Food for Jayhawks

Free State Brewing Company

When I lived in Lawrence, there were two restaurants I really liked. One was the now-closed J.B. Stout's in West Lawrence and the other, right in the heart of downtown at 636 Mass Street, was Free State.

As something of a beer connoisseur, I've loved Free State ever since I discovered their home-brewed beers. They have really good beer. The Copperhead IPA has a nice hoppy bite (thus the name), the Oatmeal Stout is dark and hearty, and the Ad Astra Ale is a fantastic brown ale. Really, if you like beer, you'll find something you like there. On my last trip a few weeks ago, I tried a new one, the 1854 Helles Lager. This is it:


Light and refreshing, it's a perfect summertime beer. Apparently Free State is only doing a seasonal run of it, but in my opinion, they should add it to their full-time menu.

Aside from the beer, Free State's a really cool place in general. Though it does have a tendency to become overrun with trust-fund hippies, it's got a nice atmosphere. The layout and structure do sometimes lead to a cacophonous racket, particularly when the place is busy, which is often, but it's a cool place nonetheless. Plus they have pretty good food.

On my last visit, I had this:

These are the Vella Chicken Flautas. The menu description: "Slow smoked chicken is rubbed with sweet & spicy seasonings, then rolled in flour tortillas, with Vella Dry Jack cheese, fried til crisp, and topped with a roasted onion green chile sauce and sour cream. Served with black beans, Spanish rice & tomato corn salsa."

They were pretty good, though I did find them surprisingly lacking in cheese considering that's the first part of the name. The chicken was moist and flavorful, and the pico de gallo was delicious. Plus the black beans weren't from a can. You get extra marks for that in my book. Overall, a pretty successful dish.

My lovely wife had this:



The menu describes it thusly: "Romano and Ricotta filled tortellini are simmered in a white wine cream sauce with sautéed artichoke hearts, shiitake mush-rooms and sherry marinated sun dried tomatoes. Finished with a touch of butter and served with a focaccia slice."

This was a really well-thought-out dish. I don't even like sun-dried tomatoes because I despise their rubbery, raisin-like texture, but I found each element of this dish very complementary, and overall super tasty. The only strike I'll offer against it is the fact that the sauce needed to simmer down and thicken quite a bit more than it did. I attribute this to the fact that it was busy when we ate there and the kitchen was rushing to get food out. In fact, I was shocked our order came as quickly as it did. In hindsight, it probably would have been better to let the sauce boil down another couple of minutes, but I know how things can be in a kitchen.

Really Free State is kind of a microcosm of Lawrence itself. The servers are an eclectic bunch and the patrons are the typical Lawrence mix of grandparents in KU gear, frat boys and the trust-fund hippies I referred to earlier.

Prices are good, around $10-12 for entrees and beers around $4. Everything on the menu is pretty good here too. The staff is great, the beer is awesome and the food doesn't disappoint. I really wouldn't mind eating there every time I'm in Lawrence.

Scorecard
Food: 4
Atmosphere: 4
Service: 4.25
Menu: 4
Price: 4
Total: 20.25
Average: 4.05

freestatebrewing.com