Balter Beerworks – Brunch

Recently we joined our friends Norm and Linda for brunch and a short brewery tour here in the Knoxville area… They are ‘into’ craft beer and local breweries.  Laurie and yours truly haven’t visited very many of these establishments so we were looking forward to this new experience

The ideal place to start a Sunday tour of brew pubs was of course, a brewery that also serves brunch.  This is the Balter Beerworks on South Broadway near downtown Knoxville Tennessee.  This attractive building is a converted and rehabilitated service station.  Balter Beerworks has been open since 2016.  They serve brunch on both Saturday and Sunday.

FYI, the word “balter” comes from the Middle English ‘balteren’.  As per the Urban Dictionary, balter is a verb meaning “to dance artlessly, without particular grace or skill…but usually with enjoyment”.

The dining/drinking area is quite upscale for a brew pub…at least that was my conclusion after touring 3 more such establishments following brunch.  It’s the industrial look for sure but the lighting, panels and windows soften the overall impression…

Balter Beerworks opens at 10 am on Sundays and we arrived around 10:30 am.  As you can see, the place was already very busy!

There was a salad/snack bar open for all to partake as desired.  I helped myself to a bit of tasty coleslaw and some fresh fruit.   

However the real winners at the snack bar were the brownies, cookies and little muffins.  I had 2 of the little muffins and they were pretty good.  The oatmeal raisin cookies I had before we finished brunch were excellent.

Here are a couple of our little foursome’s pre-brunch snack/salad plates.  It was all fresh and it’s certainly a good way to impress your customers…

More than one of these cocktails graced our table.  This is a brunch house specialty, the Baltering Mary. ($4.00) These drinks are made with 360 vodka, Zing Zang (a bloody Mary mix), coffee oatmeal porter, and chili pepper with a salt rim and house garnish.  Laurie gave this drink two thumbs up!  Although this is a brewery, none of us actually ordered beer…after all, it was Sunday morning!  Thinking about the brew pubs to come, I stuck with coffee to start my day. ($2.85)

I convinced Norm and Linda that I ‘needed’ their photo for my post on Balter Beerworks.  Norm went for the Baltering Mary but Linda opted for Mimosas. ($1.00 each or $7.00 for a carafe)

The brunch menu at Balter Beerworks is quite imaginative with a wide range of choices.  These include items such as Avocado Toast, Chicken and Waffles, Fish Tacos, Salmon Salad plus Shrimp and Grits.

Norm decided to have the Fried Green Tomato Benedict for his brunch entrée. ($13.95) It consisted of a buttermilk biscuit, fried green tomato, pimento cheese, poached eggs, hollandaise sauce, smoked paprika and parsley sided with breakfast potatoes.  He enjoyed his breakfast…

On the negative side, the kitchen was either slow or our orders got lost for a while.  Others around us who ordered after we did got their food but it took a long time before we got ours… Fortunately, we weren’t in a big hurry.

Linda ordered the Breakfast Tacos for her brunch. ($12.95) The tacos were made with scrambled eggs, sausage, charred salsa, pico de gallo and crema and they were sided with Balter Beerhouse’s breakfast potatoes which include onions and bell peppers.  Another happy diner…

Is it just us…or are we too fussy?  Laurie ordered the Southern Benedict. ($13.95) Her breakfast/brunch was constructed with a buttermilk biscuit, ham, poached eggs, hollandaise sauce and smoked paprika.  She had the waitress leave the onions and green peppers out of her breakfast potatoes.

Laurie didn’t care for the potatoes.  We both prefers hash brown potatoes.  That wasn’t the problem though as she knew about the potatoes when she ordered.  The big issue was that the poached eggs were cooked all the way through…no runny yolks as is the norm.  Also, her food was lukewarm at best.  Kudos to our waitress as she took Laurie’s entrée off our check…

OK…my turn.  I love good sausage gravy so I ‘had’ to order the Biscuits and Gravy Breakfast. ($14.95) It consisted of 2 buttermilk biscuits, house made sausage gravy and eggs sided with my ‘onion and green pepper free’ breakfast potatoes.

My plate of food had eye appeal.  It was my mistake not to ask for my eggs easy-0ver but I just didn’t think about it.  Easy-over eggs with their runny yolks would have enhanced my brunch experience.  I’m not big on scrambled eggs in general but they’re OK.  I did like those breakfast potatoes and our waitress did provide Tabasco.

 

First of all, my food was none too warm.  The biscuits were pretty average.  My big issue though was, to paraphrase Clara Peller from the 1984 Wendy’s commercials, “Where’s the sausage!?”  I certainly couldn’t taste any sausage although I could see a bit of it in the gravy.  In addition, that may look like a lot of gravy, but in reality, there was only enough for me to use with the top halves of my biscuits.

On the positive side, Laurie and I now had enough sustenance to move forward with our exploration of some Knoxville brew pubs!

Maybe we’re just too fussy… Balter Beerworks is obviously a popular place as is their Sunday Brunch.  Give a try and see what you think.  Balter Beerworks is located at 100 South Broadway Street in Knoxville Tennessee. Phone: 865-999-5015.  Website: https://www.balterbeerworks.com/#home-section.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave