Thr3e Wise Men Brewing Company

As you may have seen from a previous post (aka, the opening of Scotty’s Lakehouse in Geist), I’m quite a fan of the Scotty’s Brewhouse franchise as a whole, and tend to follow what all is going on their ever-expanding company.  The food is always good and the hours are always accommodating for a photographer who likes to pretend he’s a night-owl. With that, a few months ago I discovered that owner Scott Wise had a new project up his sleeves, and it sounded like it wasn’t going to be anything like Brewhouse or Lakehouse.  It was actually going to be a brewery/restaurant combination.  Fortunately, I was able to attend their VIP soft opening this weekend and to get a glimpse and taste of the new Broad Ripple attraction.  Check past the break to read on!

The first thing that you’ll notice when you arrive at Thr3e Wise Men is that this is definitely not the typical Scotty’s destination.  Gone is the dark sports-bar theme, the exposed brick divides, and the TV-laden booths.  All of this is replaced with quite the opposite décor.  The walls are consist of bare pine wall planks, with antlers added for decoration and for hanging coats.  The extreme darkness of Brewhouse/Lakehouse is gone as well, and the new Brewing Co. is quite bright due to a combination of overhead lighting. The partially stems from the enormous amount of ambient light from the large windows that span the former grocery store location in Broad Ripple.  The most striking aspect to me is the removal of what is found in nearly every restaurant in the world, booths and tables that seat 4-6.  Instead, there are long rows of benches that seat what feels like 8-10 and huge tables that rise high off the ground.  The big tables feel like you’re sitting at a mini bar of your own, which would be great for large groups, and I absolutely LOVE the bench idea, as two groups of diners can join together at one bench and possibly share their feelings about food, beer, or whatever else comes to fancy.  Even if you’re not feeling particularly social, the tables are large enough that you can get some separation and just enjoy your own little world.

When you take your seat at Thr3e Wise Men Brewing Co., you’ll likely notice one particular item right away.  At every bench is an Apple iPad (it’s cabled down to the table top for all you pesky thieves) with an app specially designed for the Thr3e Wise Men Brewery.  On the iPad, you’ll find the menu of beer and food, along with some basic details about each item. I wasn’t able to check it out too much because I was too busy running around snapping pictures, but I also heard one can check out the @brewhouse Twitter feed, check in on Foursquare (which has a sweet special, by the way. Click here for details), and of course one can fulfill the social media trifecta and post on your Facebook page.  While I think this is a wonderful idea, I noticed the iPad screens are quite exposed, and I have a feeling that elephant ear sugar and their signature pizza sauce are going to adorn those screens much sooner than later.  Note to self: bring sanitizer wipes.

Now for the section you’ve all been waiting for (or the part you skipped down to): the food and the brewskies.  Well, the beers are available in an 8 oz. or 16 oz. pint glass as well as a sampler tray of 3 x 6 oz. glasses.  Having to drive that day, we opted for the lesser of the two regular glasses, and began our rounds of taste-testing the beer while figuring out what we wanted to eat.  Hands-down, the beer is good. Definitely worth the money charged, and if I were a resident of Broad Ripple, I would definitely have 64 oz. growlers constantly on rotation.  I’m so glad that Scott Wise is such an advocate of craft and microbrew beer (Scotty’s Lakehouse exclusively serves local brews on tap with the exception of Coors Light, and the Brewhouses carry a huge selection of local and microbrewed beer). I hope this trend continues among all restaurants in town so everyone will be exposed to high-quality, high-flavor beer.

After poking through both the paper and iPad menus, we decided to start the afternoon with some pepperoni-stuffed breadsticks (which I have discovered, aren’t all that common in Indy…shame).  I will say, the breadsticks are quite delicious, not too doughy and there is definitely some good flavor in the bread.  I assume it’s from the fact that they use some of the beer for flavoring in all of their sticks and pizzas.  Additionally, the portions are very large, so if you do order the sticks, either bring an appetite or bring friends.  All sticks come with marinara and nacho cheese dips, and are served on a pizza tray which sits on a portable wire rack to raise it off of the glossy pine tables.

Just as we were wrapping up our pepperoni breadstick overload, our pizza arrived on another baking tray and replaced the sticks on the rack.  I really like the idea of the rack as it raises the food up over glasses and condiment jars, allowing for customers to easily grab a stick or a slice without spilling any beverages (trust me, I know plenty about doing that). It also allows for a little more room for plates and such without feeling too cramped.  Anyways, as for the pizza I hate to say I wasn’t overwhelmed with joy after trying it.  Was it bad? Not at all.  It was cooked just right, and it was definitely better than your Papa Johns variety pie.  However, it didn’t surprise me with amazing flavor or have anything that stuck out as unique.  The flavor was just alright, and the cheese seemed to slip off the pie all too easily leaving me with a marinara-and-dough pizza slice after pulling it off the tray.  Maybe it’s simply a grand opening hiccup (it were obviously very busy), and this definitely isn’t a knock against the quality of food here.  I guess I was just expecting something more akin to Pizzology, Mellow Mushroom, or Bazbeaux.  I will definitely dine here again to give it another go will let you know if anything changes.

Dessert is chronologically the last portion of the meal, so I will conclude the food portion of the review with our confection choice, but I also want to end with it because it was my favorite part of my meal at Thr3e Wise Men Brewing Co. We ordered the “Brew-Homemade Carrot Cake” were pleasantly surprised at how large of a portion we received for $5.  This is definitely something you can (and should) share with a friend or two, as you might end up with a sugar overload otherwise. The cake was very moist and flavorful, and the icing was just sweet enough that it complemented the cake without being overbearing. My friends and I continued to rave about this part of the meal long after our lunch and I have an inkling that I will find myself sitting at Thr3e Wise Men in the future ordering nothing but a carrot cake and a Hubbard & Cravens Porter (which is made from real Hubbard & Cravens coffee!).  The combination is that good.

Overall, if you were expecting another iteration of Scotty’s Brewhouse in Broad Ripple, you will be quite surprised.  However, if you go in without any reservations, you will be more than thrilled with the experience. I love the extremely new direction Mr. Wise has taken with Thr3e Wise Men, everything from the décor and lighting to the food and beer, and I am more than excited to return.  I live just down the road from the Lakehouse location, yet I really think I’ll be spending quite a bit more time in Broad Ripple sampling beers and eating carrot cake.  While I can’t guarantee that Thr3e Wise Men will win you over like it did for me, I can say that you have to go check it out at least once and see how unique this place really is. I think once you walk in, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Thr3e Wise Men Brewing Company

1021 Broad Ripple Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46220
317-255-5151

Twitter: @thr3ewisemen
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Thr3eWiseMen