Silver Cloud Bar & Grill

While fine dining and gourmet food is good and nice, sometimes you just want a grilled cheese sandwich or mac and cheese.  I went to Silver Cloud Bar & Grill with a group of friends recently.  It epitomizes the best of what a bar and grill is.  The space has a long bar running the length of the room with a row of vinyl backed booths opposite the bar.  There is also a large table at the back of the room with banquette seating for larger parties and an outside patio for outdoor seating.  The style of the place is definitely retro but they really don't play it up.  It's a nice design without feeling like you've walked into the past.  The menu isn't really fancy but it isn't really trying to be.  It features comfort food like meatloaf, grilled cheese, sloppy joes, or your basic burger and does it well.  A few dishes do have some nice twists to them like the meatloaf with the Bell's Amber Ale gravy, the customizable mac and cheese, or the brie burger but the dishes are still very accessible.  Their beer list isn't extensive but they do hit most of the popular styles from white to black and also includes PBR and Bud for those people that aren't adventurous.  I much prefer to try something new to the tried and true (although I do tend to stick with breweries with which I am familiar).  The beer that I go was one that I had never had but I was familiar with the brewery.  I got a Dark Horse Black Bier which lived up to it's name.  It was as black as motor oil and looked very thick in the pour.  The head was minimal but what was there was kind of caramel colored.  It had a nice coffee and roast malt flavor with possibly a little dark chocolate.  For my meal, I ordered a pulled pork sandwich which was served with tater tots.  The sandwiches came with tater tots, chips, zucchini and carrot slaw, or Boston baked beans.  Going to a bar and grill, I was not interested in veggies, and chips just do not interest me.  The tater tots weren't really anything special but fried potatoes by their very character are very good.  The Pulled Pork Sandwich was served with JK's Scrumpy Organic Cider Barbecue Sauce and topped with coleslaw.  JK's Scrumpy is a sweet cider so the barbecue sauce was pretty sweet as well.  While I do prefer my barbecue sauces to be a little less sweet and more spicy, this was pretty good.  The pulled pork had a nice texture and the slaw did provide some tartness.

This is a nice relaxing place that does comfort food pretty well and the beer list is pretty good.  It's a nice place to hang out with friends and also does brunch well.  I will be back again.