BentSpoke Brewery

Many of you surely will not need to read this brief, hard-hitting restaurant review. Why? Well if you are a bloke, and you are, say 30-50ish, working in the public service, in the city precinct, then you must be here already in this, the newly opened BentSpoke Brewing Co.

In fact, if you were trying to set a trap for a masculine demographic you would set up a place just like this. An industrial, two-storey brewpub with shiny, stainless-steel tubing and tanks everywhere, a huge solid wood bar top, surely 20-metre long, with that enticing condensation forming on a row of beer taps alluding to a big range of super-chilled brewskis. To sweeten this nefarious trap you are making, there should be food such as burgers and roast beef sandwiches, beer battered, hand-cut, deep-fried potatoes and spicy chicken wings on hand.

 Now I need to give credit where credit is due. This was penned five years ago; “Mark my words” I bravely announced “Braddon will develop, now that the car yards are closing, to a real foodie destination, with Italian and Sons setting the pace.”  To see so much investment in this area with the culmination of its own micro-brewery, gosh, I just wish I had the foresight to own property here.

There is a good feel at BentSpoke. Like we’ve all found a best friend who knows how to brew beer way better than we could and can knock together a reasonable range of nosh that is beer friendly. All that missing is a pool table, a wide screen showing the sport and we’d never leave.

Firstly the all-important ales and lager. There are plans to have a much larger range sometime soon. But at this point, two weeks in, they have knocked together five beers and a cider. The Barley Griffin ($11 a schooner, $7.50 a middy), is labeled a "Canberra style ale". I'm not sure what that means but it’s cloudy and spicy, with a distinctly pungent bilgey character. Maybe it’s meant to be here, brewers get in to all sorts of weird microbes, but it seems more like the first brew down the pipes.The Crankshaft IPA is much better, very hoppy, richly coloured and flavoured and then Mort’s Gold, a pilsener style is in good nick and is my type of beer, refreshing and not too malty.

Drinking at lunchtime, unless you work nearby and your employer is flexible, does pose a problem: Do I let my wife know now, before it gets hazy, so she can factor in a rescue at some stage? So we’d better eat, and, as I say, the beer snacks have had some thought put into them. Downstairs at BentSpoke is for drinking beer with food, upstairs is for eating food with beer, your choice. “Artisan sourdough bread’ ($9) sounds weird and expensive at a pub, though you do get a bowl of garlicky white bean puree that is sure to impress later in the day. The bread is fine, they’ve cut it up into chunks so we don’t have to waste valuable time. Warm olives and spiced nuts ($9) are vegetarian and vegan friendly. They are both perfect for the task at hand, once you get salt and chilli into the mix, the appreciation of beer starts to skyrocket. 

Then some more substantial food such as grain-crusted hot wings with malted blue cheese sauce ($12 small, $18 large). I like the way they use beer and beer products in a lot of the sauces and dressings, it amplifies the occasion. These are great and you could take on a big plate yourself. We also grab a heritage breed beef burger ($19). This is quite good, the juicy patty is accompanied with beer braised onions, beer fortified barbecue sauce, cheese and Cajun potato skins. There is a leaf of "salad"  that doesn’t seem to over-power the burger too much. The skins are a big disappointment, soggy and floppy, My companion Dave is inconsolable. I say, “Don’t worry, Dave, it’s early days and here comes the snag."

Apple and sage pork sausages ($28) are a bit misleading - there is only one "sausages" but it’s a foot long and curled up so we forgive their numerical omission. This is a great sausage, served elegantly with smoked cauliflower mac and cheese. It looks like early days at the pub, but the beer has centre stage as it should, The food fits in easily, there’s plenty of choice and it might need a little tweaking, such as working out the deep fryer and not going so hard on pleasing vegetarians. The fit-out is splendid, like a work of art, a functional one at that and  there is a slight stunned look to the team which you see quite a lot here in Braddon. It's like the Field of Dreams - build it and they will come.