The owners of Brasserie V went all-in on the concept of communal eating with their Middleton restaurant aptly called Longtable Beer Cafe.
Here’s how it works. You order at a counter and then sit on a bench at a long, communal table where your food is brought out. Near the counter is a display case sporting an enormous selection of beer that you can purchase and consume on the spot or take home.
My only complaint of the restaurant is that there’s no menu display behind the cashier and that finding menus is not obvious when you walk inside. As a consequence, lines can get bad as customers search for menus and/or wait until they’re all the way to the front of the line to finally look through a menu.
In the one-page menu, you’ll find lots of shareable items, including “shared boards” such as charcuterie ($16 small, $25 large) and veggies and dip ($15). I picked from the “snacks” section, starting with the soft hot pretzels ($3.50). They are super buttery and surprisingly small for a beer bar. I liked the beer cheese sauce, though it was really watery.
My other snack was the goat cheese puffs ($7.50), consisting of fresh, sharp goat cheese crammed into a hot, flaky pastry. It’s certainly tasty but does get a little rich after a while.
Make no mistake, plenty of non-shareable items are on the menu, which includes a sausage section. The wild boar ($11.75) is not at all gamy and actually makes for a tasty sausage. I liked the sourness from the accompanying bacon vinaigrette, but the shaved Brussels sprouts should have been cooked a bit longer.
Sandwiches are divided into hot and cold. An example of the former is the delicious Community Burger ($12). The thick, juicy patty sits inside a buttery bun and is topped with bacon, bok choy and smoked gouda, with some aioli adding a hint of spice.
The smoked trout ($12) is another sandwich worth ordering, as it reminds me of a bagel with lox. The trout sits open-faced on sourdough rye and comes with capers, lots of dill creme fraiche and pickled onions.
Longtable features specials on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. On Thursday, it’s buttermilk fried chicken ($14). The prevalent flavor to the chicken is honey, and the meat was moist and tender–note that you get your choice of white or dark meat. For the side, I’m glad I chose the cole slaw, as it had the right amount of creaminess and had a hint of sweetness–a good pairing with fried chicken.
Longtable Beer Cafe is open for lunch Tuesday through Sunday and dinner Tuesday through Saturday.
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See more photos in our Longtable Beer Cafe Flickr album.
