If you want to by-pass typical blah bar eats for something better, and still enjoy the bar atmosphere, Key magazine recommends Zola Pub and Grill.
“We are driven by the restaurant (side) first, and by the bar/pub second,” said Matt Heringer, owner and proprietor of Zola Pub and Grill. He claims the bar/pub part is the easy part, but getting the food right, putting good, wholesome, delicious food on the table requires more.
“We use fresh ingredients,” he said. That does make a huge difference in taste, texture and flavor. For instance, burgers are a big part of the menu at Zola. Those burgers are 100% Black Angus beef ground from chuck that is fresh and never frozen. The patties are 8-ouncers, not the typical 4-ouncer. Contrast that with the typical bar/pub burger made of unspecified ground “beef” patties with fillers, pre-made by a food processor, frozen, shipped, thawed and popped on the char-grill. Which would you rather have? Me too—Zola’s burger is EXCELLENT.
As visitors to a metro area know, dining choices can be baffling. Good things to know about Zola are hours and prices. First, the service begins at 11 a.m. and ends at 2:30 a.m., with kitchen hours to 12 midnight. You benefit from a long day of continuous service, which is a boon to travelers whose schedules may call for a meal at 3 a.m. or 11 p.m. Second, the prices at Zola are worth noting, according to Heringer. “We have pretty unbeatable prices for what you’re going to get here—a well-rounded menu with quality food and prices that are better than the average place around town.”
That’s true, too. For instance, Zola burgers range from $6.50 to $8.50. The burger is fresh Black Angus every time, it’s larger than average, it’s cooked to order, served on a Kaiser roll, and it comes with choice of one side, such as steak fries, a cup of soup, pasta or potato salad, or Asian slaw. Take it from us area burger hounds, that’s a deal!
Asked about burger favorites, Heringer’s response was immediate: “The black and bleu ($6.95) and the spicy Jack ($7.25). There are nine burger choices on the menu, and every Wednesday is Burger Mania, meaning a burger with five toppings and a side for only $6! A serious deal!
But pub-goers do not live by the burger alone. There are pizzas, such as the Greek, featuring grilled gyro meat, red onions, mushrooms and black olives over red sauce, all topped with mozzarella cheese. Dinner salads are waiting, such as the grouper, the fish grilled with Caribbean jerk seasoning, on a bed of greens and Swiss cheese, egg, banana peppers, tomatoes and black olives, in a sweet and sour dressing. Wings, of course, jumbo split and fresh, in original, garlic and BBQ flavors, and spiced to your liking (Monday is Wing Night…50 cents apiece).