Keg and Barrel: A gastropub in central Hattiesburg

Full disclosure: the Mississippster is the official counsel of record for the Keg and Barrel, and as such, is extremely biased. But it’s safe to say that from its opening no one has been more of a regular at the Keg except Ben Farrar. I’ve eaten off of every iteration of its menu. And dollar for dollar, the food menu at the Keg and Barrel is the best value in town, IMHO. And the beer menu is excellent as well.

The Keg is the brainchild of John Neal, who freely and proudly admits that he stole the concept from Houston landmark pub The Ginger Man. The Ginger Man may have the Keg beat on beer selection, but The Keg has surpassed its inspiration when it comes to food.

The Keg’s menu has a good selection of appetizers. Perennial favorites include Fried Green Tomatoes with remoulade, crispy breaded 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch slices of tomato deep fried; or the equally simple yet obscenely rich debris fries, a pile of hand-cut steak fries smothered in cheese and New Orleans style debris roast beef, with a horseradish cream that is actually spicy.

There are also excellent salads. My personal favorite is the buffalo chicken salad. Be warned: this buffalo chicken is actually spicy enough I don’t have to add heat. So for the delicate of palate, this is not your salad.

But the star of the Keg and Barrel is their burger. Made from Stonnington Farms grass-fed beef, the patty is hand-made and cooked to order. The Keg experimented with particular cuts of ground meat before adopting the current policy of buying half of a cow and grinding the whole kit and kaboodle together. This gives the burger meat a one of a kind flavor and texture that pairs well with any of the variations on the menu.

The Keg’s burgers have had a long and slow evolution before reaching their current apogee. John Neal and Stuart Gates of Vicki’s on Walnut led the grass-fed beef revolution in Hattiesburg’s restaurants, and it has caught on. Stonnington Farms beef can be found in a half-dozen restaurants in the city, and each place has its own specialties. But the Keg has concentrated on their burgers, and it has paid off. They also have an unconventional and popular vegetarian patty they make in-house.

My choice on this particular night was the Keg Stand, which features American cheese, a fried onion ring, bacon, and the Keg’s homemade Guinness steak sauce. Cooked rare, of course. Over the years, the Keg has developed some other signature burgers: the Dirty Diana, which features pepper jack, provolone, and American cheeses with bacon; the Edie, featuring mushroom, bacon, Swiss cheese, and garlic mayo; and the Pepper Jacquelyn, which is built around pepper jack cheese and fried jalapenos. But my current favorite is the Keg Stand.

The burger arrived perfectly cooked, with a warm, red center, and sitting proudly atop the bun. I eschewed the tomatoes and lettuce, adding them instead to my house salad, and dug in to the burger. The key to this particular burger is the blend of textures: soft bun, crispy onion ring, gooey cheese, smokey thick bacon, and toothsome burger are married together by the Guinness steak sauce into an unforgettable masterpiece of pure Americana. I put the burger down like a mad dog.

In my opinion, the Keg Stand pairs best with Hattiesburg’s finest beer, Jack the Sipper. The Sipper is rapidly on the way to becoming Southern Prohibition’s flagship beer. It also happens to be one of the finest ESBs in the world, and is a fit accompaniment to any burger on the Keg’s menu.

To sum up: an excellent burger from an excellent locale. If you skip the Keg and Barrel while in Hattiesburg, you are doing yourself a serious disservice.