The Four Pegs is a “Beer Lounge and Social Eatery”, which apparently means they serve nothing but beer and appetizing, superb food. I took a group of friends to the fashionable Germantown eatery (1053 Goss Avenue) this Friday night, and we were pleased as punch with our food, if a bit dissatisfied with the service.
At the Four Pegs, you seat yourself, and order your food from the (inattentive) bartenders, who punch your order into an ipad and ignore you. Our table’s orders came out piecemeal—a sandwich here, ten minutes later a burger, ten minutes later an order of fried green tomatoes. It was a good hour before all our food arrived, which made for some awkward situations because we were all STARVING TO DEATH but none of us wanted to eat while the other members of our party gazed at our food with hollow cheekbones and Oliver Twist eyes. The beer was delivered quickly and I’m told it was satisfactory, but the selection was somewhat generic for someplace that bills itself as a “beer lounge”.
However, The Four Pegs truly redeemed itself with a cornucopia of breathtaking fare. The beer glazed burger was absolutely amazing, but it was not cooked to order (mistake #1 of restaurants that serve hamburgers.) I loved the cheddar, bacon and fried green tomato on top. The chicken and waffle sandwich was astonishing, hot and sweet and savory and thick: tender fried chicken between two fat waffles drizzled with a maple sauce. A quintet of fried green tomatoes was suitably crisp and seasoned, and the beer cheese came with a mini baguette of pretzel bread. The beer cheese was especially strong and combined very well with the mild pretzel bread; it was also moderately chunky which I found pleasant.
Two entrees, a sizeable beer, two appetizers and a four dollar crème brulee (not quite fresh or set correctly) came to about forty dollars--with tip, and could have easily fed four people. The Four Pegs might have some kinks to iron out, but serving excellent food at an excellent price covers a multitude of sins.
Photos: Elizabeth Orrick
