Barley and Hops - Frederick, MD

Friday, November 2, 2007


On a busy Friday evening, the whole family dined at the Frederick brewpub Barley and Hops. My wife and I started with the classic Maryland appetizer, crab dip. The dip suffered from some of the same problems as many other unimpressive crab dips: too much sour cream and/or mayonnaise and not enough crab. The dip was served with slices of warm, soft, salty, rich pitas, which were a bit much considering the richness of the crab dip. While I'm no stranger to rich and decadent, why must so much typical appetizer fare in basic "American" restaurants be so leaden? The appetizer wasn't bad - hungry, we certainly ate enough - but the dish wasn't memorable.

For my entree, I ordered the smoked meatloaf with garlic mashed potatoes. My individual meatloaf arrived with a barbecue sauce. It was what I wanted: flavorful, moist, well seasoned, and with a nice amount of smoke. The barbecue sauce was sweet and tomato-based and tasted like commercial brands, possibly with a bit of oil or butter added for a pleasantly silky texture. The potatoes were flavorful with garlic and the bits of red skins added color and a chewy texture but the potatoes were slightly gluey (whipped by a mixer instead of mashed perhaps?). At $11, however, this is by far the least expensive entree, and overall it works.

The salads are fine - we appreciate the lack of iceberg lettuce (what a worthless lettuce) and we both love the sweet and spicy honey mustard dressing. We had a little problem with service, however. Our salads never came until we asked. Because my wife ordered the soup and salad, well, this is sort of a big deal. The mistake was made a bit worse when our server blamed new employees who were doing the prep work. While that might have been true, that's not my problem. The server is the face of the restaurant for good or ill and an apology without an excuse would have been the better thing to do.

My wife got the tomato-based Maryland Crab Soup with her late salad. She said the crab soup has a decent amount of crab as well as some heat, which too many restaurants seem afraid to do with their MD crab soups. I tasted it and I agree. She's tough on crab soups but is a fan of this one.

On the brewing front, everything seems fine. My Annapolis Rocks Pale Ale was well hopped yet with a nice malt background. My wife said the Tuscarora Red was nice and malty as usual.

Our daughter got the make-your-own pizza, which is a great idea for young kids. She enjoyed it as usual (and left off the pepperoni this time). The large open dining room, which is both helpfully noisy while providing some privacy in the booths, is great for families.

This wasn't the most solid trip to Barley and Hops but we will return.


Barley & Hops 5473 Urbana Pike Frederick, 21704 Phone: 301-668-5555 Fax: 301-668-5550 Open Sun 11-10 Mon-Thurs 11-11 Fri-Sat 11-midnight