Seeking the Key To Beer Happiness At Good City Brewing

2108 N. Farwell Avenue

Milwaukee, WI 53202

M: Closed

Tuesday-Wenesday: 4pm – 12am

Thurday-Saturday: 11:30am – 12am

Sunday: 11:30am – 10pm

(414)539-4343

$4 – $26

Good City Brewing opened this summer on Farwell Avenue on Milwaukee’s East Side. The brewery is situated next to other recent (but breakfast-focused) restaurant, Simple Café. Andy Jones, former longtime Lakefront Brewery employee is the brewmaster at Good City. His partners are David Dupree with CraftFund and real estate Dan Katt.

Good City’s kitchen has been sorted out by Chef Guy Davies, the original chef at Trocadero. Davieshas also worked at Rumpus Room and Joey Gerard’s in the recent past.

I took my girlfriend to Good City Brewing last Monday night. I was pleasantly surprised that parking on Farwell was ample, and perhaps customers park in the Simple Café lot after they close at 3:00pm. As we approached the building a half dozen tables were on the front sidewalk in front of the red brick structure, always a little unique for Milwaukee. The building looks like it was at one point an industrial structure for heavy machinery, with a sprawling single floor structure and high ceilings. Inside the perimeter walls are the familiar and warm cream city brick.

Upon walking inside the building and dining room/taproom is all the same room; the brewery only separated by waist-high gates. Brewery tanks are in full view just behind the bar, which delightfully, and intentionally, features no chattering television. Good City staff seem used to people exploring the space, and not in a rush to engage people until they appear ready. The vibe is relaxed and if the staff was jittery upon opening, any trace of that is gone.

We sat at the bar, as opposed to a table, and the bartenders work together to serve bar patrons. This is great because guests feel comfortable ordering from any person behind the bar, as opposed to waiting for one bartender in particular.

During a first look at the beer list, six of the nine beers have Pale somewhere in the name, so you know you’re in for a hoppy and lightly colored beer selection, as opposed to malty or murky Belgians, for example. This is not surprising as the brewing industry has been moving in the hop direction for some time.

Indeed, the beers are hop forward, and I tend to be a fan of beers that have a healthy malt character. But I still found many of Good City’s beers enjoyable. More about the beer later, first let’s eat!

We started off with the baby Portobello mushrooms, which are sautéed in garlic butter with a nice mix of pepper spice. They were fantastically succulent and served with sliced baguette from Ace Bakery from Chicago.

Next we had the scallops & guanciale (gwan-chah-lay), which is cured pig’s cheek provided by LaQuercia Cured Meats in rural Iowa. My girlfriend initially made faces at eating a pig’s cheek, but not for long. Cheek meat is some of the most tender bits you will find on any animal. The thinly-sliced, salty and delicate pork plays nicely off of the meatier and substantial scallops underneath, which are treated to a miso dressing.

As for highlights from beer we first went with the Good City Pils pilsner, which was a simple easydrinking beer (as Pilsners tend to be) with a slightly sweet aftertaste. The Motto Mosaic Pale Ale is so brightly flavored it should come with sunglasses. This one features fruity grapefruit flavors up front and hops on the back. The Detail Porter was a little fizzy for a porter, but it was also not on a nitro line, which I’m pretty accustomed to with porters. I didn’t care much for the Dapper British Session Ale, it struck me as having a bit of a yeasty flavor, however it was my girlfriend’s favorite.

The Bonza is a Southern Hemisphere Ale IPA, a variety specific to Chef Guy Davies’ homeland of Australia. This is a really interesting beer, it is full-bodied and the flavor and mouth feel defy its light color. This beer was the highlight for me, the complex one I want to keep drinking to try and figure out.

I would like to see more variety develop from Good City Brewing, perhaps some more malt-oriented beers. But they’ve got the major keys in place. The food, ambience, the beer production are alldialed in. I’m not a believer that every place should be everything for everybody. Seeing as how I’m not a huge fan of hop-heavy beers, perhaps Good City, whose Brewmaster Andy Jones does a great job of making hop-forward ales and lagers, is not my be-all, end all brewery. But they do what do what they do very well, and there is plenty good to seek at Good City Brewing. Additionally, maybe we’ve become so spoiled by having so many options for beer close by, that nine choices seems expected. That is indeed a good city.

Good City Brewing scores five out of six beers in my six pack.