Note: I have to apologize for the photos. The lighting was terrible and the color scheme in the restaurant didn’t do much to help. I tried my best to reverse the poor photo effects but I just couldn’t pull it off. My bad.
Last night The Wife and I took The Rooster and a sleeping Koala up to South Minneapolis’ new brewpub, Northbound Smokehouse & Brewpub located only a few blocks off of Hiawatha. We arrived before 6 PM on a Sunday and found the place fairly busy with people drinking beer, eating food, and watching football. We took a seat at the back of the restaurant along the windows and looked over the menu.
The menu is pretty small, it’s clear this brewpub is more about the beer than the food (and rightfully so) but I have to admit many of the items were intriguing and coupled with the great smell of woodsmoke both outside and inside the restaurant were making my mouth water as I read through the names. While smoked egg salad ($6.25) and smoked wings ($8.50) caught my eye, I zeroed in almost immediately on the Smoked Porketta ($7.95). The Wife went with the Fried Chicken Sandwich ($7.25) and since their items all come ala carte we ordered their Cajun Northbound Fries ($4.25) to go along with them.
While I was told by several that I should have tried the beer, we didn’t but I have to admit I really wanted to try their 90+ IBU IPA. With happy hour prices (7 days a week) at $3/pint, this seemed like quite a steal. Their house beers are numerous and they have plenty of others to whet your whistle as well.
The food was out fairly quickly and we dug in. The Northbound Fries which are handcut were mostly limp and soggy and all of the seasoning settled to the bottom leaving the majority of the fries a below mediocre disappointment. We weren’t there for the fries and being that I don’t much care about fries anyway, aside from being annoyed that we blew $4.25 on something I could have pulled out of a bag and undercooked myself in my own oven, I wasn’t about to blow off the place for this one indiscretion.
The Wife’s Fried Chicken Sandwich was something I simply didn’t get. I didn’t get why it was on the menu in a place which smokes most everything else and I certainly didn’t understand why she wanted to order it but there it was on our table looking terrible with its mostly orange tomatoes and very blackened batter. Supposedly dipped in waffle batter and pan-fried in a cast iron skillet, this sandwich was simply overdone and dry. The waffle batter added nothing and if I hadn’t been told it was waffle batter I would have been none the wiser. The Wife wasn’t impressed at all and I was even less so.
Growing up we had porketta on a fairly regular basis. I remember the flavorful meat coming with a crisp outer layer and melting in my mouth. While Iron Range porketta is a little different from the versions I had growing up, Northbound’s version was a disaster on a plate. First of all it didn’t come with the promised fried onions and the Swiss cheese was utterly tasteless. I really don’t know what it is about Minnesotans and Swiss but I routinely have Swiss that simply doesn’t carry any flavor at all. Yeah, I get it, bland rules the day but seriously, choose something else if you want to have a bland cheese so that those of us who know what Swiss should taste like aren’t disappointed when we have melted air on our sandwiches.
Now the star of the show, the porketta itself, was moist and tender. Unfortunately that’s all that can be said about this one. If that porketta didn’t come straight out of a crockpot I would be shocked. There was absolutely no smoke flavor and the coloring was all wrong–in fact, it was almost white. Pork may be the other white meat but I have only seen it come out looking like that when it’s in a crockpot for too long. Aside from its terrible lack of color and smoke, the meat was too wet and aside from an unhealthy amount of salt, it just didn’t taste like anything. That’s right, there was no fennel, no garlic, and no pepper. The house-made BBQ should have been able to save this huge disappointment but sadly only added to it. Seriously, after tasting that porketta and its lack of smoke and flavor, they should be forced to remove the “Smokehouse” from their name. So sad.
The server later came around to ask how everything was. After clarifying whether she was asking to be nice or if she really wanted to know what I thought, I laid it all out for her: overdone fried chicken, tasteless porketta, and soggy fries. She was apologetic and soon one of the owners came to our table to also apologize. They later took 50% off our tab which I promptly returned to the waitress in full as a tip. While I appreciated their great service here, I did not appreciate the dirty look I got from the chef who came out of the kitchen to see what jerks said their food wasn’t all that great. Next time come over to my table and give me that dirty look so I can tell you to your face that your food sucks and you should be polishing up that resume to find a new job at a place where your services would be appreciated–like Burger King–where they use liquid smoke.
