Tangent Kitchen and Brewpub
Foodie Review
by Robin Gray
September 2019
At the Tangent: Brown rice, red bell pepper, watercress, 7 blend slaw mix, celery, soy poached egg, w/ steak or chicken
There are several newer food and bar choices near the music venues of the Sylvee and Breese Stevens that are make for obvious choices to grab food and drink before or after a show. In closest proximity to the Sylvee is the Tangent Kitchen and Taproom. Tangent is locally owned by the same partners as the Vintage Brewing Company. As expected from a taproom and brew pub, they have a large bar. It is decorated with a beautiful brightly colored wall mural painted by a local tattoo artist. The atmosphere is spacious and pretty in the bar and the dining room. In addition to offering Vintage Brewing crafted beers they also serve numerous special Tangent brews and specialty house cocktails alongside guest brews and an ample wine menu. On a recent visit I sampled two of the Tangent Brew’s that were on tap. One was wittily called Go Man Go and was a Mango flavored India Pale Ale. I also enjoyed a brew called Smirk. The menu labeled it “hazy IPA thingy”. It had a sour note but was not too lip puckering.
Tangent offers and “express” lunch menu which consists of sandwich and a side, soup and salad, or a burger all priced at $10. The limited menu allows for a quick decision and an easy and in- and- out- the- door- for- your- lunch- hour friendliness. It includes many regular menu items. I ordered the TK burger which was a take a traditional mushroom and Swiss burger. Everything was ramped up a notch by smoking the mushrooms and roasting the red onions and garlic. The sweet potato chips on side were abundant and very crispy.
The Dinner menu is a bit more robust than the lunch one and includes appetizers, salads, sandwiches and entrees. There are some interesting appetizer choices. The ceviche was refreshing with no fish but corn and avocado. A heavier choice is the lobster and bacon nachos. My favorite app was the mezcal pepper poppers. The jalapenos were stuffed with mezcal laced cream cheese and bacon. The mezcal added a bit of a smoky note to these poppers but I did not detect any other flavor from it over the heat of the pepper. The caper parmesan salad reminded me of a dressed up and really tasty Caesar salad with roasted tomatoes and salty dried capers. The lobster mac and cheese substituted curly cavatappi noodles for the macaroni and is best ordered as a dish to share as a few bites was more than enough but worth the try. A table mate had the bone-on heritage breed pork chop and it was simply prepared but well- cooked and seasoned.
I learned that they have had a number of changes to the menu since opening around a year ago. Each time that I have been there I enjoyed friendly service, tasty beer and simple but flavorful food. In addition to the lunch and dinner menus. They also offer weekend brunch and some days of the week a happy hour food and drink menus. In addition to the spacious indoor space, they have a large outdoor seating area to enjoy for 3 seasons. You can check their website or Facebook page for special events. Coming this Sunday 9/8 at noon is the Sidewalk Chalk Art Festival.
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