The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Masthead Brewing Co. puts beer before food
Nonetheless, spacious Cleveland spot will fill you up with solid pizzas and appetizers to go with fine drafts
It’s not quite fair to say food feels like an afterthought at Masthead Brewing Co., opened in early 2017 by Frank Luther in a building just east of the heart of downtown Cleveland originally constructed nearly a century ago for an auto dealership.
Perhaps it’s better to say Masthead’s edible offers feel like a secondary concern — with beer being the primary focus of the operation.
Hey, I’m not complaining.
I met another beer lover, my friend Steve, for dinner at Masthead on a recent Friday night and left wondering how soon I again could not just taste but smell the business’ Bourbon BA Winter Stout, a rich, complex concoction with a you’d-better-be-careful alcohol percentage of 11.
Looking back, I see that the other three beers in my sampler ($10, but an extra buck for every barrel-aged brew — that’s the “BA” in the name of that stout) had alcohol percentage one might characterize as “not for lightweights.”
While not at all bad but not really to my taste was the lightest-colored of the group, the Flat Earth (8 percent), a “New England Double IPA brewed with a stupid amount of hops.” The Juggerhop (another 11 percenter) is a “triple IPA that will smash your palate without remorse” and a beer I quite liked. At 7.3 percent alcohol, the Sleigh All Day Red IPA was the weakest beer I tried but not in any way weak. It’s a piney beer and one that I enjoyed but, I must admit, a little less than I expected.
The lowest-percent brew on the menu at the time of my visit was the 5.6-percent Wit, but wheat beers — especially those that incorporate elements such as coriander, curacao and lemon peel, as this one does — are not to my taste. I have no doubt it’s quite popular.
Oh, the food? Sorry, I got a bit carried away there. I’m sure beer lovers understand.
First, let’s talk a bit about the spacious place. It definitely feels like the former industrial space it is, complete with high ceilings. It’s clean, but it’s no-frills. The establishment’s website boasts seating for 300, with diners and drinkers choosing between a 100-foot-long bar or several large picnic tables. We sat at the bar, which I found to be a perfectly comfortable place to get some business done.
I would note that with that hard, industrial feel comes a bit of a noisy environment, which may annoy some.
OK, the food. Know that Masthead is, essentially, a pizza-and-appetizers joint, and it does pretty well in that limited arena. Just understand that if you’re hankering for, say, a steak, you should hit another place.
Also, understand Masthead is not a full-service restaurant. While you can order food from a bartender, he or she then gives you a buzzer that lights up when your order is ready, leaving you to pick it up from the food counter on the left side of the restaurant.
Wanting to try a few appetizers, we ordered two of the more interesting choices, Cherry Peppers ($8) and Goat Cheese Stuffed Dates ($7), as well as Masthead’s take on an obligatory brewpub staple, the Everything Pretzel ($8). The buzzer went off when all three were ready for pickup, which I appreciated.
These apps all were terrific.
The huge pretzel — seasoned, as the name suggests, like an everything bagel — is accompanied by rather ordinary stadium mustard (I’d prefer honey mustard) and a second ramekin filled above the brim with a pimento cheese. I don’t recall ever seeing that as a pretzel accompaniment, and it really took this pretzel to another level. I was happy to have a nice hunk of the pretzel and some of that cheese to take home.
The savory peppers — stuffed with smoked mozzarella, wrapped in speck ham and topped with spicy honey — were enjoyable, but, to me, they didn’t quite live up to how great-sounding that description is. I think my expectations for a very complex-tasting appetizer were simply too high; I’d still recommend them.
The dates basically played out in the reverse way. The menu’s description says, merely, “honey, toasted pistachio,” and I wasn’t sure I’d love them. Oh boy, they were delicious, the four tantalizing treats being rich and sweet. Thus, while I wholeheartedly endorse them, my advice would be to save a little room for them and get them at the end of the meal. After all, there is no dessert listed on the dinner menu.
It very clearly was going to be pizza for the main course, and, with Steve and I wanting to try more than one, we decided to pick two that interested us and split them. We went with one of the nine red pizzas, Spanish Chorizo ($13), with provolone, fresh mozzarella and giardiniera, and one of an equal number of whites, the BBQ Pork ($12), with smoked mozzarella, pulled pork, roasted red onion and pickles.
My experience with chorizo typically has been of the Mexican variety, which likely explains why I was caught of guard by slices of meat that seemed largely like pepperoni, if really high-quality pepperoni, on the Spanish Chorizo pie. While I was content with that pizza — the peppers give it some zest— I liked the BBQ Pork pizza more. I do not recall ever seeing a white-pizza spin on what’s becoming a commonly found type of pie, and Masthead’s approach really stands out from the BBQ-pizza crowd.
Other reds include Rosemary Ham, Bolognese, Four Cheese, while among the interesting-sounding whites are the Reuben, Nueske Bacon, Roasted Zucchini and Chicken Pancetta Ranch.
Considering the limited menu, Masthead is pretty vegetarian-friendly. There are four salads for $7 or $8, but you can add chicken to each for $4.
Lastly, for a beer house, Mastheads has an appealing cocktail menu, complete with an Applejack Sazerac ($13) and a spin on a Moscow mule, The Old Mule ($9). I used the excuse that it was listed as being “on draft” to try their Old Fashion ($11). I don’t know how much lift the familiar cocktail — theirs made with Elijah Craig small batch bourbon — gets from being made in a large quantity and put in a barrel for serving, but it was really nice.
After this visit to Masthead, it will be anything but an afterthought the next time I’m downtown looking for a brew and a bite.