Bar Food with a Modern Twist at Glass + Griddle

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The spacious Glass + Griddle is located in Venue 42 and shares a space with Milwaukee Brewery, an event space and the factory offices. Beautifully designed, the venue has an open glass roof allowing you to dine all year in natural light. The industrial look of steel is softened by the green wall, but it can still be quite loud on game night. There are two options for seating: You can choose to sit in the intimate restaurant area or the beer hall in the rear, which has a long bar with seating and communal tables with benches. Wherever you sit, you won’t miss any of the excitement of a game or news story from the plethora of TVs.

The beer list is lengthy, and some varieties are incorporated subtlety into a few of the dishes on the menu. Glass + Griddle also offers a nice selection of wine, cocktails and spirits.

What I love about Glass + Griddle’s menu is that it taps into bar food, but with a modern twist. It’s food that we all love to eat during a game and comfort food for a casual lunch or dinner. You can have oysters from the raw bar, served with cocktail, mignonette and fresh horseradish. The oyster menu sheet on the table helps even the novice oyster eater, not only by identifying origins but also giving descriptions. All three choices were fresh. We also happened to land there on Friday for their popular all-day fish fry. The choices of haddock ($15), lake perch ($16) and wild gulf shrimp ($16) all are done in Milwaukee Brewing Co. beer batter and served with coleslaw, hash browns and tartar sauce. We decided on the lake perch and were pleasantly surprised at the generous portion. The perch was cooked well, and the batter was not overwhelmed by the beer, but light and crispy. The coleslaw was not the creamy variety but more of a red cabbage vinegar slaw. It was the perfect accompaniment with the fried fish.

The Snacks + Shares menu has a little bit of everything, including some healthy and gluten-free options like the cauliflower and chickpeas ($10). New to the menu is a pizza dip ($11)—a big white crock of gooey smoked mozzarella, marinara sauce and ricotta cheese served with triangles of garlic bread—with optional pepperoni ($2). The chicken wings ($12) are Korean-style sticky wings in place of buffalo, but you can get a vegetarian option of buffalo sprouts ($11) with blue cheese and topped with a mound of crispy shoe string potatoes that any vegetarian will adore. Now, this Jersey girl transplant was intrigued by the disco fries ($13) because it is a “Jersey thing” that you can find at any good diner in the state. Glass + Griddle’s version included shredded Italian beef, melted mozzarella and giardiniera piled on top of hand-cut French fries. It was a portion enough for four to share. The giardiniera was so good with thin sliced, crunchy vegetables and just the right amount of tang to cut through the richness of the meat and cheese to balance out the fried potatoes buried beneath.

There are three salads on the menu. Either chicken ($4) or salmon ($6) can be added to any of them for a substantial meal. The Italian chopped had all the flavors of an antipasti, and even the simple salad was taken to the next level with its charred onion vinaigrette ($9-$12).

Burgers + Sandwiches range from a beef patty burger or the fancy half-pound burger with the addition of beer cheese, onions and sun-dried tomato ketchup. The lamb merguez with feta cheese and pickled veggies and a fried egg ($14) was worth the trip. The roasted Italian pork had enough meat for two sandwiches and a little bite from the broccoli rabe, peppers and sharp provolone on a delectable bun. They also offer a jerk chicken sandwich with pineapple relish, for those of you who want to hang on to summer just a little longer, or a vegetarian falafel sandwich ($10-$13).

There are several desserts on the menu. Don’t leave without trying the donut of the day ($6) Check out their brunch menu, events and specials on the website.