Overall I was completely and utterly unimpressed with the two sandwiches and the fries we had. While Northbound apparently has excellent beer, I highly suggest you stick to that and not be lured in by their admittedly interesting menu because it’s likely you’ll end up just as sorely disappointed as we were last evening. I really wanted to like this place; it had everything I could ask for: great beer list, interesting sounding items, and great waitstaff and ownership. Unfortunately I simply cannot ignore the horrendously executed food nor the dirty look from the kitchen staff; it gives me the creeps.
Have you ever eaten at Northbound Smokehouse and Brewpub in South Minneapolis? If so what did you think? What did you order and have you noticed, as one person on Twitter has, that the food has gotten progressively worse since its opening? What is your favorite beer from the place and which others do you recommend? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Address:
Northbound Smokehouse and Brewpub
2716 E 38th St
Minneapolis, MN 55406
Phone:
612-208-1450
See all the photos from Northbound Smokehouse and Brewpub in Minneapolis on Flickr here.
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December 3rd, 2012 at 8:17 am
I ate there a couple weeks ago. I had the smokehouse platter. The smoked fish was pretty good, but the smoked cheeses ranged from not very good to ok. They were sliced thin and too warm, which made me feel I was at a funeral eating cheese of the cold cuts tray. It only came with a little bit of bread and needed a lot more for the cheese and fish.
But the beer was good. Really good. And I drank A LOT of it that night, so after awhile, the cheese wasn’t tasting so bad.
December 3rd, 2012 at 8:25 am
I think it sucks you had a bad experience there. I’ve been there 3 times and had none of the experience you had yesterday.
As you suppose, the house made beer really is the reason to walk in the door. The Big Jim IPA is the reason they don’t need to sell Surly Furious (even though they do have a Surly product on tap). Big Jim is every bit as good as Furious, and I’ll be the first in line once they start selling growlers of that product. It’s great.
Their other beers are also quite good, with the Smoked Porter another high note. I think every other tap beer not made at the Smokehouse is a Minnesota brew, save for a single domestic for people who don’t really like beer. That you went and didn’t have beer is sort of like going to The Nook and ordering a grilled cheese.
With that out of the way, I have had the smoked egg salad sandwich and the smoked roast beef sandwich and a few orders of onion rings. Everything was great, both sandwiches had a nice smoke note without overpowering the dishes and were well above average for bar food. The onion rings were just a bit greasy both times but the were well made in the way that it’s nice to eat a ring one bite at a time without taking the whole onion with you on one bite. They were crispy and tasty save for the extra wipe of the napkin when I was done.
Now, if I were to have these items in a food centric restaurant, they would probably fall into the “pretty good” category. But in a bar setting with that great beer, it makes this a solid destination for me. The service is top notch (I have only ever sat at the bar), quick and I like going to a restaurant where it is clear the people who work there are genuinely happy to be working there.
I won’t try to defend them regarding your experience, it sounds like you got some bad food. As well, the times I have been there I don’t think I have seen the chef/cook. Maybe that is why they keep him hidden in the kitchen most of the time.
December 3rd, 2012 at 9:25 am
Brewpubs fail. Tap rooms rule. That is what they aren’t paying attention to. They have great beer, but they are trying to hard (in an inadequate space) to have a unique food experience. They need to either simplify the menu or quit making food altogether. They need to pay attention to their friends at Indeed Brewing, who’s tap room is the best in the metro for beer and food: beer from the brewery, food from daily rotations of food trucks. Glad you were elicit the dirty look from the cook, and you can bet the owners will read this. Nice post.
December 3rd, 2012 at 9:50 am
Kris P.
That is quite a generalization. While you are probably correct about the relationship these guys presumably have with Indeed (they typically Twitter when they are tapping an Indeed product), a blanket statement that tap rooms are somehow better than brewpubs is silly.
Case in point, Northbound’s beer products are superior to Indeed right now. I’ve tried the majority of the Indeed products, and while they are a fine product, the quality of local craft beer around here makes them a middle of the road local brew*. I do agree that the Indeed Tap Room may be the nicest one in Minneapolis right now, but I would argue that the rotation of food trucks makes the quality of the food drastically inconsistent from day to day. They are also not open “daily” as you suggest, just 3 days per week.
