St. Nicholas Brewing Company

Hey everyone, hope your weekend was fun and full of delicious foods!

This week, we are featuring St. Nicholas Brewing Company; a locally owned brewpub located in Du Quoin, IL. This brewery is located inside a historic hotel built in the early 1800s. After many years of neglect and abandonment, the owners of St. Nicholas began the process to restore this historic Du Quoin landmark. In August 2014, they opened their doors to the public. They feature in-house brewed beer, to be paired with a creative selection of burgers, sandwiches and pizzas.

We tried a few recommendations from our waiter and they did not disappoint! We ordered the St. Nick fries: a perfectly crisp plate of fries, smothered in beer cheese, and topped with green onions and salty bacon. The fries were seasoned well, and cooked to just the right doneness to hold up to the heavy cheese sauce. This gave each bite the crunch that many smothered fry dishes lack.

Keesha chose another recommended dish, the fish tacos. These tacos came in your choice of corn or flour tortillas that were slathered in queso, with a generous piece of flaky beer battered cod. They were loaded with red cabbage, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, southwest ranch, and lime; however, the lime was very light, and a little more would have really amped up the flavor. Overall, the tacos were great, and we were definitely impressed with the topping to fish ratio. For her side, she chose the bacon roasted brussel sprouts. The sprouts had a good balance of toastiness with the bitterness that you expect from brussel sprouts, and paired really well with the salty bacon.

I tried the buffalo chicken pizza, what has seemingly become a brewpub classic. The buttery golden crust was topped with buffalo sauce, cheddar and mozzarella cheeses, chicken, jalapenos, and finished with a drizzle of ranch. The result was a deliciously cheesy, tangy, and spicy slice of pizza. The crust held up well to the toppings, was not overly doughy, and provided the satisfying crunch that this pizza deserves.

We meant to try the heavily recommended cupcakes, but alas, there was no more room for dessert. We’ll try them next time and report back. If you like the brewpub atmosphere, this is definitely a staple for Southern Illinois Eats.

Have a great week and we can’t wait to see what food adventures next week brings.

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