More than just suds
Beer Barrel Restaurant & Lounge has a little of everything, including tasty weekend specials
Post-Tribune (IN)
May 25, 2001
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Owners Yolande and Ned Pujo have been cranking out barbecued lamb, pig and cevapcici for $7.95 at the Beer Barrel Restaurant & Lounge in Merrillville for 15 years.
They serve the Serbian delicacies on Saturdays only, but the weekend also heralds the appearance of other house favorites -- prime rib, all-you-can-eat crab legs for $24.95, frog legs for $19.95, and ocean perch for $10.95.
The dining room is only open on Fridays and Saturdays, starting at 4 p.m., but the rest of the week, you can have lunch or dinner at a booth in the old-time bar.
There's a little of everything on the menu. In the sandwich department, there's a double-decker burger, beef and cheddar, open-face hot beef, clubs, gyros and tacos. For dieters, there's a chicken breast with cottage cheese and tomatoes on a bed of lettuce. And you can have feta cheese and olives or a Greek salad in small, medium or large.
We had dinner on a Saturday when the dining room was open and started with an appetizer of six potato pierogi ($3.95). They were boiled perfectly, sautÈed with onion and served with sour cream. Ned admits they're not homemade, but they're awfully good, with a tender dough. If the filling had been seasoned better, they would have been perfection.
Everything on the salad bar, however, is homemade. It's included in the price of dinner and we had a tasty onion soup with chunky croutons, crisp, fresh salad greens and toppings and sensational potato and pasta salads.
We chose the shrimp platter ($14.95) with four varieties of shrimp -- stuffed, coconut, de jonghe and another I can't remember -- with a really good twice-baked potato. It was a filling meal.
Since they were out of prime rib, our second choice was the shrimp-and-steak combo ($11.95). Again, the seafood was good, but the ribeye steak was tough and disappointing.
However, people at the other tables, who were obviously repeat customers and knew what to order, were feasting on crab legs. Other specials that night were orange roughy, catfish and porterhouse steak, which looked great.
The Saturday barbecue begins at noon, so get there early to make sure you get your share. For $1 more, you can have the salad bar and, if you like your prime rib rare, get there at 4 p.m.
Look for tambouritza music once a month. Diner's Club is the only credit card accepted, but, with proper identification, you can pay by check.
If you go
WHAT: Beer Barrel Restaurant & Lounge
WHERE: 4717 E. Lincoln Highway, (U.S. 30) Merrillville
PHONE: 947-2995
HOURS: 3 to 7 p.m. Monday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, closed Sunday
PRICE RANGE: Appetizers, $1.25 to $3.95; soup, $1.25 to $1.75; salads, $1.50 to $7.50; sandwiches, $3.15 to $4.95; dinners, $6.95 to $24.95
WORTH NOTING: Full bar, separate dining room, adequate parking, the only credit card accepted is Diner's Card; checks with proper I.D. accepted.
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