The pretzel gets its due at Mid City Beer Garden
The pretzel is a dry and second fiddle to chips almost everywhere. At Beer Garden, it's among the best snacks in the parish.
In the snack aisle, the pretzel warms the bench.
Potato chips get the prime spots—bags puffed up, brands elbowing for attention— while pretzels sit off to the side like the responsible snack nobody invited to the party. The numbers back it up: Pretzels sell about a fourth of what chips do.
Fair enough. Chips are a crisp, salty potato pleasure. Pretzels, too often, are dry knots of obligation.
Except at Mid City Beer Garden, where the pretzel has been rescued from sadness and returned to its rightful place next to beer.
The beer garden made two smart calls. First, it refused to treat the pretzel as an afterthought. Second, it didn't try to bake them in-house. The pretzels arrive frozen from Chicago, a city that understands hand food–see the Chicago dog and deep dish pizza.
The result is one of the better snacks on any Baton Rouge menu, and a better beer companion than the chip's cousin, the French fry. It arrives browned, warm and soft in the middle, with just enough crunch to remind you this is not mall food.
The sea salt is not a garnish. Those little hits are what turn a good pretzel into beer food—the kind that makes the cold glass nearby feel like the inevitable next step. Repeated.
On a busy day, the pretzel at Beer Garden ranks in the top 5, frozen drinks at the top.
Sales tell the story.
