MINDFUL BREWING
This author’s mother has not so much a Yogi-ism but a rhetorical question said aloud over decades on nearly every single trip to a crowded Giant Eagle or South Hills Village mall. “What are all these people doing here?” Which would elicit an eye roll and a sigh with the answer from her impatient son: the same thing you are, Mom.
And yet, on a recent Saturday night observing the mob scene at Mindful Brewing Company in Castle Shannon, I found myself asking and answering the exact same question — What are all these people doing here? They’re here eat and drink in a cool space, just like you are, dummy.
People were lined up three deep just to look at the massive selection of beers in the coolers, let alone get a drink at the bar. There was a 90-minute-plus wait for a twotop, and the din was louder than a Ghost B.C. show, yet the service was excellent and prompt.
Open since January, the transformation that the folks at Mindful have done with the former John A. McGinnis market is downright stunning. Again, Mr. Batz picks up the narration.
“The place has been built on the market’s footprint in cool tones of gray and black with touches of stained wood and accents of green. Looking from out front at the building, topped with big light-up red letters that spell out ‘Mindful Brewing Co.,’ you can see the gleaming 10-barrel brewhouse on the right.”
Mindful has an admirable commitment to sustainable products including grass-fed meats from North Carolina’s Joyce Farms, free-range chicken from Gerber Farms in Ohio’s Amish country and Faroe Island salmon. But the execution still needs a little work and more seasoning on just about everything.
To wit: The Lee Van Cleef burger ($12) sounded like an absolute layup for flavor — grass-fed, chorizo-infused beef topped with Cotija cheese, bacon, jalapeño and onion straws, and a golden barbecue sauce. Instead a medium rare was again overcooked and disappointingly dry and bland. The side of fresh steamed vegetables were clearly roasted, although they were delicious.
Likewise, the steak sandwich ($12) promised chargrilled grass-fed steak, halloumi cheese, tomato and fresh greens on grilled sourdough bread with a horseradish yogurt, which again sounds like a winner but required a side of hot sauce to amp up the taste.
Speaking of hot sauce, an order of whole wings ($9) was crackling with a crispy skin but was served naked with the sauce on the side, which kind of defeats the purpose. Conversely, the Nashville hot pressure fried chicken ($10) was perfectly cooked — juicy with a beautiful breading; however, it was mild at best.
A side order of mac ’n’ cheese was a forgettable order with a thin paste of cheese, as were the nachos ($7) despite toppings of queso blanco, tomatoes, jalapeños and onions.
The food isn’t there yet, but the beer most certainly is. Mindful has 38 on tap including a baker’s dozen of its own concoctions, plus hundreds of bottles.
Its highly crushable straight Kolsch is a perfect warm-weather beer, as is the lime agave pale ale, and the Morning Glory turbid pale ale is an excellent, juicy, citrus representation of the increasingly popular hazy New Englandstyle beers.
And, ultimately, that’s a worth-the-trip draw, and the answer to the query as to what all those people are doing there.