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Type: American
Hours: Sun.-Thur. 11:30 a.m.- 11 p.m. Fri.-Sat. 11:30 a.m.- 12:30 a.m. Sunday brunch, 10 a.m.
Good choices: Beer, ale, Asian dumplings with teriyaki dipping sauce, ploughman's platter, muffeletta salad, honey-ale chicken breast, fish and chips, turkey Lancaster sandwich, and a mixed berry tart.
Credit cards: All cards.
Access: Two steps at front door; wheelchair access at rear door.
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PORTSMOUTH BREWERY & RESTAURANT
56 Market Street, Portsmouth, N.H.
(603) 431-1115
Restaurant reviewed 06/22/98 by Bob MacDonald
When brother and sister Janet and Peter Egelston opened the Northampton Brewery and the Brewster Court Bar & Grill in Northampton in 1987, California's Buffalo Bill Owens, the founding father of the brew pub movement, described it as ``the best designed in the USA.'' Two years later the brew pub won a silver medal at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. So it's not surprising that Portsmouth Brewery, also started by the Egelstons, serves great beer. It's well drawn, not overly fizzy, and Portsmouth Pale Ale and Shoals Pale Ale are the closest thing we've found on these shores to an English bitter. The Shoals, a bit fuller and hoppier than Portsmouth Pale, is actually made in yet another sister brewery, Smuttynose, in Portsmouth. Also distinctive is Portsmouth's wheat beer, a more rounded version of the European classic and a pleasing summer refresher. Even the brewery's root beer has a devoted following.
You may come for the beer, but you'll stay for such things as Asian dumplings ($6.95), a.k.a. Peking dumplings or pot stickers, not something you'd expect outside a Chinese restaurant. While even the so-called ``other white meat'' in the dumplings is not that good for your waistline, the brewery gives you a chance to dodge some fat grams by ordering the dumplings steamed instead of fried. The dumplings are worth ordering for the teriyaki dipping sauce alone - gingery, spicy, possibly addictive.
And the brewery is one of those places where appetizers are sometimes meals. The ploughman's platter ($7.95), for example, is modeled after the traditional English pub lunch, so it's particularly fitting with a pale ale. It featured a mild bratwurst-like sausage and another spicier sausage, and similarly complementary mild and sharp cheeses. Crisp pickled onions and bread completed the platter, while a honey-ale mustard was too bland to contribute much.
An oven-roasted garlic bulb ($5.95) was properly smoky and enhanced by basil pesto and a toasted baguette.
The deluxe muffeletta salad ($6.95) was a lighter New England take on a New Orleans dish that includes cold cuts and is served on focaccia or French bread. Portsmouth Brewery skipped the bread and substituted chopped portabello mushrooms for the meat and completed the package with grilled eggplant, chopped green and black olives, toasted pine nuts, and capers served on mixed greens and asiago cheese shavings. Red wine vinaigrette supplied the perfect tang.
Salads provided with the entrees prove that with imagination a Cheap Eats-level restaurant can move beyond iceberg lettuce. The brewery's consisted of a mesclun base topped with baby carrots, chick peas, and red onion.
Brasserie linguine ($10.95) was a heady mix of pan-seared roasted tomato, spinach, mushrooms, roasted garlic, and basil tossed with lemon, olive oil, pine nuts, and parmesan. The overall taste was sweet and basilly. Grilled chicken can be added for $2.
Fish and chips ($10.95) consisted of light, dry, and flaky cod fillets with a traditional batter served with a nontraditional chipotle pepper mayonnaise, an interesting variation.
Honey-ale chicken breast ($11.95) put the aforementioned honey-ale mustard to better use. While unable to stand up to the strong flavors of the ploughman's platter, it provided just the right subtle touch for the milder chicken. A large portion of chicken sat atop portabello mushroom slices with a barbecue flavor, making an effective contrast in taste and texture. The accompanying green beans, not something one normally gets excited about, were sweet and nutty.
A torte rustica ($8.85) was a June special and came with mesclun greens and bread. Billed for lighter appetites, it was an intense blend of spinach, cheese, tomatoes, and eggplant.
Light appetites can be served as well by some cleverly named sandwiches such as the Bohemian Rhapsody, Basil Rathbone, and Billy Club. We found the Turkey Lancaster ($5.95) a perfect combination: warm turkey breast, smoked bacon, tomato, lettuce, red onion, swiss cheese, and garlic mayonnaise.
Those with heavier appetites can finish with such desserts as blueberry raspberry, strawberry tart ($4.25), which, in a 5-inch ramekin, easily fed four. The maker wisely went easy on the sugar, creating a tart that was nicely tart.
Tips & hits
