The opportunity to eat at Brownstone presented itself when my wifey won a gift certificate through a drawing a couple weeks ago. With a certificate in hand, we chose to partake this past Friday night for dinner.
Brownstone owns a prime real estate location within the West 7th entertainment district plaza just west of downtown Fort Worth. With a nice size patio right in the middle of people watching central, it provides a great outside dinning experience. When we arrived the patio was bustling, but the inside of the restaurant was empty. We wanted to eat outside anyways and got sat right away, but it was a slight turn off considering it was 8pm peak dinner time on a Friday night. Only about a year old, the restaurant labels itself as a "high energy kitchen & bar" with a southern twist on its food. The Southern influence was noticeable through some of the menu items such as Fried Chicken & Grits, Shrimp & Craw-fish Po-boys, and Beer Can Chicken. Inside they have a pretty trendy bar giving a Dallas-like feel with a a couple of lounge seating areas, and a pretty respectable wine and beer menu.
I always ask the server for recommendations when eating at a new place. I want to know what the people that work there like to eat. This is where turn off number two presented itself. When asked about recommendations the servers' answer was simply, "I only work on the weekends so I don't know much about the food, but I know the waffle fries are good!" O....k.... Well being in the mood for a unique sandwich, I decided to go with the Cuban sandwich. My wifey, wanting some of the "Southern Cooking," went with the Fried Chicken & Grits. We both decided to wash our meals down with some Boulevard Pale Ale out of Kansas City MO.
The Cuban was not conventional by the fact it came on a bun, but other than that it had all the standard ingredients. The pork was thick sliced which is not my preference, but the sandwich was actually pretty tasty. The mustard, pickles, and other ingredients were spot on, and all the flavors coexisted well to create a decent Cuban Sandwich (wouldn't recommend if your used to Miami's Cubans though). I did take the servers advice with the waffle fries which were DAMN GOOD. At least he got something right. Now the wifey's meal came out as a fried chicken breast on top of a bed of pepper jack grits dressed with some sauteed veggies which were extremely good. The Chicken had a nice flaky buttermilk breading which complimented the grits quite well and the veggies weren't too overpowering to the rest of the meal. Both meals were surprisingly satisfying. Compliments to the chef!
All-in-all Brownstone provided a pretty decent dinning experience. The food was good, patio atmosphere was very lively and fun, and pricing was not unreasonable. I don't know if the place gets busier later, but when we left all but a couple of the 50+ seats inside were still empty. Maybe they need to do some bar specials or something to get more people in. They also need to do some tasting for the employees or something too, unless you are just trying to sell the waffle fries.
Price: $$$
Pros: Nice Patio, Food was pretty good, Waffle fries! Not too pricey.
Cons: Dead inside, Servers not very knowledgeable (at least ours).
Rating: 82% Approved
Website: Brownstonefw.com
