George Street Ale House

378 George Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
www.gsalehouse.com

I received a promo coupon in the mail announcing the grand opening of the George Street Ale House, so when a friend and I decided to meet for dinner and drinks, it was a natural choice.

In speaking with our very friendly bartenders, we learned that the restaurant had recently changed names/style, going from a sports bar to a more upscale atmosphere.  The many tvs, however, remained.  This is great when you're sitting at the bar, and the rest of the place is really nice, almost swanky.  The bar and a small dining area are on the street level, and there is more seating downstairs.  At the bar, you'll find potato chips, which weren't as addictive as bar snacks typically are for me; I didn't have any trouble not mindlessly snacking on them.

The food is pretty tasty, though the prices seemed to be on the high side.  We both went with sandwiches, which were around $10 each.  Entrees were closer to $20 each.  The sandwiches were good, but there weren't any surprises on the menu, with the exception of the enormous "Oozenburger," 2- 8oz burgers topped with a fried egg, bacon, gouda, among other things.  My waistline is expanding just to think of it.  We also shared a crab cake appetizer, which was quite delicious.

Now, the reason we chose the ale house over all the area's other spots:  the beer.  We chose to stick with drafts over bottles, and were told the one beer they always have is PBR.  That's right, Pabst Blue Ribbon.  We decided to skip the Pabst, but to hit all the other drafts on the list.  One thing that's cool is that the beers do change as stock runs out, so you're getting a changing menu and fresh beer.  In fact, in our time there, the menu did change, and a new beer was added.  The thing was that there didn't seem to be a beer that I really enjoyed on the menu.  I'm certainly no beer connoisseur, but the drafts they had weren't to my taste.  There were a few that were ok, and I certainly didn't not finish any of my pints, but nothing that makes me want to recommend the George Street Ale House as THE place in the George Street area to go for beer.

Our servers were awesome; they chatted us up, offered suggestions for beers, and were very welcoming.

So, the short of it is, if you've been through the beers over at the Harvest Moon and are looking for something different, certainly check out GSAH, but don't expect to be blown away by the restaurant or its beers.