Brackets, the new sports bar adjacent to Hotel Palomar, held its grand opening this past weekend. It’s not really a my-neighborhood-bar kind of place because its design is a bit swankier, catering to an upscale crowd. (The menu, however, seemed reasonably priced.) My husband commented that it would probably be a place that he would like to watch “the game” because the my-neighborhood-bars typically grow crowded, and Brackets might not be the first place people would think of for game watching. The size of Brackets surprised me — it has ample space, including a ping pong pit (probably my favorite aspect).
At the grand opening, pizzas from Il Cane Rosso‘s Jay Jerrier were flying off the serving trays as soon as they left the wood-fired oven. Jerrier was a consultant for the Brackets menu. I asked him about his storefront opening in Deep Ellum across from Twisted Root, and he told me he’s hoping for late January. He also mentioned that his wood-fire oven from Naples should arrive this week.
Would a Naples-made oven really make that much of a difference in taste, as compared to Brackets’s American-made oven, my husband asked? Probably not to us, but perhaps it would for the discerning palate, I said — kind of like a $15,000 espresso machine.
