Company Brewing

A hip bar & restaurant in Milwaukee's Riverwest 

Looking to try something new before seeing a show downtown, Adam and I ventured into Company Brewing in River West. The place serves house-made beers on tap and a Puerto Rican-inspired dinner menu of appetizers, entrees, sides, and boards of cheese and charcuterie.

We started with Tostones — fried plantains. They were maybe a little too crispy, but our lovely waitress brought us some extra garlic vinaigrette for dipping. The vinaigrette helped a lot — we wolfed down those plantains! — though I think they could use some sort of aioli to really make them sing. Adam also insisted we try the fried pig's ear. The name alone turned me off. Call it pork, call it bacon, just don't call it something I can vividly picture on the animal. But in the spirit of being a good sport, I tried one and it was tasty. 

For dinner, Adam and I both ordered sandwiches. I went for the Artichoke Melt: Sartori fontina cheese, roasted cherry tomatoes, and arugula pressed between toasty ciabatta bread. It was melty and delicious and I would definitely order it again. It's a little oily, so don't be fooled into thinking this is some super-healthy veggie melt — but boy was it yummy. The fries on the side were good. Nothing to write home about, but good. For a place that seems to pride itself on foodie flavors, I wish the fries were served with something other than ketchup — that would take them to the next level.

Adam ordered the Jibarito: grilled steak, lettuce, tomato, and aioli sandwiched between two grilled plantains. Yep, the plantains act as the bread — something that isn't clear from the menu, so you might want to ask for a full description of certain items before ordering them. Luckily for Adam, he loved it and joined the clean plate club. 

Company Brewing, as the name implies, also brews their own beer. It sounds like the tap list changes with relative frequency — or maybe they just happened to release a new saison beer (which we both ordered) the night we dined there. Adam, the resident beer snob (I mean that in the best way), didn't much care for it. I thought it tasted fine, but I'm not big into beer. Oh it's hoppy? Don't care. Point is, Adam would say to skip the saison — I say, you do you.

So while our meal was a rather mixed bag of tricks, there's definitely enough greatness at Company Brewing to make me want to go back for more. Those sandwiches were killer, and the atmosphere is that blend of industrial-homey with lots of wood, metal, and rustic lighting juxtaposed with rows of hanging greenery and bright picture windows. Company Brewing also serves weekend brunch, which I'm especially keen to try. If you've been there for brunch, let me know what you thought!