The search is over! We LOVE Somerville, NJ! It has everything we have been looking for to fill the Astoria size hole in our hearts.
It has a cute little town with lots of shops and restaurants. The houses are pretty affordable and have lots of charm and character. There are breweries; one in the town and others near by!
It’s also close to both of our families! Only an hour from mine and 30 minutes from Tom’s. It’s perfect!
While exploring Somerville we stopped in Village Brewing Company for lunch… twice! Update: it has now been 3 times because when we have other people with us we don’t know what else to suggest because we’ve only tried one other place so far. Not to worry though because we will be trying to many other places in the future and blogging all about it!
Village Brewing Company is a really large brew pub in the heart of town serving up home made beer and lots of different types of eats. Our first time visiting was for our friend’s birthday. We ordered the Roasted Garlic & Lemon Hummus and the Tuna Poke, Taro Chips, Chili Soy, Furikake, Wasabi Aioli.
Both were very tasty and great for sharing. They were perfect for a late afternoon snack. I loved the lemoniness of the hummus and it came with purple bell peppers, carrots, radishes, and celery. Bonus points for all the colors!
I wouldn’t truly call this tuna poke it was more of a tartar, but what’s not to love about tuna and avocado with a soy sauce dressing and a drizzle of wasabi. It’s a great healthy combo that really helps satisfy that salty craving.
For beer I ordered the Brewhemian Hopsody, a german style pilsner. The color of this beer was much more orange than other pils, but the flavor was really light and bready. It was perfect on a hot day.
Tom had the 5 And Dime, a red ale. This has been our favorite beer we’ve had here so far. Again much darker in color than a typical red ale, but so so good. Nice hoppy flavor with hints of malt.
Our next trip here was after our house inspection… WE BOUGHT A HOUSE. You’ll hear all about that soon. Again, we ordered the red ale. It’s a great beer! Tom had a burger for lunch. It was good, nothing too special about it. I had the Kale Caesar. The flavor was really good, but it was bit soggy. A bit less dressing would help with that. I did love that they included real anchovies. That’s how you know it’s a real caesar!
Our last time at this restaurant was on a Sunday after doing a ton of work at the house. We had terrible service and waited over an hour for our food. The lovely manager gave us our meal for free to make up for our rude server. This is service that will keep us going back, but the food probably won’t. It seems like every time we come the food gets worse and worse. Also, sorry there are no pictures. We were so hungry I didn’t bother.
I ordered their fall squash salad. It was a little bit bland and nothing to write home about. The portion was super tiny and it said there was kale in it, but I got like 3 pieces. I also passed on the beer this time around.
Tom ordered the chicken sliders. He said they were pretty good, but again nothing to write home about. It was all a little bit boring and it seems like they made the menu smaller. If you have a small menu you should be making those few things perfectly. Sorry village brewing, but you really aren’t wowing us these days.
Tom ordered the Stay Golden for his beer. This is a really nice blonde ale. It’s light and a little bit fruity. Sometimes simple is best.
I will say they have killer french fries and that’s all I need when enjoying a good beer. We’ll probably be back for just that, fries and beer. It’s a cool space to hang out in, but maybe not so great for food. We’ll report back another time. Maybe we keep visiting on off days. In the meantime, we recommend sticking with the appetizers.
However, there was one place that truly wowed us and it was only a quick stop for a simple lunch…. Salted Lime! I won’t say too much about it because I want to do a full dinner review eventually, but it was awesome! Tom had tacos and I ordered a salad. The prices were cheap and the food was great!
The Cocho Life 