Restaurants in Brent

The Brick Pit’s owner, Bill Armbrecht, firmly believes that great barbecue can't be rushed. Open the red doors of his massive smoker—"Big Red"— and you’ll uncover juicy slabs of ribs, chicken, and pork that have been roasting anywhere from 6 to 30 hours. Bill coats each cut of meat in his legendary spicy barbecue sauce, which was lauded by reporters from Southern Living and relished by Adam Richman on Man v. Food. For a sweet finish, Bill and his chefs whip up housemade banana pudding each day from scratch.

After ordering barbecue platters from the back window, guests retreat into the lively dining room. The walls are decorated in the doodles, praise, and thesis papers of the hundreds of guests who've passed through the restaurant's doors along with framed awards and glowing news articles.

Dave Bohannon had a simple idea for a restaurant: he wanted to open one by the water and craft a concise menu of uncomplicated, but immaculately prepared dishes. With this vision in mind, he and his wife Alice opened Surf Burger. She honed its decor with help from local artists, creating an interior where old beach-themed paintings line the walls and surf movies play against a soundtrack of island music. Not only do the couple and their children leave their mark on the eatery’s menu and interior decor, but on its guests, as well. They often venture from their respective posts to eat, chat, and get matching tattoos with diners, forging a sense of community and transforming one-time visitors into loyal regulars.

They bolster this friendly, low-key atmosphere with casual dishes such as burgers, chili dogs, and fish tacos, as well as sweet-potato fries and quarter-pound Cajun sausages inspired by down-home southern recipes. At a full-service bar, servers pour draft beers and blend frosty tropical cocktails, which arrive before customers seated in the beachy dining room or on the outdoor, dog-friendly deck.

The chefs at Zorba the Greek know the bursting point of a pita pocket, and bring their sandwiches to the brink by loading them with feta, falafel, and chicken shawarma. They also use fresh meats and produce to craft classic Greek entrees such as gyros platters and moussaka—a dish of layered eggplant and meat best consumed using tiny rock picks for a scrumptious excavation. A kids' menu offers simplified version of the adult food, including grilled cheese pitas and a mozzarella-topped greek pie. For dessert, diners can sink their teeth into flaky walnut-and-pistachio baklava so universally delicious it can be used as currency in most countries.

Bacon, cheese, pickles, lettuce, tomato, and onion crown the award-winning, Butch burger, the nearly plate-sized signature item at Butch Cassidy's Cafe. Founded in April 1993 and named for Paul Newman and Robert Redford's classic film, the café tips its hat to other legends of the wild days with a menu steeped in Western references. A Reuben sandwich on rye pays homage to the Sundance Kid, a beef patty melt honors Calamity Jane, and a club sandwich name checks the Pinkertons, an agency still vying to make pink part of the rainbow. Bar food classics like buffalo wings and fried mushrooms round out the café's regular menu, and a low-carb menu highlights the kitchen's more health-conscious offerings.

Mark Bucher still remembers from childhood the enticing aroma of burgers being grilled by Mr. Kaufman, his neighborhood butcher. For years, Bucher tried to find a burger that would match up to those memories, but never did—so he founded BGR The Burger Joint and started making his own.

BGR’s burgers start with high-quality ingredients—most importantly, all-natural beef from grain-fed cattle, free to run in the fields and given zero hormones, fillers, or antibiotics. The prime beef is dry-aged, blended, and ground fresh to form patties that are grilled over an open flame, and then placed atop buttery, locally made brioche buns delivered fresh each day. For nonbeef eaters, the menu's selection of burgers also includes turkey and veggie varieties, as well as The Greek, a seasoned lamb patty topped with tzatziki and feta, a combination that won out on the Food Network's Throwdown With Bobby Flay.

Diners can request all of BGR The Burger Joint's freshly made fries—from thick-cut yukon gold potatoes to asparagus fries—be topped with parmesan, rosemary, roasted garlic, or a tiny tiara. The staff hand-spins shakes with Gifford's or Breyers ice cream to create extra-thick treats for finishing off meals, and some shops curate their own selection of bottled vintage sodas.

Near the bustling intersection of North Davis Highway and Olive Road lies a tranquil temple. It's not an Egyptian ruin or a place of worship but a shrine to eastern Asian cookery. Inside, brothers Irwan and Christopher Wong whorl squid, smelt roe, and escolar into made-to-order sushi rolls and craft Chinese classics such as orange chicken and kung pao pork without MSG. Diners can gather at tables trimmed with fresh flowers or pull up to a plant-lined sushi bar, which doubles as a stage for sparring samurai and geisha dolls. Here, the Wongs embellish Amazon rolls with fresh avocadoes and dot grilled chicken rolls with eel sauce and sesame seeds. On-the-go diners can retrieve takeout at the handy drive-thru window rather than having servers shot-put it through the front door.