Bricks Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Cedar Rapids

This interior of this bar, and its predecessor, have not drastically changed in over 30 years. What has changed? While the old bar focused on import beers in bottles and cans and left domestic macrobrews on tap, the new place has focused on offering a huge variety of good import and microbrews on tap! The menu selection has changed too: gone are the Pachyderm and some of the standard bar fare. Bricks has a very good BBQ brisket sandwich and other specialties to go along with a modest bar fare type of menu. The cooks also seem dedicated to sticking around longer, and during times when the old bar did not serve food. Finally, the staff has changed: In the final years of the old bar, the staff was renown for their spotty quality and lack of dedication. Now, the core group of servers is once again quite knowledgeable about the beers they serve, and strive to have staff on hand to meet the needs of the customers. I have been impressed by the old place. Too bad the city built a crappy parking lot next to it so that it...

I used to go to this place a lot. When I mean a lot, I mean damn near twice a week. It used to be a great place because of the good balance of a bar with plenty of great beers on tap, decent enough food and a very social staff that went the extra mile to make you feel welcome. Wait staff was always prompt and to the point, and actually kind, not just polite. THAT HAS ALL CHANGED.

Some points to make about the NEW Brick's:

The food is better than before. The beer selection is about the same. The new staff is abhorrently under-trained, and absent-minded. Another review said they are racist, but it seems they are just uneducated. The bartenders do not seem to know how to make a drink properly, i.e. Whiskey Sours that taste like death.

You decide if this the place you would like to...

We went to have dinner and drinks before show downtown and surprised by small menu selection and they were out of more than half the beers on their beer list. We ended up ordering some happy hour appitizers, that came out cold and $3.00 for less than what I would consider a 4th of a sausage is a bit much. I didnt mind the smoked wings, but rest of family couldnt even eat one after 1st bite. Maybe they are better warm. Also ordered a hamburger, plain, with fries and cottage cheese, which also were cold fries and warm cottage cheese. Folks did like the burger. We all agreed we didnt care for the doritos as nachos either. Food maybe better when it's not happy hour? Waitress was very good and knowledgeable about beers, they just didnt have many. We were very...