3 /5 EE Grimshaw: I cant really sit here and say this was a positive or negative experience; it was just kind of odd but ultimately it delivered what it was supposed to. My cousin chums and I stopped by here on Labor Day after our mini wine tour in need of sustenance aka real food (a quality all of the wineries we went to were severely lacking in). From what I could tell, this is sort of an extension of the Arbor Hill Winery - to access Brew & Brats, we actually ended up walking through what I assume was Arbor Hills main gift shop/wine tasting area, which sold more in the line of quasi-bougie condiments than actual wine. We briefly considered doing a third winery tasting here but I just didnt like the vibe, so we continued on to the back of the premises where this restaurant/bar was.
Perfectly pleasant in there; the main establishment seemed to be centered on a barn-like structure (it almost felt like it had a former life as a ye olde general store, then got cleaned out to be a bar), though we ended up sitting/eating right outside in a little pavilion area with picnic tables (great weather for it). I also used the facilities at one point, which were unique - also a bit barn-like and felt very...temporary storage unit but not in a bad way, if that makes sense. Everything was spacious and clean from my perspective.
When in Rome, I think you get brats. There was understandably a Bavarian-themed tinge to this menu, but heavily Americanized. So sauerkraut was a pretty pervasive ingredient, but it also had a lot of mainstream salad and BBQ sides. Interesting for sure. I didnt want to complicate things after multiple wine tastings, so I opted to get the Arbor Hill Sherried Wine Sausage with a side of baked beans. Honestly not bad; the marinating of the sherried wine gave it a nice fruity/sweet tinge. Im more of a hot dog connoisseur when it comes to my weenies and Im not a fan of condiments; even if I were though, something this flavorful probably doesnt need to rely on them. And I can always get down with a toasted bun. The beans were just okay; too sweet for my palate. I was expecting something more savory given the bacon, but literally every other ingredient drowns it out. Id remove the brown sugar - if the sauce is already sherried wine-flavored, you really dont need to double-down.
The service was honestly a little strange/awkward. Our waitress was friendly enough and given what we were ordering, it would have been insane if the wait time was more than 10 minutes or so (and it wasnt). We were in and out of there relatively quickly, giving us plenty of time to test drive our Airbnb hot tub. But she was very flustered and agitated throughout our stay there, constantly apologizing for the chaos and wait times, which were nonexistent. Every time she came to our table, it was accompanied by a flurry of, "Sorry, its just been CRAZY with all of these people," which, given that there were literally two other parties and tons of empty seats just wasnt accurate and made no sense. My assumption is that they had a crazy lunchtime rush or something that she was still processing and/or recovering from, but I really dont know. Regardless, it didnt really detract from the overall meal or anything.
The prices were out-and-out fantastic. For a legit entree and sides, casual as they were, $15 or so was a legit deal. This whole Naples area was generally pretty affordable, to its credit. Not really my kind of food in the grand scheme of things, but it was fine for what it was. Hope our waitress got a good nights sleep at least.
