Brux House brings heat to Hamilton

There are three ingredients necessary for a successful restaurant: menu, atmosphere, and passion. One step into Brux House Craft Beer & Kitchen, the newest addition to food haven Locke Street from Quatrefoil’s husband-and-wife duo Fraser Macfarlane and Georgina Mitropoulos, and you can already tell that this is the making of a great restaurant.

“There aren’t a lot of restaurants in Hamilton that do craft beer as well as a pretty extensive restaurant side. We really work hard on pairing and making sure everything works because we are one single unit but two faces,” said head chef Gabe Cruz, former Canada’s Top Chef contestant. Every detail in the restaurant feels purposeful without feeling forced, from the wood slab bar top, striking dishware, hanging light fixtures, branded menus, and lit letters in the back of the main room spelling out BRUX.

Between the music in the bar, the intricate details, and the bartenders with interesting facial hair, it’s easy to brand Brux House as a hipster spot, but the upscale contemporary restaurant appeals to a variety of clientele. The most discernible trait of Brux House is easily the dedication to fine dining. The extensive beer menu boasts 16 draughts, as well as rotating taps, and although it has a respectable-sized wine list, the beer selection is clearly the pride and joy of Brux House. Passion is poured into every area, from the menu to the quality of the service. At Brux House, cooking is an art form, one that Cruz works to master each day.

“You’re always learning, there’s always something new, there’s always something coming up. You force yourself to learn and get better.”

The European-inspired restaurant boasts a menu that is not too overwhelming, but is small enough for the best items to be showcased. The descriptions of appetizers like baked cauliflower, kale salad, sunchokes and mains like pork schnitzel, mussels, and arctic char made my mouth water, as my waiter excitedly talked about the process of smoking salmon in-house and explained the beer pairings with infectious excitement.

“When you plate something or send something to a customer, you’re basically giving a reflection of yourself and who you are, what you believe in, and what cooking is to you. So it is an art form. You’re telling a story of how you became who you are through that plate, the same as an artist would do through their canvas,” said Cruz.

Cruz, like many of the employees at Brux House, often arrives early in the morning and stays until late. The dedication and sheer love for food, beer, and cooking takes Brux House from a good restaurant to a great one.

“The best part of [cooking is] when you put something out and it’s one of the best things someone has tasted, and can tell that you’ve poured your heart and soul into it.”

Food is an art form, and the passion that spreads from the kitchen to the bar aims to make a new culture around the way we enjoy food. And enjoy it I did.

5 Essential dishes

Pastrami spiced smoked salmon

with buttermilk, horseradish, beets, watercress

As the waiter brought out the plate of pastrami-spiced smoked salmon, it was clear that Brux House valued presentation and taste simultaneously. Despite my (former) dislike of beets and watercress, the accompaniment of the vegetables with the salmon – smoked in-house – was a surprising delight. The subtle sweetness paired with the sharpness of the salmon gave me a newfound appreciation for beets. A layer of buttermilk and horseradish mixed with beet juice resulted in an almost vinaigrette that lent itself deliciously to the salad.

Pot of baby shrimp

with dill sour cream, shaved vegetables, watercress mousse, rye toast

Perhaps to solidify its hipster atmosphere, the pot of baby shrimp is delivered not in a pot, but in a mini-mason jar of watercress mousse topped with dill sour cream, with a side of rye toast. The dish was slightly confusing and left me wondering which utensil I was supposed to use. Although I was forewarned that the shrimp was cold, it left something to be desired, but I was satisfied. This is the kind of dish that you can tell is made well, but the overall enjoyment is completely dictated by personal taste preferences.

Flat iron steak frites

with stout, mustard and bone marrow butter, petite salad

If there’s one way to impress me, it’s with a well done – but medium-rare – steak. Generally a stout marinade would be far too bitter for my liking, but offset with the bone marrow and mustard butter, the steak had an overall creamy, tangy taste that wasn’t too overwhelming.  For the most part, fries are indiscernible from place to place, but the frites that accompanied the meal had the perfect amount of salt, and the curry ketchup I was offered brought the fries from above average to excellent. Although I could’ve eaten this meal forever, the steak was on the smaller side, leaving me satisfied, yet wanting more.

Beer brined chassagne farm cornish hen

with duck fat fingerlings, brussels slaw, paprikash sauce

As the first bite of Cornish hen hit my taste buds, I heard a barely audible sound escape my lips. Clearly the standout on the menu, and the most expensive item, the Cornish hen put an immediate smile on my face. It was topped with a slaw that will make even the pickiest of children happy to eat Brussels sprouts, and it was accompanied by a paprikash sauce that gave the meal an always-welcome heat. To put it simply, the duck fat fingerlings, Brussels slaw, paprikash sauce, and Cornish hen made sweet, sweet love in a symphony of taste.

Belgian spiced waffle

with salted caramel ice cream, royal gala apples, toasted almonds and vanilla cream

If you ask anyone, the most heinous crime I’ve ever committed is being ambivalent about dessert. The way I see it, if I have room for dessert, I haven’t done it right. The waffle topped with salted caramel ice cream and accompanied with royal gala apples, toasted almonds, and vanilla cream was a perfect mix of salty and sweet. I didn’t have room for dessert, but I managed to finish the entire thing anyway. If putting yourself through stomach pain isn’t a sign of enjoyment, I don’t know what is.