Hello friends! It’s summer and that means patios and happy hour. Least that’s what it feels like with some of my friends. Vancouver’s been having heat wave after heave wave this summer so on one of the sunniest days of the year we decided to head into Brix and Mortar for some bites and bubbles. Brix used to be it’s own separate restaurant but when they decided to combine two restaurants together, it became Brix and Mortar.
Brix and Mortar entrance
The restaurant has two entrances, one being on Homer street and the other on Hamilton. The Homer street entrance opens up to a huge outdoor seating area which they use for weddings or dinner service. I made the mistake of coming through this entrance instead of the Hamilton one so I had to walk all the way through the venue area and down the stairs to get to the bar. At least there wasn’t an event that day!
Menu
Now I personally haven’t been to a whole lot of happy hours but I was excited for this menu. They had $8 seafood and meat tapas, $5 beers/wine and $6 double cocktails! This was a deal if I ever saw one.
Moscow Mule
My friend and I had too many Moscow Mules to count that day but they were just so addicting! The drink was sour from the lime, the ginger beer gave it a kick and the little bit of muddled mint rounded everything off. The two of us would come back just for these they were so good!
Even though my friend usually comes for the drinks, we decided to try a few of their small plates this time.
Mushroom toast
This toast was definitely no ordinary toast. It had wild mushrooms on it, compte d’montagne cheese, and a free range egg on top. Underneath all the rich ingredients the sourdough toast had a difficult time holding up and ended up being soggy but the toppings were so delicious that it hardly mattered at that point.
Crispy Gelderman Farm Pork Belly
Neither of us would have imagined that this would come with two large pieces of crispy pork belly. This could have been an entree all on its own and was a steal at $8. The pork belly was fried so that it had a crispy outside while the inside remained juicy. Try this and you’ll never go back to bacon.
Beef tartare
This beef tartare was topped with a mountain of baby arugula and piave cheese. It also came with two slices of grilled toast which we found was too thick to use as a vehicle for the tartare. The thickness of the toast made it difficult to taste the tartare so we ate the two separately. We liked that the tartare wasn’t too rich even with the cheese on top. It was actually quite refreshing.
Fresh Steamed Mussels
As with most mussels I’ve had, I did get a few sandy ones but I enjoyed the dish too much to stop going back for more. The chorizo sausage added spice to the dish and the broth it came with was creamy but had acidity from the tomatoes.
All in all we had an amazing experience at Brix and Mortar and would definitely be back for more very soon!