There is not one bone in my body that was disappointed or even remotely blase during my visit to Forest and Main Brewing Company. All I could think around every turn was, “They nailed it.” – the ambiance, the food, the beer.
The moment I approached I was taken in by the welcoming aspect of literally crossing the threshold of a home and side stepping to the left into a throng of happy patrons. Immediately ahead of me was a small, romantic bar.
This place is all chalk boards, mahogany wood and decor that convinces me they must have pillaged my father’s garage of all his antique tools and interesting artifacts of time gone by, where they had lost their identities and now find new ones amongst pints and pontification.
Okay, so the place looks nice, but what of the actual food and beer? Saison’s are my personal flagship in the beer world and theirs did not disappoint. In addition, the XX Noir was incredibly smooth. These two beers really couldn’t be more different from one another, but are certainly my favorites. I enjoyed each beer in our sampler and was surprised to learn that for some brews they follow in the british tradition of serving them at room temperature to enhance the flavor experience.
We carried our tab over to our table where I ordered the vegetarian substitute for the Fried Oyster Sandwich and my boyfriend ordered the burger with aged cheddar and bacon mayonnaise. I can’t emphasize enough how each element to the meal was unique in some way. The pickles are house made. The fries are hand cut. Right down to the Ketchup, which is flavored with peppadew! Peppadew, I had to google to find out that this is “the brand name of sweet piquante peppers grown in the Limpopo province of South Africa.” That can’t be a real thing, right? Yes. It is and it was a nice addition to the already fantastic condiment. I know what you’re thinking: sounds pretentious. For all the nay sayers who tout that they just want their burger to be a Bubba burger over and open flame with a Miller Lite in one hand, claiming they don’t need to over complicate their meals with bells and whistles – I say, fair enough. There’s a time and place for everything, but you take one taste of that aged cheddar smathered with bacon Mayonnaise and tell me you don’t get a little misty-eyed at the beauty of it all. There really isn’t an iota of bourgeois at Forest, just people who take great pride in what they do well.
