Those ‘These Guys’ guys got it going on

September 26, 2024 9:09 am • Last Updated: September 26, 2024 9:09 am

By Rick Koster
Day Arts/Features writer

I was accepted some years ago to attend the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop’s special “Food Criticism Camp.” It was a highlight — at least until I arrived and found out I’d been admitted not as a student but as help assigned to scrape the finished meal plates into an organic scrap heap outside the kitchen.

Chips, queso and pico de gallo at These Guys (Eileen Jenkins)

I was at least allowed to audit the workshops, which is where I learned the Cardinal Rule when writing restaurant reviews: NEVER lead with a description of the facility’s bathrooms.

Crew’s Choice Burger (Eileen Jenkins)

I’m here today to BREAK that rule, for only the best of reasons.

Fall Favorite Flatbread (Eileen Jenkins)

Y’see, at the excellent These Guys Brewing Company in downtown Norwich — a craft brewing company that includes a bar and a full dining menu — the stand-up urinal in the Men’s Room is a cut-down aluminum Anheuser Busch beer keg. Not only is it a unique piece of welding/sculpture, but a great joke: You’re in a craft beer joint and have to, ah, pee, and you confront this urinal and the inference is that brews made by Anheuser Busch, whose signature lager is Budweiser, are, well …

Bourbon Filet Tips (Eileen Jenkins)

Get it?

Dessert at These Guys (Eileen Jenkins)

Bathroom humor aside, let me say that the food, atmosphere, service — and, according to my wife, anyway — the beers are all pretty great.

These Guys has a narrow storefront already enthusiastically decorated for Halloween. Inside is a long room with a beautiful bar on the left wall, tall-top tables on the right, and an expanded dining room toward the rear. Down a short set of steps is a dogleg and lovely adjunct atrium area with more seating close to the actual brewery.

The atmosphere is classic pub: plenty of exposed brick, bronze pressed tin and industrial pipes, plank floors and wooden beam supports. Mellow lighting is provided by three equally spaced chandeliers with spiky extensions and the glowing-filament Edison bulbs. Décor is rustic and features plenty of clever and beer-centric wall art.

Thirst AND hunger

Because These Guys IS a brewery around which all else orbits, let’s talk beer for a moment. There appears to be 16 working taps, most featuring rotating house products in addition to Guinness. I no longer drink alcohol anymore – but I took a sip from each of my wife Eileen’s pints.

She first tried the Take Me to Church Street ($7.50), an IPA that refreshed with more malt flavor than hops along with delicate flourishes of more than one citrus fruit. A keeper. The second was another IPA, Jaw Jackin' ($7.50), which seemed to our admittedly unrefined tongues as a more autumnal ale. E and I preferred Church Street, but both were certainly and pleasantly drinkable.

Speaking of drink-ness, These Guys also offers a fully stocked bar with plenty of designer cocktails, some of which are non-alcoholic, and all of which are designed to complement the food options.

In that spirit, These Guys focuses on beer-friendly possibilities across the range of appetizers, soups/salads and entrees, with plenty of sides and stunningly good house-crafted desserts.

On our first visit, a Saturday lunch trip, E and I chomped Chips & Pico ($10) with Queso ($5 extra) while we studied the menu. Other starters that caught our eyes were Buffalo Chicken Eggrolls ($15) and Goat Cheese Croquettes ($14). Our pick was anything but pedestrian. The tortilla chips were sturdy enough to support dollops of a thick, white-cheese sauce. Applied properly, we could then steer the chip through the fresh pico de gallo, which, while perhaps under-utilizing jalapeno, was bursting with hyper-fresh chopped tomatoes, cilantro and onion.

Beyond starters

Eileen followed with another appetizer for her main course: the Fall Favorite Flatbread ($17). The thin crust had a great chew and textural/taste variants from the baking process, which is to say there were areas of crunch char. More texture and taste came from a super-combo of toppings including cubes of al dente sweet potato, garlic, crisp red onion bites, roasted red pepper, feta and mozzarella cheeses drizzled with a balsamic glaze. The mozz held everything in place and the feta was generously heaped on top for a creamy bite, while the other elements worked together for an autumnal sensation. And the glaze was perfect.

I couldn’t resist the Crews Choice Burger ($20). The half-pound steakburger patty was formidable, tasty and, as properly rendered in medium-well fashion, was excellent. The “crew” dictated a thick slice of cheddar, tart dill pickles and a house bang sauce that wasn’t as bang-y as anticipated, but nonetheless served as a tangy component. I asked that the accompanying homemade fries come with Old Bay seasoning, and that worked, too.

Minimal brunch-ness

We were impressed so, when our waitress told us that These Guys offered a Sunday brunch, we thought, “Why not?” The next morning, then, we arrived, ready for All Things Brunch. And there WAS brunch — but not in the expansive way we perhaps naively anticipated. Basically, our waitress recited three brunch items: a breakfast sandwich, a breakfast burrito and a breakfast flatbread.

Hmm. No problem. Eileen was so happy with the previous day’s flatbread that she immediately ordered the Breakfast Flatbread ($17), which was topped with hash browns, eggs and cheddar. Bacon or sausage could be added, so, being the loving wife she is, E ordered extra crispy bacon on the side for me.

“This flatbread is a lovely idea,” Eileen observed, chewing thoughtfully. “But as a vegetarian in service to vegetarians, I'd suggest they add some kind of topper to make it more of a meal than a carby appetizer.”

I turned to the original menu for my meal because the other two brunch items didn’t sound interesting. What did sound interesting was Bourbon Filet Tips ($29). The steak nuggets were lovely and lightly glazed in soy sauce, easily forked and nestled in a heap of mashed sweet potatoes to encourage a taste overlap with each bite. The dish also comes with parmesan garlic Brussels sprouts — which I promptly gave to my wife as compensation for the crunchy and flavorful bacon.

Save room for a LOT of dessert

And do not let beer and/or a lot of food get in the way of dessert. The chef/baker/kitchen manager at These Guys is Kelly Mott, and we’d like to hire her away to regularly drop by our house with boxes of Cinnamon Buns ($8) and Bailey’s Cheesecake with an Oreo Crust. ($10). The latter used a half-inch tall, round Oreo crust as a tasty foundation for the generous serving of cheesecake — which was indeed as smooth as drinking a Bailey's. The whole thing contained creamy notes of whiskey, toffee, chocolate and vanilla.

And the bun! It just won the Nobel Prize in chemistry! How else to explain a presentation in which the buttery, light pastry, with its playful and not overbearing icing, provides a landscape where, with the piercing of a fork, causes a lave flow of thick cinnamon sauce to burble forth.

These Guys have turned a love of and talent for making great beer into a multi-faceted enterprise appealing to all the senses.