On Saturday night, Susan and I went to SBC Restaurant & Brewery for dinner. I had heard a while back that Branford got a brewpub. It turns out that this is it. SBC stands for Southport Brewing Co. The original is a brewpub in Southport, CT (a second of Bridgeport next to Westport, I think or maybe it’s the other way around). I had gone there for dinner once several years ago, though I don’t remember getting beer (the person I would have gone with wasn’t old enough to drink).
The restaurant is pretty sparsely furnished and doesn’t really seem to have any kind of vibe to it. The outside looks pretty bland, like any chain restaurant and the inside doesn’t have a lot going on. It lacks “personality”. I had wanted to try it for the beer (being a brewpub in my hometown) and we wanted to check it out for Susan’s bachelorette party.
They have a beer menu on the table that divides their beer into 3 tiers. The first is lighter stuff, designed for people who drink stuff like Bud or Bud Light (or any similar macro). The second gets a bit darker and less accessible and includes their IPA, a Brown Ale, a Pilsner, and an Irish Red. The third tier is darker beers - a stout, a porter, and an English Pale Ale (which I would probably swap with the IPA for which tier they belong to). They had a total of about 10 of their own beers on tap. I have this thing about always trying a brewpub’s IPA, and I wanted to try their stout. I ordered the stout first. It reminded me of Beamish. It wasn’t all that full bodied, not on a nitro tap that I could tell, but had a nice roasted flavor to it. It wasn’t anything spectacular, but it wasn’t bad either. I had the IPA second. This was disappointing. It was malty, but also hoppy. It lacked any real character. I’ve had American Pale Ales that have more hops than this, but it wasn’t an English IPA either. It just didn’t know what it was trying to be.
So the beer was a little disappointing, but for those unadventurous types, they also had several commercial beers on tap as well (I have no idea if they also had bottled beer or not, but there were a couple guys drinking beer from bottles outside when we left, I think it was Bud Light). This was very different to me from a brewpub. Most brewpubs only serve their own beer. Part of me also wonders if the beer is actually brewed here or if it’s brewed in Southport and shipped to their other restaurants. They had tanks in random places with hoses hanging off of them, but one of them was just behind this low, knee high wall near the entrance and the others were on a platform above the bar. It didn’t seem like good places for the tanks. So I’m curious about that.
The food wasn’t spectacular. I ordered the BBQ ribs. They were cooked well, but the sauce lacked any “zing”. It was supposedly made with their IPA, which to me would make it a little spicy, but it was sweet and kind of bland. The coleslaw and mashed potatoes that came with it were good though. Susan got the trout special and she liked it. The risotto that came with it was really good and the vegetables were cooked perfectly (usually mixed veggies come out mushy). I didn’t try her fish at all. They also gave us bread and butter to start, which was good.
All in all, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything special either. I’d go back because it is a brewpub in my hometown and I’ll have to try their other beers and just get a burger to see how that is.
Branford does have a history of brewing. Back when I was younger, I think it was when I was in high school, a couple wanted to open a brewpub in the center of Branford. They had a company called Indian Neck Brewing (New York Times article) and made beer at home (I imagine they were just homebrewers who wanted to start a brewpub). Now, if you don’t know the town at all, Branford is a suburb of New Haven and it’s quite suburban. The center of town is actually a nice little urban village and a truly 100% walkable neighborhood where you can walk to get all the necessities (something Providence really lacks). It’s currently filled with small cute shops and a couple restaurants. This brewpub would have been a perfect fit and probably would have made a killing there. It could have possibly transformed the town center into a pretty happening place after hours. Instead, a restaurant and building owner in the center of town sued because he feared that his tenants wouldn’t find parking and would leave (me thinks he feared the competition, as the store owners were hoping this would happen). Branford Center at night is pretty dead. There’s a few kids hanging out on the town green and some people going to Ben and Jerry’s for ice cream, but that’s it, except when there’s a concert on the green or during the Branford Festival weekend (held annually on Father’s Day weekend). I would still like to see Indian Neck Brewing come to fruition, but I have a feeling they’ve abandoned their plans (considering it was 12 years ago).
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