Rust City Brewery: The best of two worlds
RESTAURANT REVIEW
Culinary fusion has become a staple: think of how often you need a hyphen (or an entire list) to cover the variety of cuisines present in a single establishment.
In the same spirit, Rust City Brewery has united two concepts under one roof: that of a brewery and a café. From the outside, however, the word café might not immediately spring to mind. The natural wooden esthetic from Homegrown, which used to reside at this location, 21 King William St., has been revamped with streamlined black window panes, and outdoor tables and chairs shielded from the sun by large black umbrellas.
However, when we walked to the rear of the spacious room on a recent night to place our orders at the counter, a small room to the left was impossible to miss. It housed a large, shiny coffee roaster with an exhaust hood overhead, and a counter display of cookies and cakes quite in line with café fare.
“So where are the Rust City beers?” I wondered.
A sign on the front of the counter solved the mystery: zoning laws don’t allow for microbreweries in Hamilton right now but Rust City is hoping that will soon change, so they can introduce their own beers on site.
In the meantime, it offers a carefully curated selection of local but lesser known brews: in bottles in the refrigerator behind the counter, and from the row of gleaming silver wall-mounted taps hanging like decorative trophies from a beer hunt.
It took us a couple of minutes to amass our order, since the menus are in bits and pieces: hot beverages listed on one side of the counter behind the bar, “snacks” on the other, beers on the wall and food menus stacked on the counter. Order we did, though, after noticing a list of suppliers that made it clear sourcing locally is a priority.
We paid up and sat down. No tipping necessary, unless you would like to. The establishment donates all tips to charity, with the understanding that they pay their staff a fair wage and share profits with co-workers instead. With that, I expected the bill to be higher than it was but I found it was quite reasonable for two beers and a hefty order of food.
I hadn’t ordered any snacks but, sitting on the table with our beers was a small snack menu that looked irresistible. House-made pretzels and popcorn played a large role, with the addition of a variety of roasted nuts. Popcorn it was — popped to order. The familiar aroma wafted over as our beers came out, carefully poured into tulip shaped glasses.
My companion’s beer was dark like a porter but, surprise, it was a Red Shift: Nickel Brook’s dark sour beer. Cherry blanketed the palate anchored by a strong undercurrent of wheaty sourness. Then the toasty taste of deep roasted barley crept in, without the smoothness that usually comes with a porter or a stout. It was heady in every sense of the word: both a cerebral thrill and packing a punch, at 7 per cent alcohol.
My grisette (a light saison-like beer, without the sour) had a light, wheaty body but was clearly done with care: floral overtones tickling the tongue. This brew, from Fairweather Brewery in the city’s west end, was right at home in Rust City.
As we sipped, a biggish tin cylinder filled with popcorn, on a plate that caught the overflow, was brought to the table. It was Mexican style and the lime came through just fine but the heat could have been more aggressive.
There was a lot of snap and crackle going on in the background as well: experimental, along with slightly more traditional jazz kept us tapping our feet or stopping to listen here and there. A little Ornette Coleman, a little Ella — but scat Ella, not ballad Ella. Not surprisingly, the brewery hosts jazz brunches on Sundays.
Soon after, our soups and salads arrived. My soup, kale vegetable, was a bit heavy on the potato and a tad light on the kale. But I enjoyed the rich and zesty tomato broth. The roasted pepper soup, however, was too thick and intense for my taste and it seemed as if the peels remained in the soup, imparting an unpleasant bitterness.
My sandwich was delightful. The housemade pretzel that served as a bun was fantastic, and I wouldn’t hesitate to order a couple for a snack to go with a pint or two. They were toasty on the outside and tender, but not too tender, on the inside, with just the right amount of top salt. In this case, the pretzel sandwiched a filling of prosciutto and truffle Gouda. Toasty, salty and creamy, it was a decadent treat.
Alongside the roasted pepper soup was an avocado and arugula sandwich on multigrain bread: the only bread not made on premises, we found out later. It was fine but not unique. Some zingy vinaigrette might have livened it up a bit.
While we were eating our way through the courses, I took a look around. A couple sat nearby, enjoying beers and snacks, and a pair of cyclists, one with his biking shoes still on, walked in and out with messenger bags slung over their shoulders. An artist in a golf cap, making sketches in a book, also lounged for a while. A little Bohemia, a little bike-mania.
By now, we wandered up to the counter as the bar-isto man cleared our dishes. We ordered a slice of cheesecake and one of applesauce cake, along with some cookies and espresso drinks. The cheesecake was a little too dense but OK overall while the applesauce cake, which my companion thought would be uber moist, was quite dry. The cookies were all very nice — flavourful, with good texture.
The coffee was the real star. I was jealous of my companion’s flat white, and wished I had not gotten a cappuccino just so I could have appreciated the beans less diluted. The roasted flavour went on and on. Delicious.
I will for sure come back for a regular coffee soon. And with the direction Rust City is taking with their beverages, I look forward to the day the zoning bylaws allow them to serve their own brews.