One of my favorite kinds of restaurants are those that are located in historic buildings. There’s something incredibly satisfying about seeing an old building get a new lease on life as a place where people can gather and make new memories together.
However, the history of the building that houses The Eclipse Company Store began over a century earlier. During that time, the Hocking Valley was undergoing a coal mining boom and little communities sprung up all throughout the Hocking Coalfield to house miners.
One such community was the Eclipse Company Town, which housed the miners who toiled away at Eclipse Mine #4. This town consisted of 12 clapboard homes with slate roofs, a shotgun-style home, a company store and an office, which currently houses the nonprofit Rural Action.
The Eclipse Company Store is bright, vibrant and lively. The entire building has been lovingly restored and transformed into a hip craft beer hall, while maintaining the building’s historic character. It feels less like a place Merle Travis would write a grim lament about and more somewhere that would be featured on an episode of “Portlandia.”
As a beer hall, the main draw of The Eclipse Company Store is its vast alcohol menu. In total, there are over 30 beers on tap, including local favorites such as Devil’s Kettle Brewing. There are also wines, meads and ciders available.
I decided to start my meal by ordering a simple appetizer of chips and freshly prepared salsa. While the chips are a product of Shagbark Seed & Mill, the salsa is prepared in house.
The salsa is not of the sort you’d find at a Mexican restaurant like Frida’s Modern Mexican. Rather, it is a thick and chunky, veggie-based salsa featuring corn, red onion, black beans, tomato and chunks of red bell pepper. It is a cool, refreshing salsa that can be enjoyed on a hot day after you’ve ridden your bicycle up the Hockhocking Adena Bikeway from Athens.
For my entree, I ordered a pair of beef brisket tacos, a side of baked beans and a side of house-made potato chips.
My baked beans were made using large pinto beans and lacked the dark brown color and excessive sugariness of many baked beans. Instead, they possessed a pleasant hint of sweetness with a slight pepperiness at the end.
According to my server, the baked beans at The Eclipse Company Store are seasoned with pork rub, marjoram and liquid smoke. I was somewhat surprised by that last ingredient, as I didn’t taste any overwhelming flavor of smoke in my baked beans. In my experience, a lot of chefs who use liquid smoke tend to use too much of it.
My potato chips were kettle cooked and seasoned with a simple dusting of kosher salt. They were reasonably thick potato chips that made a satisfying crunch when you bite into them. Unlike some potato chips that lack any flavor and serve as little more than edible scoops for dip, these chips had a strong potato flavor and were enjoyable to eat without any sauce or dip.
There is something of a debate over the origin of the hard-shelled taco. Many claim the hard-shelled taco is inauthentic, being popularized by fast food chains such Taco Bell. Others claim “tacos dorados” are authentically Mexican, though the original dish likely bears little resemblance to what most people are familiar with today.
Whatever the case may be, I thoroughly enjoyed the beef brisket tacos I ordered. My tacos contained the same delicious salsa that’d been served with my chips, along with sour cream and some spring mix on the side.
The taco shells were dusted with a spice mix made up of chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, paprika, smoked paprika, kosher salt, onion powder and black pepper.
This spice mix paired well with the cool, refreshing veggie flavor of the salsa and the creaminess of the sour cream. It gave the tacos a slight hint of spice, but not so much as to completely overpower the filling inside.
Speaking of which, the shredded brisket inside my tacos was tender, meaty and flavorful. It had a less pronounced flavor than the brisket I previously enjoyed at Starbrick BBQ, but was still delicious. If the brisket at Starbrick BBQ tasted as though it’d been cooked outdoors using hickory, the brisket at The Eclipse Company Store tasted like it’d been homecooked in a Dutch oven.
One recommendation I have to experience the full taco flavor is to try and take smaller bites while you eat. Bite the top of the taco where the salsa is and then the bottom, where the brisket is. It sounds counterintuitive, but if you take large bites, you’ll mostly taste the brisket and not the salsa.
Finally, I went ahead and ordered a slice of white chocolate cheesecake for dessert. Like the tortilla chips, this cheesecake is not made in house, but is made locally by Heaven Scent Cheesecake and Spice Co.
The slice of cheesecake I received was dense and creamy, with a rich and buttery flavor. I couldn’t taste much of a white chocolate flavor, aside from a few faint notes of cocoa butter. Texture-wise, my cheesecake reminded me of the flourless chocolate cake I had at Restaurant Salaam, but softer and smoother and not quite as overpowering.
In total, I spent $30.19 on my meal not including the tip. However, I likely would’ve spent more had I ordered alcohol with my meal.
Overall, I was pleased with the food and atmosphere, though I think I did myself a disservice by coming alone. The Eclipse Company Store is definitely one of those restaurants where you have to dine with others in order to get the full experience.
The Eclipse Company Store is open Sunday-Thursday from 11 a.m.-10 p.m. and Friday-Saturday from 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Brunch is served on Sundays from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. To contact The Eclipse Company Store, call 740-677-4904. For catering inquiries, email catering@eclipsecompanystore.com.