porn/burger/booze thing going on there. Hang on....

Nope, we checked. Just burgers n' booze. You'll need to bring your own porn. What's that?? Oh, turns out they frown on that too. Prudes. 

ANYWAY....

We had a group of about 23 people descend upon Brick's for the first Burger Tour stop of 2013. This was an amazing turnout, MIGHT be a new record for the Tour, so thank you all for attending and submitting your surveys! 

I think now is a good time to review the criteria that we here at the Burger Tour have set for accurate, fair evaluations of the comestibles that we review. See, there are many, many ways to   present a burger, but so many of them mask and disguise what makes the burger great. Therefore, we've established some guidelines here to keep our judging as fair and non-biased as possible. 

To be considered as a "burger" the following criteria have to be met. Sandwich shall consist of only:

1. Hamburger in patty form. 1/3-1/2 lb. Don't ya'll come on up in here talking 'bout no "quarter pounders". Ronald ain't home. 

2. A bun. Whatever the restaurant decides. Texas toast is a reasonable substitute. Sourdough...pushing your luck. 

3. Cheese. Individuals choice. Keep it simple tho. American, Swiss, Provolone, Cheddar, Pepperjack.

4. Toppings: Traditional wins the day. Lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion. 

5. Condiments: Traditional again, ketchup, mustard, mayo if you must. 

6. Bacon is always allowed as a topping. Always. 

Any other creation coming out of a kitchen is regarded as a "bar sammich". The "BBQ Burger", the "Mushroom & Swiss", the "Five Alarm", the "Southwestern", the "Arugula and Feta Explosion"...all of these and their ilk, while admittedly tasty, mask the true goodness of the burger itself. These cannot be included in the scoring, which is why we have the "bar sammich" category each and every time we do this, because some participants can't seem to understand that the  "Burger Tour" is about god damned burgers, and not about fucking GYROS!!!

Tha fuck is this sh*t????

Sorry to take it R rated there, but...seriously???? Randy??? If you hadn't just retired from 22 years of loyal service to our nation (and Thank You for that!), I'd think of banning you. Consider yourself on probation. 

The Burger

Fortunately, most of us "get it", and we ordered the Classic Burger. 17 surveys were returned (definitely a new record), 15 of them were for "the burger". For their burger.... drum-roll please....Brick's received a 6.47/10. 

Comments from the group included:

•  Burger was average, she didn't ask how I wanted prepared, came out med well, i prefer medium. but the bun was great and made up for it :) maybe we should have a bun tour next ;) (Editor's Note: No)
• Cheese burger with provalone. The only parts I liked were the cheese and bun. The lettuce was limp, the tomato was flavorless, the burger was dry
•  The burger itself was pretty decent in size (menu stated 1/2 pound) and it was also decent in taste, but I've had better. It was topped with bacon and swiss cheese with mayo.
• Amaaaazing bun. Thick, hot, and toasted. Provolone cheese was thick and tastey. My burger was juicy and medium size. It was a patty, but at least it was bigger and juicer than most of the patties we have had. To be honest, 1/2 way in I ditched the meat and ate the bun and cheese. It was too good to leave.
• Had the Classic Burger with Provolone cheese, ketchup and mustard. The bun was good, with the proper amount of toasting and good, thick, hearty bread. I liked the fact that I was able to choose provolone cheese as well. The burger itself was dry and overdone for my taste.
• I had the Brisko Burger, which had swiss cheese and bacon. For as busy as they were it was hot, very melted cheese and great bacon!
• I had the King Burger without egg (aka bacon cheese burger) with cheddar cheese. No additional condiments. The burger was prepared well. It was still juicy, without being greasy. The bun was excellent.

The Bar Sammich

Bar Sammich's received a score of 8/10  with 3 people responding. Oddly enough, Mister Gyro didn't appear to post any comments about his imported fancy pants Greek sammich. However...

• I had the blackened chicken sandwich. It was a very good-sized chicken breast with cheese and optional pico de gallo. I chose to add the pico and it made for an excellent sandwich. Very spicy and tasty.
• Club sandwich on texas toast with lettuce, tomato, and mayo. Overall it was pretty good. A little heavy on the mayo, but that's the way I like it. The bread could have been toasted more. It was very lightly, barely, toasted.

Fries & Sides

Most people appeared to have fries of some sort, while a couple opted for cottage cheese, which your host and writer finds repugnant on a number of levels. Seriously, have you TASTED cottage cheese? Blechhh. Fries received a score of 5.35/10. 

• I had regular fries. She asked if I wanted curly fries, but I opted for the regular fries as the menue stated curly fries were an additonal $1. Others at my table ordered the curly fries and they looked better than my regular fries and I don't think they were charge extra for curly fries. My fries were cooked ok, not over done or under done, but they weren't very thick which I like, but slightly thicker than McDonald's. (Editor's Note: Oh SNAP! Someone dropped the M-Bomb!)
• Curly fries were average and a tad salty. Cottage cheese was grainy and possibly fat-free. Give me the fat! I'm eating a burger not a salad! (Editor's Note: This one gets it! Bravo sir or madam!)
• fries were cold...
• Had the standard fries. They were good bar fries, with proper temperature and saltiness.
• Curly Fries!!! Love curly fries! Although these were warm to cold, which dropped it a point.

• Coleslaw - slightly above average, hence the 6 rating. Nothing to jump up and down about.
• I've had better...I've had worse. That's what she said! (Editor's Note: HEYOHHHH!!)

Service

Let me say that, when we arrived, there appeared to be one server/bartender working the place. Our group of 20+ trickled in over the course of 45 minutes, and there were a couple of other groups there of 5-6 each that also took up some time. By the time we left, it looked like more staff was on hand, but it may have been too little too late. Perhaps I should have called ahead. I hope everyone tipped well, the slowness was NOT the servers fault. The server did also hand out $1 off coupons (for next visit) to many of us with our checks, so she knew they were slow, and did what she could to make up for it. Service received a 5.82/10. 

• she was a great server but seemed overwhelmed... 
• One waitress running the whole lunch hour by herself. We waited at a minimum 30 minutes before our food came out. I ran out of water and never got a refill. Couldn't catch the waitress if I wanted to, she was too busy. Waited again to get our checks.
• Poor girl, she was the only server for the whole place, but she did a great job!
• For being slammed and only waitress, she did a great job keeping up!
• One wiatress, and we overwhelmed her. More staff showed up during our visit, but aside from clearing some tables, didn't seem to do much.

Conclusion

For a smaller group, Bricks is a great lunch location. For a drink or three after work, Bricks is an awesome location. They've got 20+ beers on tap, more in bottles, and a very nice liquor selection. I know I'll be back, and would recommend others do the same. 

Would you eat here again, or recommend it to others?" We gave Bricks a  3.94/5. 

Burger Tourer's

Final Comments:

• Food was fine. I wouldn't say it was my favorite and I need to go back. The establishment is nice and cozy with plenty of TVs to watch. The service was fine, but a long wait with only one waitress. I didn't see anything cheaper than $9 for sandwich and side.
• I've eaten here before and the food has always been decent. I like what the new owners have done with the place.

• I like the location being downtown and they always have generally good food and a decent beer selection (even though I wasn't able to partake today)