My husband and I went to Nightshift Brewery in Boston last weekend for the first time. We have always been “brew pub” fans and are always up for trying someplace new. I had seen it from the highway not too long ago, but wasn’t exactly sure where it was. It is in a building right next to TD Garden, and around back on the water which would be really nice in the warmer weather. I have been to TD Garden so many times throughout my life and for some reason never knew there was water back there.
When we arrived we got carded at the door which when you are my age, you pretty much just want to go back for that reason alone. I get so excited when I have to dust off my license and show it to someone. I know it’s just a technicality and they aren’t really even looking at it, but whatever, I’m going to keep telling myself it is because I look so young.
I really loved the place, but after we left we realized the food and service weren’t very good. But I still loved it, and want to go back. I think the main reasons I loved it so much was the atmosphere, the popcorn, and the beer. I am not a big beer person, but their beer was excellent! I tried two of the sour beers, and actually loved them which never happens. I had the Made In The Shade which is a Gose beer with salt and lime; and the Briar Weisse which is a sour ale with blackberries and lemon peel. My husband really liked the ones he tried, but his favorite was the Mint Condition which is a dark ale with cocoa, spearmint, and dark chocolate. So for beer, I give them a 10!
Now let’s talk about the popcorn. Oh. My. Goodness. You can order a little bucket of truffle white cheddar popcorn with free refills that is one of the most amazing things I have ever eaten. I actually found myself doing a happy little food dance while I was eating it. I felt like Pooh Bear. I honestly could have sat there and had about 20 of them, the buckets are quite small but still. Just writing about it is making me want to go back now.
Along with the popcorn we ordered the Half Pound Pretzel. Soft pretzels are one of my favorite things, but this pretzel wasn’t soft. It was hard and kind of burned, which I have never experienced and I have had many soft pretzels in my life. It was bad, like really bad.
For dinner I ordered the mac and cheese with chicken, because the woman next to me was eating it and it looked really good. It was good, not great, but good and even though I only ate a tiny bit I enjoyed it. My husband tried it and didn’t like it, however.
My husband ordered The Hot Take, which was a chips and cornflake fried chicken sandwich, with viva habanera hot sauce, ranch, tomato and arugula. He sent it back because the fried chicken was too hard and over fried. He never sends food back either, so it must not have been good. He also didn’t even think it was remotely spicy. The replacement was covered in the hot sauce, but just as over fried and he really didn’t like that one either. The fries were very good, however.
The waitress was also not very good, and never brought one of our popcorn refills 😡, and really just didn’t care about us or my husband not liking his meal.
As I mentioned, I am looking forward to going back mostly for the popcorn and beer, but I will try something else to see if it was just a bad food day.