I won’t bury the lede: The food at DeWitt’s Looking Glass Brewing Co. is exceptional. Let’s get into it.  

My family tried to get a table for a Friday night dinner recently. It was one of the first evenings that was warm enough to sit outside, and the Looking Glass patio was packed. We went inside to inquire about wait times, but after 10 minutes, a host hadn’t materialized, so in the interest of not further angering my hangry children, we grabbed Little Caesars and Pita Way on our way out of DeWitt.  

The next day, we had much better luck for lunch. We settled in, and I ordered a blackberry sangria mocktail ($6), while Mr. She Ate had a beer. The mocktail was overwhelmingly sweet, so I asked for some hop water to cut it. I’ve long loved club soda, and there are likely few people who are more pleased about the emergence of about 843 different flavors of carbonated water. Hop water is a recent and personal favorite addition to this list. It’s nonalcoholic sparking water flavored with hops, so the taste is more earthy and not fruity. While I couldn’t cut the sweetness of the mocktail enough to drink it myself, my daughter enjoyed it, and I was charmed by the inclusion of handcrafted nonalcoholic drinks on the menu.  

We started with a Bavarian pretzel ($13) since the kiddos have both recently realized they love soft pretzels. When asked what she liked best about New York City in December, Jane, who is 5 years old, first reminisces about the pretzel cart before thinking about the Rockettes. Good to know where her priorities lie. Eddie liked it, too, and it was easy for him to eat without either of his front teeth.  

For lunch, the kids moved on to a cheese pizza ($6), chicken fingers ($7) and fries from the kids’ menu, while I chose the romaine crunch salad ($12), and Mr. She Ate ordered the Shredder sandwich ($15). His sandwich was heavy with pork and brisket, which were then lacquered with beer cheese and roasted garlic aioli. We’re both partial to pickles on a sandwich, so he happily dug in while Eddie snuck into the side of tots. The tots were pleasantly seasoned and crispy, decidedly kid-friendly. Our sweet daughter has never met a french fry she wouldn’t decimate, and her basket of shoestring fries was empty before her older, pickier brother finished one chicken finger.  

I love hearty salads, and I was torn between the chef salad ($14), which includes kielbasa, and the romaine crunch. I eventually chose the latter, a decision that was based solely upon the dressing it came with. How do you resist smoked-onion ranch? This salad was presented in a way I’ve never seen before, with long heads of romaine halved lengthwise to make boats, which were then topped with halved cherry tomatoes, corn, diced hard-boiled egg, sunflower seeds, scallions, chopped bacon and crumbled gorgonzola. The flavors were exquisite, the vibes immaculate. The dressing was packed with smoky flavor, and I am ready to go buy a Costco-sized bag of sunflower seeds because your girl is inspired.  

I gladly returned for a lunch meeting and had the smoked turkey club sandwich ($16), an order I’d planned during my first visit. This sandwich was one of the best I’ve ever had. This wasn’t deli turkey — it was sliced turkey breast snatched off the Thanksgiving table. The bacon-habanero jam was just a bit sweet but packed heat, too, and at the exact right level. The bread, sourced from Freshies Bakery down the street, was perfectly toasted and held up to the weight of the ingredients. I ate the entire order of truffle fries and saved half of the sandwich to take home. Once home, I ate a bite of the sandwich every time I walked into the kitchen, and the leftovers didn’t make it through the afternoon. If you’re a club sandwich fan, or a human being who likes food, try this sandwich.  

The menu is packed with other items I want to try, from the mushroom fries to the big chicken sandwich to the peanut butter and jelly tots and pancakes on the brunch menu. On Fridays during Lent, there’s a fish and chips special, and the website advertises fun things like a discount on your bill if you wear pajamas to brunch or a shirt with an alien on it on “Alien Abduction Day.” For a restaurant located in a former church, it’s good to know that the only thing taken seriously is the food.