Restaurant review: Brick House Tavern & Tap

If you look closely at the new Brick House Tavern & Tap in its popular Troy-Schenectady Road location overlooking the Northway, you'll spot the shell of Joe's Crab Shack. The giant crab, oversized sou'wester-wearing fisherman and waitstaff unleashing song-and-dance routines during table service failed to ignite the affections of the Capital Region. The CEO, a founding father of Outback Steakhouse, is back from retirement, and other machinegunners are fresh from corporate tracks at TGI Friday's, Applebee's, Hard Rock Cafe and Tyson Foods. Exposed brick, Old German lettering and a hog-roast-sized fireplace suggest a beer hall, but the reclining armchairs, overhead sports TVs and suited men pouring craft beers from long-necked bongs — the yard beers of yesteryear — all feel more bro code than brauhaus. The roster of handcrafted ingredients in the Moroccan stacked dip ($7.50) turns out to be white beans machine-whipped to starchy glue and topped with premade guacamole mix. Asian duck wraps ($9.50) whooshed out of the kitchen with a lovely stack of verdant Bibb leaves to fill with spicy, salty duck (I doubt it's really confit) and julienned veggies swamped in a sticky "house-made" hoisin. Truth is, we're talking fish and chips, glazed chops, meatballs and wings, tarted-up bacon-topped deviled eggs, gluten-free-friendly zucchini curls and lots of stolen watchwords — artisanal, scratch, handmade It's a welcome step up from TGIF's, but definitely the same gene pool. If any questions remain, the plume of steam rising from a chocolate bourbon cake ($6.50) betrays a recent microwave stay, and apple crumble in a miniature skillet is a treacly hot mess of runny crumble and foster sauce.