San Diego Spotlight : Bring a Hearty Appetite and Thirst to Brewski’s

Bars sell bar food, Brewski’s serves beer food.

The two genres amount to pretty much the same thing, although this new Gaslamp Quarter microbrewery offers a great deal more than usual in the way of comestibles--from tolerable to commendable--along with some tasty house brews that remind us that beer, when made with care in small batches, can have personality traits as identifiable as those found in good wines.

“Brewski,” of course, is the term employed by high school and college students (and many of their elders) to denote what the rest of us call beer; the coinage certainly has great currency in the Midwest. To appropriate the name for use by a pub may seem obvious, but it hasn’t been done locally until now, which could mean the Moore and Silber families that operate Brewski’s deserve some credit for cleverness. They unquestionably know how to follow a theme to its logical conclusion, and if Brewski’s cannot be viewed as an entrepot of cosmopolitan sophistication, it definitely fits the bill as a fun hangout for the young and the youthfully inclined.

Like the other downtown microbrewery, Columbia Brewery & Grill, Brewski’s employs the glistening vats that occupy one side of the dining room to selectively prepare batches of the eight house brews. Just three typically are available on any given occasion, drawn from a list of fancifully named choices that includes Star of India Lager, Stingray Stout, Pioneer Porter, Whale’s Tail Pale Ale, Aztec Amber and Red Sails Ale. The local references obviously are intentional, but much more important, these are flavorful, rich, full-bodied beverages that actually have a “chew” to them. Those who have been driven to imported brews or to abstention by America’s major commercial beers should be heartened to discover that it is still possible to brew good beer and ale in this country. Wine drinkers will find the list brief, but suitable to the menu.

The mood borrows from similar establishments at the beach and in Mission Valley, smoothed somewhat by the Gaslamp location. This particular block, just north of the San Diego Convention Center and shared by Sfuzzi and Dick’s Last Resort, is more than hot right now; the transition from a rundown periphery of downtown to a sizzling location is exemplified by the valet parkers that wait in front of Brewski’s and other eateries on this stretch of lower 5th Avenue. The fee, by the way, is $4 plus tip, but you can cruise the area searching for your own free spot if you wish, and the pickings aren’t bad on week nights. Just enough ivy hangs in the windows of this pleasantly restored warehouse to suggest the prototypical California fern bar; the servers take their cues from San Diego tradition and are delightful, if not exactly gifted, in their profession, and the live music reassuringly tends to contemporary crooning rather than rock.

The archetypal bar foods used to be pretzels, peanuts and other salty items that encouraged continued thirst. The introduction of such items as “Buffalo wings” (highly seasoned chicken wings meant to be dipped in blue cheese dressing, believe it or not) marked a great advance. Brewski’s extensive appetizer list mentions those not so finely feathered wings, to be sure, along with Thai-style wings (marinated in a spiced honey-soy sauce-pineapple mixture), the inevitable nachos and several house creations that are long on goo and presumably appeal to at least some under-30 types as accompaniments to the house ales, lagers and porters. In this latter category would be the “hot Italian pizza dip,” an unctuous melange of Italian sausage, melted cheeses and tomatoes, served with chips, and the “loaded spuds McBrewski,” or french fries (rather pedestrian ones, at that) buried under melted cheese, chili and barbecue sauce.

Sausage undeniably mates with beer, and it appears frequently on this menu. The sampler plate, suggested as a starter, could double as an entree, and includes bratwurst, Italian sausage and New Orleans-style spiced andouille, all steamed in ale, then grilled and piled over hot cabbage slaw. It’s good, and can be shared by three or four. The beer-battered onion rings, if imperial in size and served in vast quantity, are standard, and less appealing than the tangled “strings” served elsewhere; the barbecue-sauce dip, an idea borrowed from Tony Roma’s, adds character. Deep-fried ravioli (a St. Louis bar favorite) can be said to be both filling and sufficiently hearty in flavor to stand up to Brewski’s brews.

This menu covers a lot of ground and tends to the simple but substantial. Salads are meant as entrees and range from marinated chicken breast over greens, vegetables, raisins and walnuts to the house Caesar and an Oriental-style chicken salad with fried won ton skins, Mandarin orange segments and coconut. Chili is served on its own or in a hollowed loaf of sourdough.

The brief formal entree list offers teriyaki salmon, sesame-seasoned chicken breast and a surprisingly good pepper steak that is all the better at $13.95. There are pastas (broiled shrimp over linguine, chicken with vegetables over creamed fettuccine, spaghetti with mixed sausages in marinara sauce) and “supper pies,” as in shepherd’s and chicken pot pies. The latter, an oval casserole of vegetable-laden, salty, heavily thyme-flavored gravy baked under a medium-tough crust, notably lacked chicken.

Sandwiches are noted with complete accuracy as “humongous,” and the choice is impressive; besides various burgers there are Reuben, sausage and chicken breast sandwiches, as well as a “Veggie Delight” that piles the innocents, along with sinister sprouts, on squaw bread. The tuna sandwich, attempted as an indicator of overall quality, was enormous but unimpressive.

The feed-’em-’til-they-drop approach concludes with the desserts, colossal pastries based on hearty American themes that range from lemonade pie (a lemon custard) to the “Brownie Massacre” (drowned in vanilla ice cream, hot fudge and whipped cream) and the truly astonishing “Death by Chocolate,” or five layers of chocolate cake spread with fudge icing, and announced as sufficient for three adults or 27 small children. There certainly was plenty of it at a recent tasting; unfortunately, all of it was dry.

BREWSKI’S

Fifth Avenue at K Street, San Diego 231-7700

Lunch and dinner daily Sandwiches and entrees cost $4.95 to $14.95; dinner for two, including a glass of beer each, tax and tip, about $20 to $50 Credit cards accepted