AMSTERDAM BREWHOUSE (245 Queens Quay West, at Lower Simcoe, 416-504-1020, amsterdambrewhouse.com, @AmsterdamBH) Complete dinners for $45 per person (lunches $35), including tax, tip and a house-brewed beer. Average main $18. Open Sunday to Tuesday 11 am to midnight, Wednesday and Thursday 11 am to 1 am, Friday and Saturday 11 am to 2 am. Closed some holidays. Reservations accepted. Licensed. Access: barrier-free. Rating: NNN
Having first launched at King and Portland in 1988 – at the time, the middle of nowhere – then moved to a now-demolished warehouse at the foot of Bathurst 17 years later, the Amsterdam Brewery has finally found a permanent home at Harbourfront.
With its 350-seat wraparound patio complete with Muskoka chairs right on the lake and another 500 inside, the new Brewhouse’s been packed since it opened last month. Some may remember the cavernous space as Pier 4 or before that Wally Magoo’s Marine Bar, two nautically themed tourist traps aimed squarely at Americans with large wallets and low expectations. But the Brewhouse is a resto that those of us who live here can appreciate.
That’s mostly the doing of executive chef Avaughn Wells who, according to the Amsterdam’s website, spent the last 21 years at “some of the best restaurants in North America,” the last three as chef de cuisine at the nearby Real Sports Bar and Grill. He’s also had a number of corporate gigs stateside. Obviously, Wells can cook for a crowd.
He sends out thin-crusted and San Marzano tomato-sauced pizzas dressed with house-made beerwurst sausage, roasted garlic and a forest’s worth of mushrooms, the lot drizzled with a sweet syrupy reduction made from the ‘house’s own Tempest Imperial stout ($18). And what better way to improve a salad of slivered raw beets, shredded asparagus and way too much “dinosaur” kale tossed with sun-dried cherries, Japanese goji berries and no-doubt Romanian romaine in black garlic vinaigrette ($14) than with 6 extremely rare ounces of Wellington County sirloin ($8)?
He breads boneless chicken breasts with the spent grain leftover from the brewing process, then plates them crisply seared like schnitzel alongside steamed rapini and fried fingerling spuds ($18). Shame the kettle chips that come with our on-trend lobster rolls ($17.50) are alternately soggy, perfect or hard as rocks, something a mayo laced with sliced white truffles can’t disguise. Perfunctory fish tacos ($13 for three) are either under-stuffed or overpriced.
And don’t get us started on the relentlessly loud mix of Justin and J.Lo they pump through the joint.
Most don’t seem to notice as they tuck into their Smokehouse burgers ($15 with fries), a hefty 8 ounces of house-ground brisket layered with bacon, cheddar and beer-battered onion rings drizzled with wort, wortever that might be. Opt for the $2 surcharge for sweet potato fries if you like them sea-salted and the size of fat shoelaces.
Ordering the Amsterdam’s root beer float ($8), we imagine some great confection piled high with whipped cream and maraschino cherries. Instead, we get a glass of vanilla-bean ice cream splashed with soda and more of that sugary stout syrup, the three impossibly delish deep-fried Oreo cookies on the side the very definition of heaven. Not that we’re complaining, but why the huge portions otherwise?
“It must be the American in me!” laughs Wells.
stevend@nowtoronto.com | @stevendaveynow