Anyway, good to hear from another local beer lover! Would love to hear more from you as this topic comes up from time to time here.
lefty
*Which is still better than 95% of the beers available to you at your local liquor store, but compared with the many fine craft breweries in the area it falls into the middle. If you were in Iowa, Indeed would be the best beer available in the whole state and it wouldn’t be close.
December 3rd, 2012 at 10:13 pm
How can you call it porketta if there isn’t fennel? Crazy talk.
December 3rd, 2012 at 11:11 pm
I see this a lot with new places around here, lately. A place gets a bunch of great food reviews and then in a few month…it’s like they get lazy or something. Thanks for this review, because Matt and I tried getting in about a month ago and the wait was over 2 hours. We’ll probably still go at some point at least to try their beer, but now I’m not in a huge hurry.
December 26th, 2012 at 7:31 am
[...] 1. Cafe Lurcat 2. Butcher and the Boar 3. Crave at MoA 4. RedRossa Italian Grille 5. Pizzeria Lola 6. Cheeky Monkey Deli 7. iPho by Saigon 8. Northbound Smokehouse and Brewpub [...]
December 28th, 2012 at 7:41 pm
While generally I don’t give the time of day to reviews buried on page 12 of a Google search of our business, this one is particularly irksome. Not because its a negative review. To each his own. But because Mr. Lightning finished his entire “inedible” porketta sandwich without saying a word to the server until he was finished. Its tough to satisfy a customer who has already finished his dinner.
He also claims that there was no fennel, and no smoke flavor. The pork butts are butterflied, rubbed with seasoning, stuffed with four cups of chopped fresh fennel and a ton of garlic, tied up and smoked for 16 hours while they are braised in the Smokehouse Porter. But its fine that Mr. Lightning didn’t like it (surprising that he finished it though). The chef wasn’t even there that night, so I’m not sure who he imagined was giving him the “stink eye”. And complaining that there is a fried chicken sandwich on a smokehouse menu and then ordering it at said smokehouse is just silly.
One thing I will admit though is that the situation wasn’t handled very well in social media. We do regret that. But I do think inaccuracies and cherry picking of events in Mr. Lightning’s review need to be pointed out.
Jamie Robinson
Head Brewer/Owner
Northbound Smokehouse & Brewpub
December 28th, 2012 at 10:20 pm
Here’s our related email discussion:
December 29th, 2012 at 8:50 am
What a classy guy. I love how he states in one breath that you’re review doesn’t really matter to him and in the next calls you irrelevant.
December 29th, 2012 at 12:30 pm
What the fuck hell Jamie?
While my post evidence on this thread, as well as my very popular Twitter feed would suggest, I have had very positive experiences at your place. That is a good thing, and I think the majority of the press about your new venture is much more positive than it is negative. Something you deservedly should feel pretty good about.
That said, I can’t try to defend the comments above here. Bill didn’t like his food that day. It seems like you are trying to make an argument that he did, but that he has some sort of axe to grind and is making shit up. I can tell you, that’s not the case. I don’t see anywhere where he tried to get a deal by complaining about the food, and given that I have personally had a number of meals with him, that is the last thing he would do.
If you had read any of the other food reviews on this site, you would realize that these are a snapshot of something that happened at a moment. Maybe on this day you served a product that was cut the furthest distance from the chopped fennel, or maybe it was the single most poorly executed pork you have done since you opened (because no matter what, one of them has to logically be the worst), but whatever it was, it made one person decide it was not up to his par. You should be thankful for that feedback. I doubt you want to be the next Perkins or Applebees that brings in people that don’t like good food, but rather brings in people that have never had good food but didn’t know it until they came to your place.
Since you run a brew pub, and you posted on a Friday night, I am going to give you the lefty drunk post benefit of the doubt. I usually look for drunk post forgiveness here about once per month, and there is no reason you should not be afforded the same pass (in spite of you apparently being given the chance I have never had to retract a dumb post, wtf).
Anyway, I stand by my feedback, I think you are running a pretty good place and I will be back. You should probably let Mr. Lightning do the same and acknowledge that you were a miss for him on that day and move on.
lefty
December 30th, 2012 at 6:01 pm
“One thing I will admit though is that the situation wasn’t handled very well in social media. We do regret that.”
Dear Mr. Brewpub,
Did it ever occur to you that when you find yourself in a hole, you should stop digging? There is nothing positive to be gained by your post.
