Signature Dishes: Poutine at House of 1000 Beers in New Kensington

This is part of an ongoing series highlighting Signature Dishes at locally owned restaurants in the region. See Trib Total Media’s new online directory of restaurants, Dine Local, at dinelocal.triblive.com.

Created in the Canadian province of Quebec, this steamy mountain of french fries smothered in gravy, pulled pork and cheese curds — poutine — has become a favorite in the city of New Kensington.

At House of 1000 Beers on Freeport Street, poutine has become extremely popular, said owners Janice and Art Barbus. Since buying the beer mecca from founder Dave Sagrati in 2014, they expanded the venue and opened a second location in Warrendale.

The New Kensington location has five cooks that are trained to re-create the dish so the poutine is consistent in appearance and flavor every time it’s ordered.

Fashioned by the French Canadians of Quebec, poutine is not a typical New Kensington dish. House of 1000 Beers added poutine to their menu in 2015. The Barbuses explained they once had a customer who wanted gravy on their fries, but none of their dishes at the time were served with such a topping.

“Our chef decided to create a dish,” they said. “Having studied French cooking, he was familiar with the French poutine.”

The process of making the poutine begins with fries cut from fresh potatoes, which are then submerged with House of 1000 Beers’ scratch gravy and topped with house-made pulled pork. Cheese curds are the finish to be placed on top of the dish.

The poutine, which goes for $10, is listed under the starter menu. It serves between two to three people, but one person can devour it as a meal.

The owners agreed the best part of the poutine is the flavor of the pork mixing with the curds and gravy — not to mention the crunch of the fries when first digging in.

Manager April Platt said the poutine is the best at wintertime.

“It’s definitely a very comforting and savory food,” she said.

The Barbuses added that House of 1000 Beers typically makes about 10 orders of poutine a day. Hearing compliments from customers about the dish is quite common.

Most of the poutine’s ingredients are house-made, which the family takes ample pride in.

House of 1000 Beers (houseof1000beers.com) in New Kensington is located at 357 Freeport St. Takeout orders can be placed by calling 724-337-7666. The Warrendale location is at 100 Fowler Rd. and can be reached at 724-799-8001.