Brockway Pub

We arrived at The Brockway Pub a little before noon on Martin Luther King Day, and there wasn’t much of a crowd, which may be attributable to being a holiday, or else because it was kind of a rainy and miserable January day. We walked toward one area of the restaurant, but then the lone server greeted us and showed us a better area to accommodate our group of ten.

The interior of the restaurant was pretty basic. There were unpainted masonry blocks partitioning off different sections of the restaurant, along with an exposed ceiling with ductwork and pipes. Perhaps this is the “Dublin Industrial” look that they mention on their menu. They have some Irish flags and other banners over the bar area. We had two tables next to each other by the window.

We waited a while for all of our group to arrive before placing our orders for lunch. In addition to ordering Reuben sandwiches, I placed an order for one of their “small plates” called the Reuben Roll ($11) that was described in their menu as “A twist on the house favorite. Corned beef, sauerkraut, and swiss cheese rolled up and golden fried egg roll style. Served with 1000 island.”

The Reuben Roll was quite delicious. I would say that overall it tasted as good or better than the Reuben itself. It was cheesy and had a lot of corned beef in it to make it a nice, hearty, bite-sized Reuben with a hint of egg roll flavor. One order of the Reuben Roll “small plate” meant three rolls cut in half, so six little servings. I would definitely recommend it and would love for more restaurants to offer something like it.

The Reubens came out after 20 minutes, which was good considering that there were 10 Reubens ordered by our group. I was pleased by the look of the sandwich halves as they were stacked on the plate. While I could have wished for a fancier plating option, this was clearly a pub, so wax paper on a plastic platelike surface is expected.

The first thing I noted when biting into the sandwich was that the bread was very stiff and crunchy. It wasn’t soggy in the slightest, meaning that it really didn’t absorb any of the ingredients of the sandwich. It was that type of crunchy that scratches up the inside of your mouth.

There were several slices of corned beef on the sandwich, which had a good taste—they didn’t have a “briny” taste and were just a little spongy. Looking at the beef, it was very lean and I didn’t notice any fat on it at all.

The Thousand Island dressing and sauerkraut were there—but didn't stand out a lot. Neither of those ingredients were in abundance, so the sandwich was a little less sweet than it can sometimes be. However, the overall flavors all worked well together.

What became the subject of discussion was the cheese. In 20 years of Reuben reviewing, I had never had cheese like this on a Reuben. I’m not sure what type of Swiss cheese they actually use, but this cheese was creamy! When they grilled the sandwiches, the cheese had bubbled out around the edges and it was melty and thick with a delicious creamy taste. Normally the Swiss cheese on a Reuben kind of melts just a little and then hides inside to blend in with the other flavors. Not so with this Reuben! The Swiss cheese apparently wanted to stand up and be noticed, and it was very good.

Overall, the sandwich was a very “neat” Reuben, with the ingredients all remaining in the sandwich where they had been placed, and not falling out all over the plate, as will often happen with a messy Reuben. I only used part of one napkin for the experience. I attribute this to the smaller amount of sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing. The only part of the Reuben that seemed at risk for being messy was the tendency of the meat to slide out of the bread—possibly because there was no cheese or other ingredient to hold in the top of that layer. However, with the standout cheese at the bottom of the sandwich, the “two slices of cheese to line the bread” trick probably would have overpowered this particular recipe.

For my side, I had the pub chips, which were very crunchy and surprisingly lacking flavor. It appeared that no salt had been added, so they were quite bland.

Overall, this was a great lunch at Brockway Pub, and the experience of getting together for the 20th anniversary of the Reuben Realm with several of our Reuben Tuesday aficionados was priceless.

The Reuben experience at the Brockway was favorable and I plan to have a follow-up visit to try some other menu items. On first entry into the establishment, I was about to give it an A for atmosphere, but after NOT hearing background music consistent with an Irish Pub, my expectation of walking into a cèilidh was dashed without hearing The Chieftains, maybe Clannad or even the Cranberries. Consumption of food in an Irish pub is always better when the music matches the scene... even if a Reuben isn’t Irish. I did have a cup of Guinness beef stew and some Scotch eggs... okay... not Irish, but close. Oh... and some Reuben rolls.

Service was excellent as order to plates down was 20 minutes for a group of 10.

Presentation was pretty average... sandwich and fries crowded in a wax papered basket didn’t really impress me. Now if they’d brought it out in a splayed sheep’s stomach with a side of haggis, that’d got my attention... oh... right... that’s Scottish again.