January 1st, 2013 at 12:27 pm
This type of logic reminds me of a time I had to deal with the gas company when I went to turn on my furnace and nothing came out. They tried to explain to me it wasn’t possible for my gas to be turned off because they have procedures for doing so and the computer system did not indicate any of those procedure were used. So even though I saw the gas meter turned off, it wasn’t really off, because their computer didn’t say it was.
Yes, you can have all the processes and systems in place to achieve the most flavorful and tasty food ever served. And yet from time to time that food will not be flavorful nor tasty. How can that possibly happen one might ask. Simple fact is, that as long as humans are involved, unplanned for things will occur.
Now if the server would come back and check after the first bites rather than after the food is all gone, then maybe there would be time to correct the issue. People that visit a restaurant for the first time don’t know what the food is supposed to taste like. They have expectations perhaps, hopefully those set by the restaurant atmosphere, and menu, but if they get the worst the kitchen can provide, how are they to know it can be better?
The key to mitigating the issues that you ran into with Bill, is to ensure customers are happy at all points of their experience, not just after they have filled their belly, as by then, it’s probably too late. you either have someone that will be back, or someone that will never be back, and worse, will suggest others stay away.
May 14th, 2013 at 6:45 am
Okay, I stumbled onto this review as I was trying to find their brunch menu, and I can’t NOT chime in. This really is one of the best places in South Minneapolis. Hands down. Sure, we have Craftsman and Parka and Mosaic, but Northbound has carved out their niche well. I’ve had the porketta several times, all of which have been fantastic. Their chicken sandwich batter can throw people off (one of my friends says it tastes like donuts, but she loves it), but that’s always been done well. Their salads are phenomenal, their chili is ridiculously good, their burgers are nearly perfect (go back and try the Wild Rice Burger) and even their desserts are craveable. My girlfriend and I have been there enough to try most of their items, and have yet to be disappointed. She can’t get into the batter on the fried mushrooms and chicken sandwich, but she doesn’t eat much fried food anyway.
So naturally, after countless experiences that fell nothing short of spectacular (I did have a couple of bad experiences with one server in particular, but he is no longer working there), I can’t read your review and not weigh in.
So, to answer the your questions, I have had wonderful experiences there and continue to. The food hasn’t gotten progressively worse; quite the contrary. And I didn’t even touch on the beer, which deserves a review on its own.
But I challenge you to swallow your pride and give them another go, Bill. I think the lighting and color scheme has improved enough by now for even you to find some type of satisfaction.
May 14th, 2013 at 6:47 am
Andy,
My reason for not returning has nothing to do w/pride; I simply don’t return to restaurants which suck and have representatives that act like assholes on the Internet.
May 14th, 2013 at 7:41 am
Andy, GREAT first post here. Nice to have someone disagree with a review and not go into insult mode. Hope you’ll stick around…this ain’t just south metro stuff. Good to have voices from elsewhere.
May 14th, 2013 at 3:47 pm
I won’t say Bill should go back, because frankly the propietor completely bolloxed himself with his emails and post on here. While Caveat emptor is a ground rule for business from the consumer side; from the vendor side in retail , the customer is always right. Hence you do not insult your customer, there is a proper way to react to a less than happy review.
I have been there once, had ribs, they were very smokey and good, fries were excellent. the sandwiches my companions had were very good as well. The smokehouse porter was exceptional, and I am not usually a porter drinker. So I would fall into lefty’s camp on this one. His two posts pretty much sum up my opinion.
Greetings to Andy, I concur with MSPD who knows whereof he speaks.
May 14th, 2013 at 4:23 pm
There’s no way Bill will go back. It’s like trying to convince an atheist that a god exists. But I do understand why he wouldn’t want to support a business that treats its customers they way he was. There’s no bigger way to send a middle finger than to fire off an emotive response.
Conversely, I’ve had a couple of very interesting conversations with Jamie since February, and he went in deep detail on just how difficult it was to get this project started from a funding standpoint (which is why they had to offer the “free beer for life” deal for a buy-in of $1000) to exactly what is at stake to keep the place afloat to how little sleep they got during the first few months until they were able to trust someone else to be there for them. It’s not that much of a stretch to imagine him being a little overprotective and even defensive over a review like this. Bill’s review does carry a tone of vindictiveness (complaining about the lighting and color scheme? seriously?), and it doesn’t come off as an objective review.
