The novelty of the setting can only carry your experience so far. The food itself was sad and frustrating - especially considering the price of some dishes.
As I looked over the menu, I noticed one consistency: most dishes sounded very ordinary or even boring except for one or two incongruous ingredients. It is as if they are trying to make everything different or special by adding an arbitrary distinction.
My dinner started with the Seven Onion soup. Arbitrary Distinction #1. Are onions really so varied in flavor once cooked in broth and cheese that using seven varieties will create a nuanced dish? Well, it was decent but no different than French Onion soup anywhere else, made with six fewer onions no doubt.
After the dinner menu failed to pique my appetite, I ordered the Turkey and Swiss sandwich from the pub menu. It arrived on pumpernickel slices, plain and untoasted like an elementary school lunch. This brown bagger of a sandwich consisted of dry turkey crumbles paired with greens and red onion but no moisture. The occasional taste of cranberry? Arbitrary distinction #2. I found myself painting it in ranch dressing and sucking down water just to be able to swallow without choking.
One table mate ordered the mussels dish. I noticed him rubbing the white sauce from the meat onto the garlic bread and I soon realized why. After biting into the bread with the sauce, I found myself being force to spit it into a napkin. The white sauce was so salty, bus loads of Jewish tourists could float on the surface of it. The bread was harshly peppered. They were inedible.
Another table mate's dish included a lemon aioli (#3) that was runny and astringent, as if flavored with Pledge Multisurface. Another had the southwesty wrap (I forget the name) and only ate the insides. The reason was a tortilla that was spicy enough to choke a person (#4). Want to dip your fries in my chipotle ketchup (#5)? I'll pass.
I'm glad that the service was attentive because my palate needed those four water refills. Some advice, Brew Works? Pick a dish one at a time and refine it. Make it delicious. Your food doesn't need novelty condiments and bizarre pairings to be unique and memorable. It just needs to be good.