Spyglass offers two versions of tacos — the stripped-down “street style” seen here, trimmed with only cilantro, onion and lime, and the more loaded “gringo style.”
The best brewpubs are the ones where the food is as good as the beer.
Spyglass Brewing Company is one of those places, with a rotating selection of beers on 16 taps and a small food menu that includes appetizers, salads, sandwiches and burgers with enough variety, as we found out, to satisfy even vegetarian diners.
As a company, Spyglass has been around for about four years, started by four tech guys who are beer aficionados. They opened this new brewery and restaurant, which seats about 300, in February, up the hill from south Nashua’s landmark castle-style Sheraton hotel off Spit Brook Road.
The new Spyglass is in a standalone building that looks like a small shopping center, but inside, it’s a big, open industrial space with huge stainless steel brewing tanks taking up about a quarter of the floor space.
There’s no table service at Spyglass. There are three ordering stations for food and drink at the bar. You place your order with the bartenders, wait there while they pour your beer, and then take the beer and a buzzer back to your table to wait for your food. When it’s ready, you go to the food pickup station in the back of the building. Everything is served on aluminum trays. There’s a condiment and flatware station beside the pickup window.
Joining Mrs. Gourmet and me for lunch this Sunday afternoon were our son, the Former Bottomless Pit (FBP), and his fiancee, an avowed vegetarian. After browsing the food menu, we decided to start by sharing a plate of nachos ($16) adding house-pickled jalapenos.
The nachos at Spyglass Brewing Company feature fresh-fried tortilla chips.
The tortilla chips were thin and freshly fried, and topped with pepper jack cheese, onion, peppers, corn and black beans, with a light touch of tomato salsa and a generous drizzle of lime sour cream. (We passed on any additional proteins, since the only vegetarian option was vegan chorizo, of which The Fiancee is not a fan.)
The flavors were great, with the thinly sliced jalapenos providing a kick that came as no surprise, since the bright green slices were easy to spot atop the pile. We probably could have done with a smaller pile of chips, since the toppings didn’t cover all, but unlike many nachos, the chips that did get topped never got soggy.
Along with the nachos, we ordered a flight of five beers ($15) to satisfy our curiosity about a few. One was Pi Squared, a hazy, citrusy brew that turned out to be a remarkably close beer impersonation of key lime pie, complete with hints of vanilla and graham-cracker crust (and 6.9% alcohol by volume).
All of the beers at Spyglass have names with tech or math overtones. I ultimately ordered the Abstract Machine, a hazy New England IPA at 6.6% ABV. The FBP went with Block Chain, a double New England IPA that clocks in at 8%. The Fiancee opted for Bitstream Blood Orange Tangerine, a hard seltzer at 5.5% ABV.
On to our main dishes. I’ll get mine out of the way first, since it was the only disappointment. I ordered street-style tacos with carnitas ($13). Since street-style (as opposed to “gringo style”) comes with no adornments other than cilantro, lime and chopped onion, I thought these tacos were a bit too dry, though I really liked the grilled soft tortillas.
Spyglass offers two versions of tacos — the stripped-down “street style” seen here, trimmed with only cilantro, onion and lime, and the more loaded “gringo style.”
Mrs. G loved the Cuban sandwich ($18, plus $2.50 for corncob-smoked bacon). Served on pressed sub roll, the house-made ham was moist and just salty enough, topped with pickles, beer mustard and Swiss cheese.
The Former Bottomless Pit ordered the Americana Smash Burger ($15), to which he added an extra patty and bacon ($2.50 each). “Six-ounce patties go a long way,” he wrote later. “No need for the extra one that I ordered — I’m no longer the man I once was.”
And the bacon? “It was thick and crisp but was honestly unnecessary. There’s enough salt on there to send any 65-plus eater into a cardiac-related scare, so in all honesty I’d advise against either the second patty or the bacon.
The Americana Smash Burger at Spyglass would have been a satisfying meal even without the addition of the second patty and cob-smoked bacon seen here.
“All in all, I would absolutely order this burger again, and would feel much better about the original $15 price point, vs. paying for the $20 behemoth with the multiple add-ons that only my former self could stand to put down in one sitting.”
The Fiancee ordered the falafel gyro ($15), which came on a soft, warm pita. The sandwich included four balls of juicy falafel and a tangy tahini sauce drizzled over it, with arugula, tomato and pickled onion.
“She has had a lot of falafel in her day, and she couldn’t stop raving about this one,” FBP noted. “The side salad was a similar flavor profile to the toppings on the sandwich, so if you get it she’d suggest the fries as a side next time.”
Spyglass’s falafel gyro features moist balls of falafel with a tangy lemon tahini sauce. Falafel
Parts of all the main courses (except my tacos) were boxed up, as were parts of the excellent pumpkin cheesecake empanadas ($5 each) we ordered for dessert.
We spent $170 at Spyglass for one appetizer, four mains, two rounds of drinks and three desserts. It wasn’t an inexpensive lunch, but it was a great way to spend the afternoon enjoying good food and good beer with family and friends.
