Fitger’s Brewhouse – Duluth, MN

Despite the fact that I don’t like the taste of beer, I’ve never had any issues eating food at brew-pubs. Fitger’s was no different. The brewing of all their microbrews takes place in the basement of this large building which houses shops, restaurants, a night club, and a hotel. The brewhouse makes its beer for the restaurants upstairs and also sells growlers to beer lovers who stop in. D.Rough and I tried to eat here a few months ago when ManJar, D.Rough, and I were in town for a roller derby event. The place does REALLY good business, so we were told it could be an hour and a half to two hours before we got a table. That means it’s good, right? We didn’t stick around that time, but said we’d come back and eat when the wait wasn’t as long.

When we got there this time, we were told 40-45 minutes wait time, which was much more acceptable, especially since you can walk around the shops in the building and check things out in the brewhouse while killing time. … Which we did. We got seated in just under 40 minutes and opted for a table outside since it was a stellar night.

I still had to drive home, so I couldn’t order a handful of scotch and girly drinks, so I went with a cider. Nice and light and seemed appropriate for a crisp fall evening after watching colorful leaves in nature. D.Rough amazed me by ordering a homemade rootbeer from the brewhouse. And when they arrived, I was really jealous of her’s. The rootbeer was delicious.

I was in the mood for a burger, but sadly I’ve been burned out on burgers lately and wanted to give something interesting a shot tonight. I opted for the Artichoke Chicken Sandwich. Why, you ask? Because it’s soooooo close to a choke-the-chicken joke that I couldn’t pass it up. D.Rough got the Philly Steak Sandwich to relive her roller derby tournament days in Philly this summer. She got regular fries with hers and I got the sweet potato fries. We waited around and watched dbags walk past in the leaves. Fun times.

The food showed up a short while later and looked pretty good. The Philly was on a wild rice roll (rice cooked into the bread) with lots of Monterey jack cheese melted all over the meat, onions, mushrooms, and peppers. D.Rough said it was really good, just oniony, even for her. I had a couple bites (without onions) and was really impressed with the quality of meat and flavor. This was a pretty good sandwich. The regular fries were just kind of ok, though. I ate all of the ones that D.Rough didn't, but I still ate way more of the sweet potato fries.

My Artichoke Chicken Sandwich was also good. It’s a grilled chicken breast covered with artichoke dip, lettuce and tomato. The sandwich was a little sloppy, but it ended up being tasty. The chicken was good and the artichoke dip was a much better dip than you’d buy at the grocery store for veggies. My sweet potato fries absolutely killed her regular fries. They were delicious and I think I probably ate more than I was supposed to, since we were sharing. I couldn’t stop eating them though.

The meal wasn’t terribly expensive, even with drinks, and we got out of there at a reasonable hour without being stuffed to the gills or sleepy. Fitger’s Brewhouse is a good restaurant. I don’t think I’d make the trip to Duluth to eat there or anything, but I’d eat there again if we were in that neck of the woods.

Top 5 things about Fitger’s Brewhouse
1. Artichoke Chicken Sandwich
2. Homemade rootbeer
3. Nearby shops to browse while waiting
4. Philly Steak Sandwich
5. Really expansive menu with lots of options

Bottom 5 things
1. Long wait time
2. Regular fries just tasted… uhhh… regular compared to the sweet potato fries
3. The Duluth bar scene appears to be full of dbags after a certain point in the evening
4. Philly sandwich could have utilized fewer onions
5. Trampled By Turtles wasn’t playing that evening – maybe next time

www.brewhouse.net/2005/site/