goat cheese | Mass Food & Wine

The Buffalo Jam burger from Brew City on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester, MA

Brew City, down on the end of Shrewsbury Street, is part sports bar, part brew pub and part fine restaurant. Not only do they offer a really great selection of beer, but they have a great menu that stretches from basic pub favorites to seafood to steaks.

As an appetizer, I started with the meatballs. This was 4 fairly large handmade meatballs in a marinara sauce with garlic rubbed crostini. The meatballs were firm enough to hold shape but soft and tender. The marinara had a nice, slow cooked flavor that married with the flavor of the meatballs very nicely, creating a really great overall taste. The crostini (garlic bread) was crunchy and garliced nicely. Overall a fantastic appetizer.

For dinner, I went with one of the canned burgers, The Buffalo Jam. This is fresh ground buffalo, red onion jam and local goat cheese on a toasted brioche roll. The buffalo patty was good sized, delicious and cooked perfectly. The soft, creamy goat cheese and red onion jam combined to make a slightly sweet, slightly tart and very delicious counterpoint to the savory burger. Together, each bit was an explosion of flavor so good I didn’t want to put it down. It was served with basic french fries, though you can get any number of sides in place of the fries. Overall, this is one of the better burgers I’ve had anywhere.

Tipsy Goat Pie from Corner Grille on Pleasant Street in Worcester, MA

When I was first invited to join Worcester Foodies I wondered whether I needed to add a “pretentiously intellectual” section to my closet, perhaps some thick-rimmed glasses and a scarf from Namibia. I’ve been fortunate enough to have amazing experiences travelling around the world but I grew up in small town central Massachusetts and if the food’s good, I’ll eat it. Truthfully, if the food’s there I’ll eat it. Worcester Foodies turned out to be a collection of folks after my own heart, people who love experiencing new places and new tastes with good company. Corner Grille captures that essence perfectly.

A small, relaxed environment located on the road you’ve traveled every day but don’t always notice, Corner Grille makes luxurious food creations accessible. I know what you’re thinking: are you really calling pizza a luxurious food creation? The level of creativity and willingness to experiment involved in creating a pizza with chardonnay leek sauce, chicken, prosciutto, goat cheese, and arugula is not something you typically find in the place you stopped to grab a pie on the way home. Calling that creation The Tipsy Goat demonstrates precisely how Corner Grille makes “high-brow” taste accessible and fun. The pizza was delicious and surprisingly light, thanks in large part to the thin, crispy crust. Arugula can be overwhelming, but when combined with goat cheese it has a delightful flavor (a pairing I’ve enjoyed many times before).

The Foodies being a friendly bunch, I sampled several other pizzas and found all of them to be a delightful, unique, and exciting combination of flavors. With home-made juices, buffalo mac and cheese, and desserts piled high, Corner Grille has the comfort of a trip to your grandmother’s kitchen: your grandmother who studied at the finest culinary institutes in Europe. Rather than something to write home about, it’s something to write about at home.