If you like burgers, you’ll love the Brick House in Gray
What a difference a change in management makes! We reviewed Shooters, the Brick House’s previous incarnation, about a year ago. It wasn’t terrible, but it clearly didn’t live up to the potential of the space. Since then, the main dining area has had a stylish makeover, with new thoughtful details like beer-can-shaped drinking glasses, brushed metal, and lots more wood.
Some of the food items remain, like the fresh-fried pork skins, giant onion rings and focus on burgers. We started with the Brick House fried shrimp in a sweet chili mayo sauce and the house potato skins. The shrimp was a bit too saucy but the flavor was good.
The potato skins for $7.50 are deep fried and smeared with wicked pimento cheese and topped with the usual suspects -- but they did not stand out for us. Other unique appetizers include wicked pimento cheese dip, sriracha bleu cheese shrimp, and either pork tenderloin or angus beef sliders. All appetizers are $8 and less except for peel and eat shrimp for $9.
We weren’t in the mood for salads, but there’s a vegetarian strawberry salad with spinach and walnuts for $9 or you can add chicken or shrimp for $2 more. The house salad with bacon, tomatoes, and cucumbers is $6 and the buffalo salad consists of chicken or shrimp tossed in buffalo sauce served with pico de gallo and bleu cheese crumbles for $9.
Next, we tried the Brick House burger, the bacon cheese burger, the shrimp and grits, and the shrimp po boy. The burgers were very impressive, made of two quarter-pound patties of certified angus beef and served on a shiny brioche bun vertically stabbed with a steak knife. The Brick House burger for $8.50 has a big onion ring, American cheese, applewood-smoked bacon and barbecue sauce.
We actually liked the bacon cheeseburger for 50 cents less because there wasn’t barbecue sauce covering up the excellent flavor of the beef; just get the onion rings as your side and you’re good to go.
Other burger choices for similar prices include the wicked pimento cheese burger, a mushroom Swiss burger, fried pickle slaw burger, and the black and bleu burger.
If you’re really feeling bold, try the Brick Layer burger -- 10 quarter-pound stacks of beef. If you eat it all, you get a free T-shirt.
The shrimp and grits were a special and were loaded with tasty andouille, even better the next day. The po boy was OK, with slivers of tomato and onion on a hoagie roll for $8.50.
Other sandwiches include chicken wraps, a pork tenderloin sandwich, grilled pimento cheese, hot dogs and a club. They also have a catfish plate, fried shrimp, fettuccine alfredo, chopped steak and grilled salmon, all between $12-$15.
If you’re a burger aficionado, the Brick House should definitely be on your list to try. The atmosphere is great, the service was friendly, and the prices were fair for what you get.
This story was originally published June 19, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "If you like burgers, you’ll love the Brick House in Gray."