Brick Street Grille, Johnson Style — Restaurant in Albia

Can something that isn't all that special be perfect? Evidently so, as I found out while having lunch during a bike race weekend. I had traveled to Albia, IA, on Friday in order to start racing early the next morning. I spent time driving and riding sections of the course as is my habit, and I was definitely ready for a tasty lunch. By the time I curtailed my activities and made it back to town, it was 4:00 pm, a bit late for lunch, and too early for dinner. So I looked up a bar/restaurant that could accommodate me and choose the Brick Street Grille - Johnson Style. Yes, that is actually the name of the restaurant, there doesn't seem to be a Brick Street Grille - Smith Style in town, so the “Johnson Style” moniker will remain a mystery for another visit.

The place has an unprepossessing exterior, which is not indicative of anything. Many excellent eateries don't advertise the fact with a flashy façade.

It was also nearly empty, but given the time, again, not much of an indicator.

I looked over the menu, which contained pub favorites, fried pretty much everything for appetizers (pickles,onion rings, pepperjack cubes, green beans, cheese curds, corn nuggets, mini corn dogs, jalapeno cheddar poppers, mac & cheese bites, mozzarella sticks, and mushrooms… whew!), a variety of burgers, the ubiquitous wings, and an array of sandwiches. I am a big fan of the sandwich and began narrowing down my choices. Again, we have the usual suspects, the Philly, the Reuben, a Tenderloin (grilled or breaded), a battered Cod sammie, a steak sandwich, and some variations on the chicken sandwich. I ended up focusing on the chicken offerings for no reason other than the fact that I love chicken sandwiches. The top of the list contained some standard offerings, grilled chicken, Chicken Parmesan, Chicken Bacon Swiss. Then they started to deviate a touch from the norm, we have a Tropical chicken (grilled chicken breast, bacon, pineapple, and Swiss on Texas toast), the Southern Sweet (grilled chicken breast, bacon, BBQ sauce, and Swiss on Texas toast), and lastly, my choice, Bubba's. Evidently, Bubba has a taste for grilled onions & peppers with pepperjack cheese on his grilled chicken breast sandwich. Bubba and I have something in common, as I love these sammie ingredients myself. They do offer a quite similar chicken variation of the Philly, with grilled onions, peppers, and Swiss on a hoagie roll, but the pepperjack sounded just right to me.

The staff, at this point, one individual, although more filed in as we approached 5:00, took my order quickly, and the food arrived just as quick. The sandwich was simple, just the ingredients stated, no aioli, no roasted garlic jam, no artisanal blue cheese crumbles, none of that. Just four ingredients. And it was great, really tasty, hot and delicious. Not great in any particular way. It wasn't grilled in a special way. The bun was just a bun, but its simplicity somehow struck just the right note with me on that late afternoon. It wasn't special, but it...

6/10/2023 at about 3:20. (I hate changing this review but it's needed)

I've been here several times in the past for their Tenderloins, always was very good. It was not the biggest, but it hung out of the bun and always a good 1/2 inch thick or more throughout and was very good! SHAME THINGS CHANGE.

On this day, I will say, "Look at the pictures, and you can see what to expect now." The waitress told me this is the way they are and would not fix another, But she did take it off the bill. Did not offer anything else, not even the menu to order something different. I left still feeling ill and shaking from low blood sugar. It was beat so thin it was too tough to chew and the breading was bubbled up and made it look thicker. I most likely won't go back and will no longer tell friends about Tenderloins there.

Picture as seen is close up, McD's hamburger patty is almost twice as thick, breading is good if that's all you want.

got the food quickly, but then you don't have to cook to long as...

Waitress spilled ketchup all over my mom and on my niece. They got some of our order wrong. I sat there for an hour after I had order and everyone else at my table got there food but me. I didn’t get my food until they closed and they had it in a box. they also switched our drinks up.

In short worst experience ever.... (I’ve worked as a server but this was uncalled for and extremely bad...