Brookside Bar & Grill

The service was horrible. The waitress Teri was so rude. She would only stop by the table for a minute at a time and was very short with us. My daughters pizza was burnt and I asked my daughter is she would eat it and Teri scoffed when I said it! How awful! She added an extra $ 1.75 to our tab for my son to have cheese, lettuce, and a tomato to his hamburger. She charged us for an extra beer we did not order rolled her eyes at me when I pointed it out! The food was great (except for the burnt pizza my daughter ate because she never offered to remake it) but we will not be going back due to the horrible service.

I feel the average stars for an establishment never lie…
The good:
Great outdoor seating and who doesn’t like this cute town! Servers are attentive and cool. Occasionally the food is really good it really depends on who’s in the kitchen.
The bad:
I almost always make this place a stop on the radar when I’m in town. Tonight was a disappointment… Pizza came out doughy and undercooked. The servers wanted to appease and suggested making a new pizza, I agreed only if it wasn’t an issue. Of course the manager or chef didn’t want to lose the few bucks and attempted to reheat it and brought it back to me with a missing piece and said nothing. I ate one piece but now there was 2 gone probably from a mishap reheating in the oven… And my family had finished eating by this point. Kind of awkward since everyone noticed and pointed it out. Wish they would have at least given a break on the bill since the whole thing was their fault to begin with.
Loosing customers or just making another damn pizza… hmmm.

Decent food and ok beer selection. I remember having a philly which was huge and delicious. Although I recall filling up on some onion rings or something prior to my meal which was a bit of a mistake. Located near the bar on the same property is a chocolatier whose stuff is amaze-​balls.

A great small town experience, with even better pizza. Friendly staff, and the food is served on beautiful handmade dishes, from a local potter. Love this place!

Lift bridge farm girl of tap — check. Great low key atmosphere — check. Insanely yummy /​delicious /​mind blowing bacon hamburger — check. Never would I have guessed that one could enjoy a burger this amazing in such a cute little hamlet… well I was wrong.

We’ve been to the Brookside numerous times; it’s a great place to stop and stretch the legs after a long motorcycle ride. Plus you can eat outside. In the past service has been mixed; it’s either average or you wait 10 minutes before your waitress stops by to take your drink order. Food has been average. We thought we’d give it another try. We waited 12 minutes for a wait person to arrive to take drink order. We waited another 5 minutes for drinks (diet coke and glass of water — when riding motorcyles we elect not to drink liquor) to arrive and our menus (she forgot to bring them when taking our drink order). Then wait another five minutes to for her to come back to take our order. We both ordered the same thing — bacon cheesburgers (medium-​well) with cheddar cheese and fries. Another 40 minutes goes by; we still don’t have our food. Waitress stops by, asking you still don’t have your food, I’ll check? Then she takes a table of 8 drink order, and another table of 6 drink order. Comes out with their drinks after 5 minutes but never stops by our table to let us know when our food will arrive. I attempt to catch her flying by us but she ignores us. We wait another 15 minutes for our food, we put down money for our diet coke and left without even eating.

This place is usually packed when we visit (Friday or Saturday nights) and understandably the service is usually slower than normal, but the staff is always friendly and accommodating. We never mind waiting because the pizza is incredible. Get the garbage pizza — generous on toppings and the italian sausage is to die for. They have tasty home made sauce. Get some on the side for dipping and it’s perfect!

This is a huge GEM of a restaurant in the lovely Gem of Marine on St Croix. The food is 3 – 4 star, the atmosphere is 4 star — fun & unique bar, history and architecture, outdoor fast creek to wade in and outdoor eating spaces. Worth the drive from the cities.

Hmmm. That’s a lot of stars for a place that will serve hard, orange tomatoes in August when a farmer’s market with juicy red ones is literally across the parking lot. This little oversight exemplifies Brookside’s lack of commitment to good food. Yeah the stuff is OK, but just OK. It’s just about impossible to get a vegetable in the place that’s not a hard tomato or the butt of a leaf of iceberg. OK. So it’s a burger joint– but this is 2011. I much prefer Olive’s pizza up the street, where you get fresh food and a better pour of wine for the money. Too bad. Brookside put a lot of money into sprucing up the place and then hired a bunch of kids to attempt to run the kitchen. The photos are very helpful. The priority is liquor.

Went there on a Wednesday afternoon for lunch. Nice atmosphere, food was decent, good job with the remodel, but the service was TERRIBLE. Waitress was almost non-​existent. People outside were getting fed up and asking the busboy for their checks, so they could get out of there. I think they could spend a little more on staff. Don’t go there unless you’re pals with the owner or have a lot of time to kill waiting for a drink.

Menu available online at
Have recently tried:
Margherita pizza. Good American pizza – very tasty sauce, lots of cheese, and a superb crispy crust.
Bison burger – tasty and not dry.
Pulled Pork Sandwich with Sweet Potato Fries – Generous portion, your choice of BBQ sauce in the meat or on the side. Tender, tasty, and yumy.
Buffalo Chicken Sandwich. I was happy that it was grilled, not breaded and fried. Good sandwich, but not the strongest item on the menu.

Very impressed with this place. I’ve been there three times now. Twice to watch the world cup games, and once to just have a drink with a new friend. I had lunch for both of the games, and I must say, the «bar food» is quite exceptional. I purposely ordered two of the boldes things on the menu, to really test the place’s merit. The «Hunter Burger» was an unbelievable heart attack between a bun that I’d do again in a heartbeat. The famed juicy lucy (a hamburger patty w/​hot molten cheese in the middle of it) is a minneapolis landmark, first started by matt’s bar (anyone who says otherwise is a liar). The brookside has taken it a step further, by adding bacon and carmelized onions to the mix as well. There might have even been something else on there, but it was so intense I’ve blocked it from my memory. On the other occasion, I ordered the «garbage pizza», which is basically everything they can find in the back (as far as pizza toppings goes) and thrown on there. To be honest, if I went back again, I’m not sure which I would choose to order again, as they were both amazing. The beer selection is quite good, w/​around 10 on tap and probably around 30+ in bottles. There’s seating indoors and a lot of seating outside in the back, in a biergarten type atmosphere. The owner (I think?), Bruce, seems to be a great guy, and remembered my name a week after I first went in there. The bar itself is a work of art, with a beautiful piece of wood w/​fish and the st. croix (I’m assuming) burned into it and sealed. Great place in little Marine on St. Croix.