Brew — Restaurant in Davenport

Work has been a bit more rough these past few weeks - to the point that by the time Friday hit I needed a drink. It had been more than a month since I'd gone to a nearby establishment in the Village with a good friend and work colleague, during which we'd talked about going to Brew in the future. About midday we talked about it again and decided to go that night. Success - drinks and food would cap off the week!

Located on the corner of 11th Street and Jersey Ridge Road, Brew occupies a space that is both comfortable and convenient within the wider ecosystem of the Village of East Davenport. Its corner location makes it easy to access by foot from either the West or North. Though too cold for use in early March, the patio along Jersey Ridge Road is large and looks great with the ironwork fence and string lighting. A return visit is definitely in order when warmer months come back around.

The ironwork is a feature that also speaks to the historic nature of the establishment. Prominently displayed along the Eastern facing facade of the building is an old sign for the building' s previous tenant - Boyler's Blacksmith Shop and Ornamental Iron Works. Homage to the place's past use is also present throughout the interior, which is decorated in part with other signs, blacksmithing tools, and horseshoes.

While the historic preservation is a great feature of the space, Brew also has many of the trappings of its current beer and gastropub owners. Signs and stickers of a variety of local craft beers dot the space. Available seating includes both bar and numerous high top tables in the interior. The ceiling area is open, with HVAC ductwork, steel supports, and conduit visible to any glancing upward.

Lighting for the space is provided from a number of sources. Incandescent bulbs or bulbs made to have their appearance line the space in both fixtures attached to the numerous ceiling fans and those suspended separately from the ceiling. Accent strips provide additional lighting to the area behind the bar. The lighting is further augmented by a great choice of coloring in the space, as well. In particular, the red brick walls are unpainted or altered as such, while the ceiling is painted or otherwise colored black. This helps keep the lighting level lower.

Further aiding in the overall comfort of the space is the ambient noise level. I'm usually a little wary of spaces with uncovered or un-dampened ceiling plenums, which tend to amplify the music and chatter in the space to uncomfortable, cacophonous levels. This isn't an issue at Brew, however, owing to both the smaller overall occupancy of the interior and the music in the space kept to a lower level that people don't have to talk over. I appreciate this aspect of the space and am really glad it works.

For food our group got a soft pretzel and bruschetta for appetizers, both of which were fabulous. The soft pretzel came with a few dips, including both a spicy mustard and raspberry mustard, both of which I enjoyed. For entrees, my friend and his wife split a vegetable flatbread, while I got a bowl of the coconut curry lentil soup. While I think I may have been partially lead to soup (they both mentioned it at least a dozen times) this ended up being a great choice. I like a good lentil soup, and this was enjoyable throughout the whole bowl. It was filling, well spiced, and left me satisfied when finished. Brew has a rotating variety of soups, so a return visit for more soup will also have to happen.

This is easily one of my new favorite places, both in the Village of East Davenport and the Quad Cities area as a whole. More soups and pretzels are definitely in my future....

Half the size & twice as nice! That's Brew.

It looks & feels like a place made for millennials, by millennials. Naturally, I felt right at home. The atmosphere was really nice & cozy; they have some decorations & things leftover from when it was a blacksmith shop. It was neat to see and, let's be honest, probably cheaper than revamping the whole thing. It's a shame they didn't have access to more real estate, because this would be a great place for the HORSESHOE game. Or perhaps the more drunk-friendly equivalent: bags.

Like I said: cozy. Small. All the food is made fresh right in front of you. They do not have a deep fryer, just a really nice oven. And boy, do they know how to use it. I ate the cinnamon roll waffles (fantastic) & had a pretty good Bloody Mary. It wasn't the biggest portion & I wanted to eat just everything on the menu; it all looks so good. But stomach & wallet permitted just one more try: I got the Hulk Smash sandwich, which was very good as well.

My bill ran just a touch high, but I did have 2 $6 Bloody Marys and 2 entrées. I left very full, more full than usual. Portions aren't huge, obviously, but that's not the point. Meal size would more or less satisfy an average person. And my drinks had a strong pour! I wouldn't say this place is necessarily a VALUE, but you're not getting ripped off at all. The quality is there.

I noticed that under the bar they've got a line of USB/AC 3-prong combo outlets. Very forward thinking. They're encouraging you to plug in & check out, and the infrastructure was there if you so desire. I was planning on eating, drinking, & staring at my phone, but I ended up just talking to the bartender about Bloody Marys & drinks in general & looking around the bar. I don't even know if they have WiFi because I didn't even touch my phone (I'd be shocked if they didn't have WiFi). Overall, it was a very pleasant meal & conversation with good people in a good bar. Definitely...

Can't say anything about the food because we left without ever being seated..or even acknowledged. It looked like they only had 1 person working and he was moving at snail speed making a sandwich at the bar. I have never seen anyone move so comically slowly in my life. Never bothered to greet us, weren't sure if we were supposed to seat ourselves, zero communication. Almost full restaurant, but no one had food or drinks in front of them.

Also, 2 tubs of what appeared to be sliced ham were sitting on the bar for who knows how long.

EDIT: Google doesn't seem to let you reply, so adding here. It actually seemed like there was only 1 person working. There was no server/greeter to be seen. We stood long enough that if they had ran to the bathroom we would have still been there waiting. And the cook that saw us standing could have easily said "hey, someone will be with you in minute" but he turned right back around and kept working on the sandwich. Its not a pot shot. If you have cameras, watch them and see how slowly he was cutting things. You have an almost full restaurant and no one has even a glass of water in front of them. This is what lead me to believe he was the only one on shift... there was no indication that there was a server to wait for. Sure, idk how long that meat was sitting on the bar in the warm room. I'm not "angry" or being "mean spirited" I am simply saying what happened when I went there. We were there Monday right around 5. Reading through other reviews after this reply - I can see that service is a known problem here though. Instead of getting mad at people pointing it out be mad at the staff that is costing...