Brocach had transformed a ghostly site at the north end of Water Street’s Tannery Row into a warm, beating, old world Irish pub. Meanwhile, British-born Chris Tinker and David Price opened an authentic English tavern, Three Lions Pub, in Shorewood. Last winter, with partners JJ Kovacovich of Red Rock Saloon and Drew Deuster of McGillycuddy’s Bar and Grill, the lads reopened the grand, two-level, indoor-outdoor bar and restaurant that had housed Brocach, preserving all of its charms and introducing British pub food to the East Side. If memories of Britain stir you, or even if they don’t, the Red Lion Pub is a trip.
This restaurant boasts the city’s only soccer pool table. Rack the colored, numbered soccer balls, stand on the big outdoor pool table, call your pocket if you like and kick. Since love of sport, especially soccer, is part of the fabric of British pub life, the atmosphere here can depend on the timing. If, some Saturday morning, a match is broadcast internationally on the telly, Red Lion’s doors are open by 6:45 a.m., drinking is underway by 7 a.m. and the chef is fixing bangers and eggs and chip butty from an early morning Match Day Menu. At 9 a.m., the full, glorious brunch menu becomes available, as it does until 3 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday.
One quiet, sunny Sunday morning, we enjoyed a leisurely outdoor brunch on the large, well-tended patio with diners of all ages. We started with good coffee and a sweet pretzel from the appetizer list called “Things to Share.” The hot, thick, fluffy baked pretzel, lightly dusted with cinnamon and sugar, crisscrossed a large platter with bowls of sweet crème anglaise, delicious orange marmalade and chocolatey Nutella for dipping. So much and so delicious! Other “Things to Share” are house-made sugar doughnuts, Guinness-braised mushrooms on toast and Scotch eggs.
The Wimbledon Breakfast includes a fresh baked scone, eggs any style and fresh fruit. That Sunday’s warm, crumbly scone was chocolate chip, the scrambled eggs were perfectly prepared and the plentiful fruit was cantaloupe, honeydew and grapes. The rather more British Tannery Row Breakfast featured an authentic, fat, juicy banger; two eggs over easy, cooked with care; a good amount of tasty breakfast potatoes nicely fried with green pepper and onions; and whole wheat toast with jelly. The brunch menu also offers soups, salads and 13 additional meals including chip butty, poutine, pancakes, French toast and hashes. The Full English Breakfast includes sides of white pudding and baked beans beside sausages, bacon, eggs, grilled tomatoes, sautéed mushrooms and toast.
Dinner appetizers include Welsh rarebit, clam strips, mussels and a ploughman’s platter of British cheeses, Nueske’s smoked pork loin, brown bread and condiments. Fish and chips, bangers and mash, shepherd’s pie, cottage pie, chicken pot pie, Cornish pasty, salmon, pot roast and Indian veggie curry are among the classic entrées. Many sandwiches and burgers are offered including, as homage, the Brocach burger designed by the former occupants.
Fish and chips—large chunks of flakey cod battered on the spot and cooked just right—arrived with tasty homemade coleslaw and large potato slices fried with care. Salmon had a pleasant mustard-and-rye topping and came with potatoes roasted in bacon and parsley, cooked peas and carrots. Sweet pretzel reappears as a dessert on the dinner menu where it competes with the unbelievably delicious sticky toffee pudding, a big snowball of vanilla ice cream on a hot, chewy nest of date-filled sponge cake and toffee syrup topped with crème anglaise. Each is worth its own visit.
Red Lion Pub on Tannery Row
1850 N. Water St.
414-431-9009
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Handicap access: Yes