I guess my point is that, while his response was not appropriate and maybe should have been held in, it’s understandable. Not necessarily forgivable (which is debatable), but understandable. Some of the most talented chefs and business owners are brash because they have to be (ever heard of John Schumacher?), but that’s what is required to establish boundaries. It’s hard to watch someone pull apart your baby, sure, and the onus could be on Jamie to take it and try to make amends. But he’s not one to take being pushed around, as the Northgate/Northbound debacle unfolded.
Again, it’s a place that is an asset to the neighborhood, and it deserves another shot. Plus, it just kills me to see a legitimately solid place get brutalized like it was. I have no stake in the joint and have no connection to anyone there, but the place is slammed every day, so somebody is diggin’ the place…
Thanks for the welcomes, by the way! I look forward to contributing more my piddly insights.
May 15th, 2013 at 9:20 am
Andy Giesen,
I don’t know that you come off any less biased than you seem to think Bill was. I mean, it’s really good that you are open about the fact that you’ve gotten to know the owner(s) of this place, and are up front about it, but just because you have zero financial interest in a restaurant does not mean you can’t write a review that slants towards your new friend.
Nothing wrong with that, just saying. There are a number of places I have written about here that I want to succeed just because I like the owner, or the people that work there.
Welcome to the board though. Glad to have you here!
lefty
May 15th, 2013 at 9:45 am
Hi Lefty. I don’t know the owners, and I apologize if that’s the impression I gave off; I’ve simply conversed with him a couple of times when I was there. I don’t know if either of us would consider the other a friend, and I doubt he knows me from Adam.
Regardless, Bill’s review (and I understand you two are friends, so I apologize if I ruffled your feathers, I’m not trying to attack anyone or anything like that) came off as vindictive, and I just couldn’t disagree more while not chiming in. That’s all. We can agree to disagree, but it would be nice to see Bill give them another shot, but a fair one this time. I know he doesn’t owe it to them, but it really does sound like he got a bad meal on a bad night, and I can tell you that it’s not representative of their norm.
Jamie’s reaction was his choice. Maybe not the best way to handle things, but he’s clearly a passionate guy. It is what it is. Bill could have told his server that he didn’t like his sandwich and allowed them to replace it, but he decided to finish it. Nobody is innocent in this situation.
May 15th, 2013 at 10:12 am
No ruffled feathers, Andy.
I used the word friend loosely. I just meant that like you, I have a natural rooting interest in a number of places I like and have gotten to know the proprietors.
I am much more comfortable shrugging off a less than stellar experience at those places than the places that I don’t like, and I more than likely would keep it to myself or mention it to my “friends” (who also probably don’t know my name).
Having eaten at The Smack Shack about 20 times since they’ve opened, I have not had a perfect experience every time, but I don’t run to this blog to complain like I might if I somehow got dragged into the Lone Oak Grill again for some reason.
So no worries. I am glad you like the place, and if you have read my comments above, you’d know I am a fan of this place too. I just had lunch there on Saturday and brought home a growler of Big Jim. Yum.
May 15th, 2013 at 10:31 am
Definition of vindictive: “Having or showing a strong or unreasoning desire for revenge.”
Andy, my review was not in any way “vindictive”. If I had received the response from the owner that I did and then wrote the review I think you would likely have an excellent argument; however, in this instance, it was simply me telling it like I saw it–as I do for every single restaurant review written on this site.
And no, it wouldn’t be fair for me to give them another shot because I would be throwing my money at a business which, as you say, spent a lot of time and energy trying to get it off the ground, only to ruin the trust they built with a response that was damaging to their business. My money spends good anywhere and I choose to spend that money at places which have ownership which are friendly, welcoming, and honest with their customers. I do not, however, fully and openly support business owners who suck at what they do as the owners of Northbound do.
Carry on.
May 15th, 2013 at 11:23 am
Lefty, I did catch your review, and I pretty much am in agreement with you. I had to stop by yesterday to check out the randallized West Side IPA from Harriet and wound up trying their double IPA. Not a fan of IPAs or double IPAs, but this one was really good. After all, they are a brewpub, and more emphasis and focus can be placed on beer. What else is there to focus on? Hockey season is over for the Wild…
Hope to see you on the patio some time, there or at Republic or Town Hall or Buster’s…
And happy Craft Beer Week!