Brick Farm Tavern — Restaurant in Hopewell Township

My wife and friends dined here recently and liked this place - THINGS DO CHANGE. We were looking forward to this family dinner.

Dinner for four at Brick Farm Tavern on a Sat night. Seated promptly at 7. Drinks were three Fall Tangos ($48) which were on the small side and everyone said they were fine -- no one wanted another one. My son passed on another cocktail and ordered a glass of red wine (Montalcino $15). Unusual, someone came to the table with a large wine glass and poured the remaining contents of an almost empty bottle - seemed skimpy at best

Appetizers: Tavern Tartare ($18 each) flavored well with an egg yolk on top enjoyed by two of us with the exception that as anyone could see, part of my toast was burnt. Squash Dough Pierogi ($18) was served in a bowl better suited for soup, making cutting one in half (necessary for a human bite) a challenge and allowing the grease/oil to pool at he bottom. The filling was tasty but sparse. My wife was disappointed and offered the loin's share to anyone interested. I tasted one and found it oily and declined anymore. My son being adventurous had the pork belly ($21) which is supposed to be crispy, tasty, fatty (yes fatty like a slice of bacon) with a layer of some meat. Not a sign of meat anywhere to be found on the plate and it was not appreciated. I tried a piece and it was pure fat that I cut a a sliver from and sampled but would never eat the entire piece.

Entrees: Brick pressed chicken ($34) was well seasoned -- my daughter ate some saying she liked it, had most of it put in a take home box and later it made its way into our fridge -- where my daughter completely abandoned it? My son ordered the pork chop ($37) and the waiter took the order without asking how he would like it cooked -- of course my son expected the chef to cook it as appropriate -- it was raw in the middle! My wife and I had Tavern burgers: she ordered hers medium well and got a dry overcooked burger ( I know as they mixed up our orders and I received hers and took a bite). We traded and she had some - left some. Although a bit of a mess, I liked my burger. The burgers were served as a leaning tower of burger, bun and toppings resting on a small oil slick. The accompanying Tavern potato wedges were tepid, dry and I can only guess that they were prepared earlier in the day.

Sides ordered: brussels sprouts ($9) were cooked and ok (tasty - not so much) served family style. Mac and cheese ($9) served family style was rigatoni in clumps tossed in a little cream and lightly sprinkled with some (I believe) parmesan cheese. The mac and cheese was bland and not the least bit "Cheesy". The Mac (non-cheese) and sprouts were sampled and declined by all. No one wanted to complain at dinner and taint a family night out. However looks of disappointment, followed by most of the meal left behind delivered a telling message of -- what happened to this place?

With all that food being left on plates and in bowls - no one seemed to care. I do not expect perfection but I do insist on edible. Unfortunately, farm to table made a stop in a kitchen that deemed inedible as acceptable.

The service was average at best. No one wanted to stay for dessert/coffee a scotch or port.

Dinner check with tax and tip $343.95 - It was easy to remember what we had and the prices as they are listed on the customer copy of the receipt.

My lowest standard for a restaurant is - would I eat it if it was free -- for most of the meal the...

We would dine at Brick Farm 1-2 times per month and relished our visits. We would regularly bring friends and introduce more and more people to the great food and spirits we enjoyed at Brick Farm.

This all changed during a visit on October 14th with some friends for my birthday.

We were enjoying a drink in the bar before being seated for dinner when the fire alarm went off. The manager Zack asked our guest if he was vaping as we evacuated the building. Upon returning from the evacuation, Zack immediately returned and confronted our guest, again accusing him of vaping in the bathroom and setting off a fire alarm. Our guest (in his late 60s) does not vape, and he stated such to Zack (even offering to empty his pockets), but this did not stop Zack from continuing the allegations that he saw him and had him on video leaving the bathroom shortly before the alarm went off.

The inquisition continued and Zack demanded names and contact information while continuing to state, "I know you vaped since I saw you coming out when the alarm went off and it is on video." Our guest's wife became agitated and got rather animated at the escalating demands, and I asked her to leave. We ended up leaving as things were getting out of hand and I paid the bar tab and advised the hostess stand to cancel our reservation. When Zack was told that the guest didn't vape, things should've ended, but Zack doubled down and continued the assault of allegations insisting that he "KNOWS" that he was vaping.

I returned two weeks later to discuss again with Zack, but he was not working. I ended up speaking with Sam, the bar manager who was with Zack during the episode. Sam continued to defend Zack and the actions of Brick Farm Tavern, insisting that he had to have his manager's back. Sam kept repeating that Zack is not a liar every time I mentioned that our guest does not vape and never has. No one said Zack was lying, but Zack was obviously wrong about what he thought he saw and made a coincidence into a wrongful fact and created a damning and incorrect allegation.

During my visit with Sam, he noted that false alarms are a "regular problem" at the restaurant and that Zack had spoken "to the owner" during the evacuation and the owner said to get the details of the "guy." A "regular problem" sounds more like an issue with the sensitivity of the system. If managers and ownership are going to blame and harass guests that use the facilities when the alarm is triggered, Brick Farm is going to lose more than just clientele.

My friends, who would dine every other month with us, will not be coming back. Zack and Sam opted to draw a line in the sand. They refused to even consider that Brick Farm was wrong in how they handled the situation and refused to apologize for the treatment of our friends. Accordingly, my wife and I will not be returning, and we will not recommend Brick Farm to any of our...

I don't like leaving reviews that are less than stellar; if you go on my Google profile I think you will see that this is true. However, my husband and I had a subpar experience at Brick Farm tonight. First, we arrived without a reservation on a Saturday night. I expected a wait but was instead informed that the dining room was completely booked and we would only have the option of dining in the bar area, where the tables are first come, first served. Fair enough, maybe we should have made a reservation, but if the restaurant knows they are that busy on weekends, it could be nice to include a disclaimer in their website that reservations are strongly encouraged. As it was, we drove 40 minutes to get there so we were determined to wait for a spot at the bar.

As luck would have it, after a brief wait we did get a bar spot. We have previously been to Brick Farm for drinks and apps only, and their bartenders are amazing. Seriously, the bartenders were the best part of our night. We ordered the empanadas and two burgers and settled in. Our empanadas were good if not a bit greasy. Our burgers, however, were not good. The burger costs $16, so for that cost, I expect to get what I've ordered. The food runner brought us our burgers, both of which had egg on them. When I informed him that only my husband's was meant to have the egg, he offered to take mine back. I said, "great! Can you tell us which of these burgers is medium rare? Mine was medium, his was medium rare, so you can take back the medium one." The runner informed me that he wasn't aware of which was which and took them both back.

He reappeared 30 seconds later with one burger now sans egg and said, "they're both medium." I told him that my husband's was meant to be medium rare but at that point, my husband said, "i'm so hungry, it's fine." It was not fine. Both burgers were at minimum medium well if not well done, very dry and yet greasy. The bartenders were very busy and had no time to check on us, so we got no opportunity to tell them that the food was not good. Instead, we ate our $16 ($17.50 for the burger with egg) burgers and did not complain. I only ate half of mine, and still no one asked if there was anything wrong.

Looks like we will only be returning for snacks and drinks in the future, both of which they do really well here. Honestly, we were hoping for another fancy beer spot for good food but I guess we will have to look elsewhere. Or maybe you need to make a reservation to get...