EnyaFace! and I hadn’t done dinner in a while and we needed to get caught up. I had recently been given a recommendation from John Maddening – the announcer for the Minnesota RollerGirls and fellow carnivore of high-caliber – for a place with excellent and unique BBQ meat. I read online that Stout’s Pub was owned by the same people who own Chianti Grill and also Porterhouse. These people know their way around meat, so I thought it was a safe shot.
The inside of the place has an upscale bar sort of feel to it – I would say sort of a Granite City/Poor Richard’s Commonhouse/Oak City feel to it. The place was about half full, which is always good. Full enough people like the food and not full enough we’d have to wait forever to get seated or served. The hostess sat us right away and the waitress we got was really fun and gave us as much crap as we gave her.
The menu is pretty large. It’s got a large selection of appetizers, burgers, salads, entrees, and pizzas. It also has a large selection of Minnesota beers on tap. I honed right in on what John Maddening told me about – the Pig Wings. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but he told me it was a big hunk of meat on a bone. That’s what I needed. I got that with some grilled veggies (I’ve been scaling back my potato intake since they’re sooooo freakin filling lately). EnyaFace! got what I would have gotten had I not been looking for pig wings – the Proud Stout Burger. It’s a burger with smoked bacon, blue cheese, and cheddar on it. Sounded fantastic.
We didn’t wait long at all for our food. EnyaFace! cut me off a piece of her burger so I could sample it and I’m glad she did. Just a little pink on the inside and both cheeses were able to be deciphered in the toppings. And of course, the bacon was delicious. Good burger, cooked perfectly with tasty ingredients.
The Pig Wings were like nothing I’ve ever had before. I’m not a butcher by any means, nor am I a complete moron, but I honestly couldn’t tell you which part of the animal they came from. They were shaped like chicken drumsticks, but on a single straight bone. It wasn’t like a pork chop, just very unique. And the bone fell right out of it, which means they were tender. They were LARGE chunks of meat on these bones, as well. I ended up bringing one of them home (partly so I could show D.Rough, which is what I told EnyaFace! so she wouldn’t mock me when I told her I was full). The meat was a tiny bit fatty, which I feel I need to warn you about since it seemed to bother both EnyaFace! and D.Rough. But I actually liked it. I think it added a ton of flavor to the meat itself. I’m not sure these things are ground breaking butcher territory, but they’re definitely unique and not like any I’ve ever seen before.
The BBQ sauce they served it with was better than most places, which I appreciate. I actually powered through it with three out of the four wings they gave me. When I tried an inferior BBQ sauce from my fridge while eating leftovers, I realized how good Stout’s sauce was. The grilled veggies were just alright. A little inconsistent, if anything. Some were crunchy, some were floppy. But they had a good char on them, so they were all edible. I could have used a big bucket of pump cheese on them, but I guess that defeats the point of ordering veggies, doesn’t it. Sigh…
Top 5 things about Stout’s Pub
1. Pig Wings
2. Proud Stout Burger
3. Good staff – hostess to the servers
4. Great food selection on the menu
5. Minnesota Beer selection is substantial, if that’s your thing
Bottom 5 things
1. It isn’t cheap. My bill with tip was over $30
2. Grilled Veggies were just ok
3. There is a gluten free section that just lists the names of the items, you still have to flip back to the regular menu to determine what things are. Just a little inconvenient
4. The place is borderline sports bar, so there’s a lot of visual distraction happening
5. They offer a beer float – something I’ve had a bad time with previously in another country. It brought back some bad memories
http://www.stoutspub.com/