BrewBilt BrewHaus — Restaurant in Nevada City

To borrow a phrase: “Do you want to know how to make a small fortune in the BrewHaus business? Start with a large fortune and a mediocre menu”. The building was beautifully redone, has a great atmosphere, and next to maybe Sopa’s patio in the summertime, the best outdoor seating in town. In other words, so much potential.

Unfortunately, their menu is a niche selection of historically bland food, not the kind of thing you can’t wait to come back to. Ironically, they nearly share a wall with “That Place on South Pine”, the soon to be shuttered case study in how critical dish selection can be. When it was “South Pine”, people happily waited 30-45 minutes on the weekend to get in and eat, they still do at the GV location. Even though downtown NC is limited in its sit down breakfast options, you won’t see the same cultish enthusiasm at “That Place”. What’s different? Not the location, not the atmosphere, not the type of food, not the tables or chairs, maybe not even the silverware, it’s simply the menu.

What’s the secret to an enduring and successful eatery? To paraphrase a hangry James Carville, it’s the food, stupid. The current economy is hostile to the hospitality industry and will continue to be so. Wages and food costs are increasing dramatically, and rightly so, but so is the consumer’s awareness and their desire to see value in parting with their hard earned dollars. I genuinely hope the Brewhaus succeeds, (same goes for "That Place") at the moment the only limiting factor...

My boyfriend and I came here for our lunch on our anniversary trip. I have a gluten allergy and when we walked in I asked to see a menu before we sat down. Nothing on the menu is marked gluten free so I asked if they had any options and an employee let me know that they could do some of the appetizers, and some of the dishes without crostini and that the roasted veggie bowl and the bratwurst dish didn’t have a carb and they were naturally gluten free. We decided to eat here, and I ended up getting the roasted veggie bowl and add a bratwurst as the protein. I ate over half the bowl before my boyfriend took a bite and said he tasted beer. I immediately went up to the counter and asked if anything was made with beer and they said no. Finally my boyfriend specifically asked about the bratwurst and the server finally said that it was brined in beer. Beer is not gluten free. Super disappointing that the staff isn’t knowledgeable on food allergies, and how their food is made. Also, when our server found out about the mistake made she didn’t offer to do anything to make it right. Thankfully I am not severely intolerant like some others, but this did ruin the rest of our anniversary and just overall a super disappointing experience and we...

Had the pretzel(fantastic cheese sauce), deviled eggs were very good. The mustard and smoked roe went well together. The waitress I have to add was also very nice. Dog friendly environment a plus.

Why the low score? I rarely find restaurants that don’t accommodate reasonable requests. Unfortunately this was one of the few. I asked for a pint glass to go with the grolsch I ordered instead of the customary Stange(pronounce shtung). The waitress was nice enough about declining the request. Admittedly not in the mood to tolerate nonsense, I asked for her to check again with the manger. What transpired next was even more surprising. The brewmeister came over to explain their “Father knows best” policy and the reason why. The glass is designed for this beer and any other glass would be a lesser experience.

Restaurants naturally have a high failure rate. New restaurants like this one are especially vulnerable. The customer is wrong model, usually doesn’t bode well for a restaurants longevity. Being immovable; well I suppose scorn is an equally...