When I visited a couple of friends in Ypsilanti, Michigan, they recommend we head to The Wurst Bar, which is a pun-filled name only made better by the fact that this is right next door. There is a massive amount of beer to choose from, but since I was about to embark on a drive to Pittsburgh, I didn’t think any of that was a good idea. Instead, I focused on which brat to order, and this, too, was a large list to choose from.
The brat menu was divided into “Usual Brats” and “Unusual Brats” and I felt like it would be a waste to get something usual. After much deliberation I chose the Fried Hot Wing Chaurice, which is a chicken, pork, red hot, garlic and blue cheese brat served on a choice of bun or lettuce for losers. I chose the Zingerman’s Brioche bun and awaited my brat.
When it arrived, it was somewhat different from what I expected, especially because all the brats are made in-house. I actually thought all the ingredients were going to be in the casing, but as you can tell that is not quite how it turned out. Instead, it was a chicken/pork sausage that was battered, fried, tossed in hot sauce and topped with blue cheese. Not that I was complaining, because this turned out to be a pretty delicious way to get a buffalo wing fix without the wings. I’ll only say that the hot sauce could have been hotter or at least an option to hike up the heat would have been good.
Unlike some other sausage/brat places that focus on exotics and normal sausages, I have to give The Wurst Bar kudos for thinking outside the bun. They put together a nice brat for me and hopefully some day I’ll get to see what else they have to offer.
