I admit -- I wasn't a huge fan of Three Floyds at first. It seemed like all of their beers were different takes on pale ales, and hops for hops' sake are not my thing.
Then from what I heard from my husband, a Three Floyds fan who has eaten at the brew pub several times, the brew pub has blaring heavy metal in a DGAF kind of way.
And while both of these things are true, I can now appreciate the fact that FFF is more than that. And I even like it.
My husband and I visited over the weekend when we were passing through on our way home from Chicago. The brew pub is in an industrial park, which after visiting several breweries, was a sign we were in for something good.
There is some outdoor seating, and then when you walk in ... yes ... the heavy metal is blaring. *insert devil horn hands here*
The hostess was polite, and told us that if we wanted to be served immediately, our best bet was the bar. I typically don't like eating at bars, but I think this gave us a better view of FFF, which I'll get to in a sec.
My husband started with a beer. I started with not a beer -- actually a ginger beer -- because bun in oven and all of that. I will say, though, that I have gotten to try their hefeweizen before, and it's pretty delightful. FFF can do more than hops.
And then for food, we went with the cheese curds, but these weren't your average curds. These were tempura-fried with a kimchi aioli and pickled peppers. The tempura made them lighter, and I loved the aioli.
A new take on something standard seems to be FFF's thing, which became apparent through the rest of our meal.
For my dinner, I got the beef pho, a somewhat new addition to the menu. We originally came to FFF because I heard my husband brag about the ramen so much. Unfortunately, that wasn't on the new seasonal menu; pho was the soup instead. So I got that.
And this pho was different than other pho I've had. It was more herby than normal. I think it's a bit heavy on the five spice powder, which with the star anise and fennel in five spice gave it a touch of licorice. This wasn't a bad thing -- just complex in a different way.
The rice noodles were perfectly cooked, and the beef had a great flavor too.
This pho also comes with a giant dollop of chili paste on top, but it really doesn't need it. I scooped it off, and the pho was plenty spicy without it.
My husband opted for the grilled trout sandwich. That's not something I would normally order, but getting a few tastes of his, I would definitely get this on a return visit.
And sitting behind the bar, we got to see a bit of how the staff interacts. Everyone seemed to be close and works together well, which is nice to see. The main bartender, who may have been a manager as well, was courteous and quick to take our order or get my husband another beer. He also made it a point of asking us what we thought of the pho, since it was a new menu item that they were trying out.
This leads me to think that the atmosphere is not DGAF but just genuine, "this is who we are." I feel a bit jaded by restaurants that flout their crazy music choices and going-against-the-norm attitude because a lot of times, these places have terrible service and never listen to the customers. They're all about the food as an art form, and customers are merely the peons they have to deal with to keep the lights on.
That's not how it was at FFF. Yes, there is an individualism to it, but the service was great. And they do GAF. I can appreciate that.
And then on our way out, we bought a six pack of Zombie Dust for a FFF-loving friend of ours, and my husband got a shirt to wear proudly.
We also saw that FFF has opened a distillery as well. I'd love to come back and try it out. read more