The sandwich itself tasted excellent although somewhat light on content. You could taste every element, but the meat, although very lean, seemed a bit skimpy. The marble rye was the all-star. It appeared grilled and was very crisp, not soggy. The cheese had the proper Swiss taste but had completely melted to a cheese slurry inconsistent with the usual Swiss you find on a sandwich. The fries were excellent and rocket hot on arrival. I requested extra dressing on the side, but the two slathered slices seemed to carry most of it on its own. I’ve had better, but I can’t fault the taste.

We were all surprised with the tab for the sandwich, as it came in at $8 although the menu listed it for $12. It was worth the $8... but not $12. Although this rating is supposed to cover the value of the sandwich, I need to make a point about the bigger picture here. For our visit, the cost for the sandwich was obviously fair. Based on the menu, I would have found that cost disappointing. As I ordered additional items, I also found the cost for those to be equally disappointing. 3 Reuben Rolls (sandwich contents wrapped in a wonton about the size of a pizza roll): $11. The Scotch Eggs were 3 halves... how do you get three halves? Someone eat one before it hit the table? That averaged out to $6.66 per egg. They were okay, I’ve had worse, and I’ve had better... but never that expensive for such a small serving: $10. The Guinness stew was good and probably worth the cost: $6. I would definitely go back for a bowl of stew.

That said... I would go back again to try other things on the menu. Service was excellent (even the manager came by a couple times and checked on us) and the food was decent, but not exceptional... other than the stew... but how do you ruin a stew... it just sits there and bubbles all day. As long as you put in the correct ingredients, stew is always a winner, however I wouldn’t get another Reuben... not bad, but just not worth it in my opinion. The price... ohh... I forgot... it’s in Carmel... and they still need some Irish music.

The Brockway Pub advertises itself as an authentic “Dublin industrial pub.” I have been to a few pubs in Dublin, I’m not sure what that means. The Irish pubs I recall tend to be a bit cramped and have low ceilings and everything is well-worn. The Brockway Pub has high ceilings, well-spaced seating, and everything seems clean and in good repair. The thing I noticed that seemed authentic was that it wasn’t overly full of televisions, for which I was grateful.

There wasn’t much of a lunch crowd on MLK Day, apart from ourselves, so that may have been why the place seemed a little cool but pleasantly quiet. There was a little music, but it was still easy for us to hear each other. Shortly after we arrived the power went out, but it came back on quickly and it didn’t impact our experience: it was just one of those odd things that happen.

We ordered a couple of Reuben Rolls appetizers, which are basically three Reuben egg rolls, with Thousand Island dressing to dip in. These were quite good!

The menu billed the Reuben as one of the house specialties, priced at a reasonable $12, with steak fries or pub chips included. I had the pub chips, which might have been made in-house. They were nice and crispy and served with a side of ranch dressing. (The steak fries were served with a side of ketchup.)

The Reuben itself was served on a marbled rye bread, with little to no caraway flavor. The slices were toasted to a perfect level of crunch, and not too buttery. Their payload was well apportioned to stay inside the sandwich without dripping or oozing out. Carl Rothenbacher aptly described the result as a “one-napkin Reuben,” which is a sort of culinary miracle.

The cheese was too melted and gooey to be Swiss: perhaps it was Gruyère? Regardless, it was good. The corned beef was of good quality, with no chewy or fatty bits, and there was a good amount without being too much. In many places we’ve seen them line the bread, so the moist ingredients don’t make the bread soggy, but in this sandwich the corned beef seemed to fill that role instead, and I think it an improvement. There was exactly enough dressing to taste. The sauerkraut was the only ingredient that felt underbalanced in what was otherwise a remarkably good Reuben.

Between the chips and the sandwich, there was a good amount of food. I was full but not overly so, and uncharacteristically left a few chips on my plate. I might have finished them all if I hadn’t indulged in quite so much of the Reuben rolls.

Service was unobtrusive but good, bringing drink refills without being asked. A manager came to check on us, apparently intrigued by the number of Reuben orders, but didn’t ask any question other than to ensure we were satisfied.

When our checks arrived, the sandwiches were listed as only $8: a welcome surprise, though we never found out why they were $4 less than the menu indicated. The checks also had a rather nice pay-by-phone feature, meaning we didn’t have to wait for wait staff to take away our payment cards and bring them back.

Maybe it’s just the nostalgia, but this was one of the better Reuben outings that I remember. It was also perhaps the best of several meals I’ve had at the Brockway Pub, and I’d be happy to return there sometime soon.