If you’re saying to yourself “I wonder where that is, there’s only so many buildings in the Valley,” then let me help you: it was formerly the Valley location of Bricco, which closed after the area flooded last year.

Table & Tap has the same owner, but the space has been a bit revamped and the menu freshened up to match the new name.

Shane has been eyeing this place up ever since he saw it had reopened about six weeks or so ago. We almost visited last week but were running later than usual and wanted a local patio we knew we liked so just ended up hitting Wing Warehouse – which, subtle plug – if you live in the area and haven’t been, their patio is by far one of the best locally.

But hey guess what? We’re on a patio here too. Yay! Thank you, Mother Nature, for playing nice and giving us another gorgeous Wednesday evening without rain or enough humidity to turn into a puddle five minutes after walking outside.

There used to be a patio at the Bricco space, but it seems they’ve expanded it into the parking lot since our last visit here. The upper portion is covered with an awning and has large ceiling fans, while the bottom portion has umbrellas over the majority of the tables – so even if the sun is out in full force (which it wasn’t by the time of day we visited) you aren’t getting totally baked.

Oh good a drink menu! But wait, this isn’t helpful.

I mean, cool for rotating options – but also not cool for when you really just want to have this figured out on the first try.

See also: how I started out thinking I would get a pineapple jalapeño margarita, but then switched to a black cherry shandy from Thirsty Dog once Ted asked to hear the draft list. 

Shane asked our server which burger was the best on the menu and the guy basically listed four out of the six options. Well then. At least we know which two not to order I guess.

I was eyeing up the pickle chips as an appetizer, which turned out to be a good thing because when I mentioned it to Shane he said was planning to order them whether I wanted to share them or not. Cool.

Ted got onion rings, which also had sounded good. Luckily Ted is a good friend and let me try them.

Props for presentation on both apps. It’s not often you feel fancy eating things that were made in a fryer, but here we are.

Of the two I preferred the onion rings over the pickle chips. The breading on the rings was a little salty, but being light on batter helped balance out the taste. These breading was pretty much the exact opposite of beer battered rings, which explains why Shane wanted nothing to do with them. He preferred the pickle chips that had a heavier batter.

See, theres something for everyone. Win.

In addition to the majority of the burger list, our server also highly recommended the pretzel chicken sandwich from the menu. Which solidified that choice for both Ted and I. Only Ted had to ask first what havarti was, and then was immediately justified in his ignorance when he learned it was a type of cheese.

Obviously his sandwich was minus havarti. He also got fries, while I opted for tots.

We both liked the sandwich, but – as seems to be the issue with about every chicken sandwich that’s been ordered of late – it was impossible to eat as a sandwich without wearing much of it in some fashion.

Can we just talk about this trend for a minute? Like kudos for interesting topping choices and giving customers their money’s worth with a giant slab of breaded chicken – but also, if it’s not easy to pick up and eat then maybe, just maybe, we can tone it down a notch? Or maybe make it a meal instead of a sandwich? I feel like we’re just wasting bread this way.

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

Shane ultimately chose the Cowboy Killer burger for his meal. Which, maybe we could be less daunting with the name, but I guess since he’s not a cowboy he’s in the clear.

Anyway.

He asked for it to be cooked medium rare – and as usual we all hold our breath when he first cuts into it upon arrival, fully expecting it to either be seared to the color of a charcoal briquette or raw enough that he declares they are trying to send him to urgent care – but he was not disappointed. They definitely understood the assignment. 

Ultimately it seems like the changes that were made with the rebrand and reopening are positive, and we would come back again to try out more menu options (there are still three preferred burgers after all). It’s a solid patio option, even if the view is only parking lot and street – but still, it’s better than a lot of other patios in the Valley area. We weren’t quite as enamored with the owner hanging out with the table of his friends and family seated next to us talking to them throughout our entire visit – but at least the server attending to that table, who we gathered from the conversation was also related to the group somehow, wasn’t also our server, as she spent more time chatting with them than checking on other tables. Our server was attentive and friendly, something we appreciated even more so after last week’s adventure in just trying to pay our bills and leave. Glad to see our invisibility shields have been deactivated!

Picked by: Shane