LATEST NEWSRECENT REVIEWSRECENT COMMENTSLATEST POSTSOTHER STUFF
Last Update: Nov 22nd, 2016
Brickyard

Brick Yard Microbrewery

7050 W Palmetto Park Rd
Boca Raton FL, 33433
(561) 391-6601
Overall Rating
2.3
Food
Service
Ambiance
Last Review
01/14/2012

Details

Hours: Sun-Thu 4pm-11pm,Fri/Sat 4pm-2am
Attire: Casual
Parking: Private Lot
CC: Yes
Alcohol: Full Bar
Prices: Moderate
Outside Dining: No
Reservations: Yes
Delivery: No

Critic's Review

When I think of sports bars, I don't usually think of Boca Raton. So when I saw the sign for this place a few months ago I didn't think that a "microbrewery" would be a good place to watch sports.

When I walked up to the place, I was surprised to see the outside bar packed and nobody at the inside bar; particularly because it was under 60 degrees. There was one chair open at the bar; I started to sit down and a woman turned and snapped at me, "I'm saving that for someone". Ah, Boca.

The Saints/49ers playoff game was in full bloom, and there were plenty of TVs inside, so I sat at the empty bar and asked the bartender why everyone was sitting outside considering it was a bit nippy. "I guess they like to smoke".

Brickyard bar

She handed me menus for food and beer (they have a full, 2 sided menu with their beer selections). I asked about happy hour, and they indeed have half price beer until 7pm. Except for the Belgians. Another silly policy, could they give maybe $2 off the Belgians if they don't want to do half price?

I decided on a Young's Double Chocolate Stout, a new favorite, and I ordered buffalo wings, medium. The menu says 14 wings for $8.49, which seemed like a lot of wings. I figured that they were going to be pretty small.

While I was waiting I had a lot of time to look around and talk to people; nobody seems to know much about the place, including the employees. They just sort of opened with no marketing, no website, no facebook page. I asked for the password to their wireless; nobody knew if there was a password or if it was their router. The place is very big, with an indoor/outdoor bar, a big patio and a big bar in the rear. Big Toshiba TVs are all over. The tables are far apart; it almost seemed like the place was too big for the amount of tables they have.

Brickyard inside

When a dude brought out the wings, I was pleased with the portions.

Brick Yard Micro Brewery Chicken Wings

Big wings with a big tub of blue cheese; it really bugs me when places give you big wings and a little thimble of blue cheese (are you LISTENING Duffy's?). So on the surface everything seemed great (the little celery sticks notwithstanding); except that the wings were awful. Not the wings themselves; they were just cooked; no noticeable flavoring cooked in. But the "hot sauce" wasn't actually hot sauce. It was more like a sweet BBQ sauce; like they just globbed it on with a brush right out of a bottle. It was too sweet, not hot and just nothing I could ever recommend ordering.

The service here is questionable; they have a bunch of people milling behind the bar, only a few of whom are actually able to pour you a drink or take your order. But they don't tell you which are which, and they're all dressed the same. "Why won't you serve me dude?" "I'm not a bartender"...They also don't know anything about food or anything else; a woman asked if they had chicken soup, and the bartender recommended the conch chowder. Say what? Yeah, that's pretty close. The fact that they didn't tell me about happy hour is a negative as well.

I asked the bartender if this was a chain, and she said that it was, but that they were on the west coast and this was their first Florida location. The truth is that this place is owned by the same people who owned the Porterhouse "Clubs"; and who now run Bourbon on Second and this place at the old Porterhouse locations. So either the bartender was lying or the people that work here have no idea who they work for.

Given the ownership, I have little expectation that the food in this place will get any better. People who run incompetent restaurants for a decade aren't likely to learn much all of a sudden. Despite that, the concept is good; it's sort of like a Yard House with all of the taps and TVs. The question is, once the Yard House opens in Mizner next spring, will all of the people who come here simply go there instead, considering that it's the same kind of place with much better food?

Comment Policy Add Comment
Ed West
Reply
They are not the original owners, so they don’t care!!
Jan Jansz
Reply
This review is pretty outdated. I have been going there since about the time this review was written. It's 2016 as I write this.

The last straw was when I asked for a game on TV. There were only 12 or so people, one TV that was broken, and it was a playoff game (important). The manager blew me off. I couldn't believe it.

Do you know how much money I've spent there over the years? In 208+ weeks?

They don't treat their regulars well, they don't treat new customers well. If they could hold you upside down and shake the money out of you, they would. And that's about how it feels to go to Brickyard.

Next: Cannoli Kitchen